Day 47 - Of donkeys, pilgrims and an adorable dog...

One of my favourite blogs is http://www.wilfanddigby.blogspot.com/. The author lives in the south western part of France and his blog deals with their everyday life in their adopted country with their dog, Wilf, playing the lead roll.

Wilf is a most adorable Polish Lowland Sheepdog and he  has been diagnosed with a tumour on the spleen and has polyps on the heart and lung. When his owner posted this news on the 13th of October, he received 143 replies from followers of his blog. And I can understand why.

The posts are written beautifully, he describes events in such an eloquent way - I sometimes feel as if I know all the characters personally! I can picture the coffee shop where they have their croissants every morning and I feel as if I should tip the peroxide waitress who serves them every day because of the kind way she treats Wilf, the star of the show.

I hold my breath for a few seconds every day as I open up his daily post. I feel as if we're all willing this adorable dog to stay healthy and happy and to continue life just as it is.

So you can understand how I amazed I was to read that they actually stay on one of the pilgrim's routes to Santiago!  A couple of days ago he posted a piece about an incident involving two pilgrims and their donkeys. I found it so amusing, I simply had to share it here.

Here goes: "Long time readers of the blog will know that the little lane that runs past the front door of the rickety old farmhouse is part of the Chemin de St.Jacques. This is the route that tens of thousands of pilgrims follow to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. It's said that the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried there.

Yesterday afternoon two Italian pilgrims, eye surgeons from Turin, dressed in their red pilgrimage shirts and wearing the traditional broad brimmed hats, stopped by the village church to fill their water bottles. They unsaddled their donkeys, settled down on the bench on the green for a rest, and within two minutes were blissfully and ignorantly asleep in the late afternoon sun. However, the donkeys were far from asleep and were soon off exploring.

The first we knew about their presence was when the ever watchful Wilf wandered outside into the garden for his afternoon constitutional . He was decidedly put out to find two large intruders munching their way across the flower beds. Wilf barked which had the immediate effect of getting the donkeys braying. It took a large bag of carrots and much gentle encouragement to unite pilgrims and their steeds. Our family fellow followed events from a respectful distance not quite sure what to expect from these large noisy visitors. Donkeys and eye surgeons reunited, he followed me back down the lane with a long suffering look on his face that said - " another crisis successfully dealt with by Wilf - time for a sausage ".

What a bonus it would be if my walk took me past the little coffee shop and I could share a croissant or two with this delightful pair! Here's wishing Wilf the PON pain free and happy days!