I was working in central Manchester today and took, my dog, Chante with me and, when finished working we went for a walk around the city center.

As the city is very quiet I had Chante off the lead and as I walked down Portland Street a lady approached me and said “Hello, Merci” and said “What a beautiful Brittany”.

You don’t know how rare it is for the public at large to know what breed my dog is and I think in 16 years of ownership, this is perhaps the 3rd or 4th time I’ve had this happen.

Anyway, she made a monumental fuss of Chante and started speaking to her in French and ended up knelt down on the pavement stroking Chante.

We talked for a while as I could see she was quite emotional and was actually crying.

Turns out she is from La Rochelle and had a Brittany which was being looked after by her parents. She was due to go home in December but Covid and work meant she had to stay.

Unfortunately, her Brittany had died over the Christmas period and she wasn’t there to be with her.

We talked for about half an hour while she stroked Chante, I don’t know if this made things better or worse but she was distressed. Hopefully, she’ll phone me and I can take Chante to meet her for a walk with her before she returns to France.

Funny old world but hopefully Chante made someone feel better.