„A thousand dogs like this one are out walking. Only one of them hangs in my old study.”

Hans retired in June. Bo is a blond labrador of eight who spent the last four years lying under that desk, and who, by Hans’s account, was the only reason he ever got outdoors between meetings.

The room has not been a study since. On the wall where the planning board hung, Bo now hangs — as an admiral, in a blue coat with too much gold on it. "The most ordinary dog in the Netherlands," Hans says of him. "This one just happens to be mine."