BULLIES IN NEED & BRIAN SEWELL

One of the Links on this blog, Bullies in Need, takes you to the website of an English Bull Terrier Rescue Centre. I don't know the people who run it and have no connection with them (and they've probably never noticed this link) but the dogs are so splendid that I hope it might help: perhaps get one or two Dylan fans to go for a breed many people never consider, just because they have a kneejerk reaction of "Oh they're so ugly!" But for me their alleged ugliness has more character - more comic insouciance and sweet nobility - than far more popular breeds. (The inexplicable rise of the Border Terrier...)

Mostly the rescue dogs are adults but at the moment they even have two puppies, Curly and Mo (above).

Which brings me to Brian Sewell. I heard him on BBC Radio 4 the other morning, talking about his own rescue dogs. He said he once got one called Keegan and, unable to countenance shouting out "Keegan!" in public, wanted to modify if but not change it to something totally different - confusing for the dog, presumably. So he called it Titian.