Today, I went into Caffè Nero for a flat white and an apricot croissant.

In walked a young couple I would place between 25 and 35.

They had with them the fashion accessory du jour, a French bulldog. This is an ugly-looking mutt, with a face like a squashed gas cooker, which gives it congenital breathing problems.

It was lifted on to a chair and then was made more comfortable on a large sofa.

The couple had coffee and a snack and, of course, fed the dog something.

Throughout their time, they were stroking, kissing and fondling the animal, sometimes on its chair, sometimes on a lap. They were constantly chatting to it, mainly what one might term sweet-talk, but I could not hear its responses.

What bloody stupidity.

If they are so broody, for god’s sake adopt a child.

That much love and attention is needed and deserved by thousands of abandoned and orphaned children, not by insensate mutts.