We’re with you all the way...

Dear Readers,

SALES of coffee grinders, coffee pots and espresso machines have soared in recent weeks thanks to the millions of caffeine addicts now working from home.

I’m not ashamed to count myself among them and right now I would offer my first-born (if I had any) for an expertlyground, brewed and foamed cappuccino.

While out for a walk yesterday I passed a café boasting artisan coffee with the door ajar and an aproned-barista pottering about inside. Overjoyed and champing at the bit for a fix I blurted out: “Are you open? Are you doing coffee?”

My high-pitched desperation caused him to laugh out loud before dashing my hopes by explaining that the cafe was closed but they were opening for take-aways from next week.

“I’ll be back,” I replied, this time with Terminator-like gravity. Now I’m counting down the days like I used to as a child when my July birthday passed and I would begin the excruciating 166-day wait till Christmas.

So it was a welcome distraction to read about Marian Dinkele’s adorable seven-yearold Labrador Chloe, pictured.

“We have only had her for just over six months, having adopted her from Labrador Lifeline,” Marian, from Abbotts Ann in Hampshire, tells me. “We gather she lived on a farm. Her health had been somewhat neglected, with a series of ear infections

which needed urgent treatment and medication. But it is now vastly improved though still ongoing low key.

“She has been spayed and had a cancerous tumour removed from her abdomen with a good prognosis. Chloe is so happy and cheerful, always ready for an adventure, and would spend her life chasing balls. She is a pleasure to live with.

“Chloe is number nine in a line of Labradors we have owned over the past 50 years, some puppies from scratch but mainly rescued. Every time we have lost a dog we have said ‘never again’ – but we are now too old anyway!”And it seems the adoption is mutually beneficial as clever Chloe has learned to collect Marian’s Daily Express. “Lockdown has had no effect on her at all – she knows nothing about it. She goes to the village shop each day for the newspapers which are left outside on a bench which is legal because they’re classed as shopping.

“After lunch she tears about in the local woods and fields. I think that’s legal as it’s our exercise as well!What lockdown? Incidentally, we are in our 80s. Should we be locked up?” Marian adds jokingly. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that!

‘It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit’ J.R.R. Tolkien