Jasper: Laughter Is The Best Lockdown Medicine

My daughter and I have a reputation in certain circles for enjoying a laugh when we are together. Covid 19 has put paid to many opportunities for mirth for most of us but animal antics continue to amuse. 

We met Jasper the cocker spaniel and his master at the Top Field. Our Ollie and Frankie dogs spotted him haring along from a distance and gave chase. The three of them then had a wonderful rough-and-tumble game. My daughter and I just stood and laughed, real guffaws not titters. Eighteen-month-old Jasper is so fast, alert, eager and manoeuvrable and has such an expressive face. It was a real tonic to see him and our dogs having so much fun.

We also met Bella the miniature labradoodle and heard from her master about the trials of home-schooling. An elderly woman introduced us to Ronnie and Reggie, her little and large, Heinz 57 brothers from the same litter. Yes, they are named after the notorious Kray twins! Ronnie dog has an underbite. (My FiL had a 'Habsburg jaw'.) I haven't been able to find out if boxer Ronnie Kray had one, or if that is just the way he was portrayed in the film Legend, which I haven't seen. Maybe that film inspired the dogs' names, though the woman had an East End accent and was old enough to remember the Krays at the height of their notoriety. When I first met MrQ he had a midnight-blue mohair dinner suit made by the Krays' tailor in the Mile End Road opposite The Blind Beggar pub. I've added a montage of all six dogs to extras.