Four years is probably the longest I've ever gone without the presence of a dog or cat alongside me.

For me, and many, many others, there are no kinder, more comforting beings, particularly in the down times when troubles come unbidden.

As I write, Portia warms herself in the sun that comes after burning off the now daily morning mist.

At 11 years old she is a rickle of bones, but then she always was. Her coat, though, is full and healthy, her appetite good, and even with the compromised hip she can still sprint through the fields and enjoy an unfettered life.

But I am sadly aware, as with myself, that she has more life behind her than in front of her and every day she awakens enjoying life is a gift.

The locals refer to her as my companion; it is a stage above what we would call a pet, and gives us a strange, special status in this often-harsh farming community.

Companion is a good word, for that is what she is, but I didn't realise just how contentious their use of the word was until this week, when an animal protection group began its lobby for a change in the law regarding animals.

Currently, Article 528 of France's Civil Code states that animals are classed as "personal property" in the same vein as a sofa, a chair or a tractor mower, and just as easily disposable when bored with or broken down.

Fondation 30 Million Amis (Foundation Of 30 Million Friends) is demanding a new legal status that would class animals between people and objects, as "living, sentient beings".

Its president, Reha Hutin told English language paper The Local: "They [animals] are seen as just things. But in the EU Treaty of Lisbon animals are considered as 'sensitive creatures' yet France is saying they are just pieces of furniture that can 'walk by themselves'. You can see how ridiculous it is. How can we teach children that a dog is no different to a table?"

Since 1999 anyone convicted of cruelty to animals can be fined up to €35,000 and given up to two years in jail. But punishments are few and barely applied as lawyers argue that you cannot be cruel to a "thing".

Perhaps it is far too simplistic to believe this is why I have seen so much unthinking and occasional deliberate cruelty here, but there is something compelling in the argument.

Every year, 60,000 pets are simply abandoned in France during the annual holidays. The real figure could be as high as 100,000.

Some turf animals out in the hope they'll have foraged enough to still be there on their return; others leave them in outhouses with a finite supply of food and water; some shackle them to posts and trees in the woods; the "kinder" ones dump them outside over-burdened rescue centres, which are often forced to put down older animals when resources become stretched.

My first year here was a torment as I heard the howls of the skinny chasse dogs, chained and fed meagre rations to be eager for the hunt.

I crawled across a field to take pictures of a tethered horse so malnourished it curved inwards on trembling legs ready to crash.

Then, with all proof furnished to a rescue group, discovered that it was perfectly legal to short tether a horse if within technical reach of water.

It died and was "disappeared" soon after.

In time, for my own sake, I started to drive past the dogs padding along our back roads eagerly scanning every car that passed. I pretended to myself they were on their way home.

I knew not to peer too hard for the feral kittens mewing in the undergrowth behind the communal rubbish bins.

I avoided the fetes where puppies were crammed into cages for sale in temperatures pushing 30 degrees; poked at by children whose sweetness in other ways was undoubted.

And I also stopped tarring every other local with the cruelty brush.

Pierrot and a few of his fellow hunters, against the law, secretly nursed a brood of baby boar when they had unwittingly killed the mother. (The hunting argument I leave to others, for I believe it has its place here.)

Miriam, Sylvene and many neighbours, I discovered, left food for the feral kittens or housed them in barns already over-flowing. And I became aware of a - slight - shift in attitude.

The local paper did a series of features explaining the basics of horse husbandry in such simple terms it was almost a parody. It was aimed at farmers who still see horses as farm machinery, even now.

In a recent survey, 80% of the French agreed that animal protection is vital.

As always here in the rural areas, though, farmers cling to the right of command over their property, be it dog or cow or wife.

They are a powerful lobby against any changes that challenge their control.

It's going to be a long haul, but change it must.

My companion still slumbers. My sofa is battered by her use.

But one breathes and brings joy. The other is just a thing.