Some good-mannered dogs

WAS I suddenly in the hunting fields of Olde England.

- Peter Ustinov

No, I was at a Midlands shopping centre but suddenly this huge pack of dogs of all sizes and breeds sitting around leashed, some unleashed, and a few stretched out fast asleep on the concrete outside the supermarket.

What could this be? I got chatting to a lady who had on a leash a dog with the build of a pointer but a coat of gleaming ginger-brown. She'd bought it as a tiny pup from an animal care centre, she explained, hoping she was a miniature.

But the tiny pup grew into a boisterous medium size, loved by her owner and one of a huge pack of Midlands dogs who get taken by their owners on excursions where they display their intelligence, good nature and good manners.

A most pleasing spectacle.

And by coincidence, that very evening I repaired to a pub in Howick, and who should I encounter but three individuals I had not seen for some time.