French retiree strikes up unlikely friendship with pigeon

French retiree Xavier Bouget says he was out walking in one day near his home in Gommenech, Brittany when he saw a tiny pigeon fall to the ground as it tried to escape from a cat. Bouget later mentioned this story to his wife who asked why he didn’t pick up the bird. So he went back to find it and “came home with Blanchon in my pocket,“ he said. Now, Blanchon, a white pigeon, follows the 80-year-old when he rides on his bicycle, tinkers in his workshop and works in his garden. The pigeon has become a constant companion, with Bouget revealing the key to the friendship. “Every human being can have that relationship with animals. It is a matter of patience, of watching how they live, of adapting to their way of life because they manage to adapt to yours.“ Subscribe to Guardian News on YouTube ► ‘Together because it feels good’: French man who goes everywhere with a pigeon ►