Herne Bay Times editor John Nurden has been egging on businesses to get involved in the Herne Bay carnival… so when the big day came around, he and chief reporter Liz Crudgington threw themselves into the fray too.

Actors say you should never to work with animals or children. But I don’t recall any warning about entering a carnival alongside a rescue dog in a pink tutu.

The hound, known as Mully, has been adopted by The Crudge, our chief reporter, who took pity on it in the compound and now dotes on it in a rather worrying manner.

But when she announced it would be accompanying us in the Herne Bay carnival, alarm bells failed to ring – until the parade started.

The Crudge and I decided to have a competition to see who could collect the most coins. I was pretty convinced that my cunning disguise as Dad On Holiday – complete with florescent orange knee-length shorts, outrageous Hawaiian shirt and ubiquitous white sun hat – would steal the day.

But it was then that The Crudge revealed her secret weapon – a dazed-looking dog in her daughter’s skirt and with ruffles round its legs.

“Look at the dog,” yelled the crowd as we marched round the 20-mile route (well, it seemed like it).

Young girls scampered across the road to cuddle the mutt, and The Crudge simply smiled knowingly and continued to hold out her bucket, which was being swamped by a deluge of coins.

Of course, we only entered as a bit of fun, but it was nice to walk away with third prize. Except that as the judges handed over our certificate they added: “It was only because of the dog…”