The dog owners gift.

Out for our early morning walk with Wilf. No sooner had we crossed the green and passed the war memorial than we were joined by Jerome, the old farmers dog . There's no ploughing on a Sunday so Jerome had been sitting patiently on the doorstep of the church waiting for excitement to come to him. Both Wilf and Jerome enjoy wandering along the lane together, heads down in the succulent scent ridden grass, happy as kings. They act like long lost boyhood friends. Both have now reached that solaced age where the fluttery activity of the quail and partridge chicks in the roadside verges barely impinges on their quiet reverie. There is something deeply rewarding about the happiness of a senior dog - content with life, secure in his family and wholly at peace with himself. A gift of life as it should be - for dog and owner.