Au Bourg - life in the slow lane in SW France: January 2021

' I hear you are looking for a dog' said our French neighbour. We already had a sweet, gentle fox terrier called Sally but were happy to welcome a companion for her. Born on the 6th August 2006, this strange little character came to be part of our family.

Kevin brought him home and he was so small he fit in his hand. He had a slight underbite and the curliest hair! We called him Sam keeping with the letter S for all our pet names. We later had a grandchild called Samuel but Sam the dog came first.

We found out that he was the product of his mother and her own son so that explained a lot. When you stroked him his tail wagged but he made the most awful growling sound and it was hard to believe that was his happy noise. He didn't like having his bum on the floor and would sit on your feet or prop himself up on the hearth to avoid it. He was always a scavenger, getting underfoot in the kitchen or hovering near the dining table. If he had been bigger I am sure he would have stolen food from the table.

Sally and Sam rubbed along, him tormenting and her tolerating. Gentle as she was she sometimes showed a fox terrier temper when he had gone one step too far and she rounded on him viciously meaning to put him in his place. He would run away but could never resist coming back to give her one last little playful dig.

After Sally died he was totally bereft and so when we got a new puppy he seemed delighted but then you never could tell with Sam! They were like little and large but small as he was that boy could run. When we took them around the neighbouring orchards on their walks he was as fast as Schula the Labrador retriever when he got a scent. He never wandered far from home and would sit for hours on the back terrace guarding his property.

As he got older he became deaf and had very poor sight but he continued to seem content and to take part in the daily walks, and he could still give Schula a run for her money when he felt like it. He had become very thin but was still eating well and didn't show any signs of discomfort so we put it down to his age. Yesterday he came home from the walk and started screaming in obvious pain. A visit to the vet and a blood test showed something was very wrong and an x ray confirmed that cancer was widespread. Our funny little friend had reached the end of the road.

Time for us to say goodbye.

Au revoir 2020.

No apology for being pleased to see you go.

We were so much luckier than many. We stayed healthy, we had our garden and beautiful countryside all around us. We managed to see one of our children and three of our grandchildren for one short week. We were able to see our friends either via Zoom or in smaller groups. We didn't lose any revenue. We are settled in France. We had each other.