Three years ago I wrote about how I’d lost a wooden meerkat that I’d bought from a toymaker running a temporary stall outside the South Bank Centre. I’d bought it to keep in my pocket to fiddle with, in the hope that it’d help me control my tics.

It didn’t really make much difference but I liked it a lot and enjoyed the feeling of holding it. I was gutted when I lost it. I’ve got other wooden animals, like my badger, but until today I’d not been able to find another meerkat.

This afternoon when Fran and I were browsing in shops (as part of another fun-time Tuesday) I spotted a display of wooden animals and amongst them was a meerkat!

Three years on I have at last replaced my lost animal and I’ve found out that it, like my first one, was made by artist and toymaker John Johnson. So if I need replacement meerkats again I know where to go.

That’s not all tough, another wooden animal in the display caught my eye – a rather handsome otter. Given my well-documented affair with Mr Otter it seemed wrong not to give this one a home as well.