Another black and white visitor was an unknown dog who, I was pleased to see, didn’t hang around, but turned his back on me and left the other way. And then there is Miss, the dog acquired by Mme El’s son after seeing her picture in a newspaper I had brought them, love at first sight, the very dog he wanted, a black and white cross between a border collie and a hunting dog whose big voice she has.
They went all the way to St Girons¹⁴The name of St Girons is of course of Oc origin with its references to ‘turning – gir’ and ons -‘man’. St Girons, a county town in the Ariège, named after Saint Girons, a saint who evangelized Novempopulania,** from the fifth-century, who originally came from Les Landes on the Atlantic coast. **cf: Le Vicomte Chosibus part pour la Novempopulanie – Les Merlufleaux by Claude d’Esplas (fr, en, de) – Ubersetzung : Dagmar Coward Kuschke – adgparis.com to fetch her from an animal rescue home. She was six months old then and terribly intimidated, tail between her legs all the time. It took a few months for her to relax. She did become very friendly with another dog, a workman, who regularly came to see Mme El’s people. As for myself, I was wary of her and so was Mrs Churchwarden whom she actually bit, she didn’t go this far with me.Then the workman, her friend, fell out with her owners and didn’t come again and it was literally from that moment that Miss made friends with me.

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  The name of St Girons is of course of Oc origin with its references to ‘turning – gir’ and ons -‘man’. St Girons, a county town in the Ariège, named after Saint Girons, a saint who evangelized Novempopulania,** from the fifth-century, who originally came from Les Landes on the Atlantic coast. **cf: Le Vicomte Chosibus part pour la Novempopulanie – Les Merlufleaux by Claude d’Esplas (fr, en, de) – Ubersetzung : Dagmar Coward Kuschke – adgparis.com