These photos were sent to me today.

A book, you say? What is this hefty tome?

Oh yes.
New York is full of hot dogs. Not just the kind of hot dogs you eat but also, at this time of year, the kind of hot dogs that are sweaty, hairy, and panting.
This is to be expected, given that there are over half a million dogs in New York City, and temperatures in New York have been as high as 40 degrees (Celcius, fool) this week.
Half a million dogs? Sydney has as many, so what's the big deal? It's when you realise that, because New York is so dense, all of them are living in apartments, and sharing the meagre outdoor areas between the lot.
If statistics are to believed (and when are they not?), a half million pooches produce a cool 100 tonnes of poochy doo-doo every day. And their owners trail around behind them, plastic bag in hand, eagerly awaiting the event. Madness, sheer madness.
The craziest part of New York's dogginess is the breeds of dogs that live here. You might think that the lack of space would naturally result in exclusively tiny dogs, but it's not the case. True, there are many more sausage-dog-style dogs around, but there are still many, many more large dogs than you could imagine. And I'm not just talking about large like a labrador, I'm talking Scooby Doo proportions. There's a guy in our building who lives with a huge, shaggy Saint Bernard in a one-bedroom apartment.
Next time: horses!