You asked why we don't write articles for Puppy Tails? The truth of the matter is, we are to busy or to lazy or think that someone else is going to write them.  But we all       eagerly await the arrival of the magazine so please carry on producing it in the paper form; I pass it on to so many people who thoroughly enjoy reading it.
Once we have lost something we can't get it back!

I have promised so many times to write an article since we had Henry, our first puppy in November 2006. Why I did not, well I thought nobody would be interested in a slightly batty woman's first time puppy walking experiences. You all sounded so experienced and clever and I was just struggling along, slightly out of my depth, with a dog I was so in awe of and this massive commitment to Guide Dogs resting on my shoulders. I mean this was no ordinary dog he was extra extra    special and it was so important to get everything right......

Shall I start again..........what has finally made me put pen to paper?  The death of a very dear friend and the radio playing Celine Dione's Titanic theme tune, 'Your heart goes on'.  It opened the floodgates and the pen flowed.
Peter met all of our puppies and loved all of their funny, naughty, quirky, boisterous ways. He still missed his beloved spaniel Toby. He loved the idea of puppy walking and all it    entailed and perhaps 'a different corner      another time' He and Jill may have become puppy walkers.

So, our dogs, Firstly there was Henry, a milky white golden retriever who is now working in Bude, Cornwall, (we must have got something right!)
Then there was Dougie, a black Labrador who was with us for 6 weeks while Julie nursed her broken collar bone ( nothing to do with the dog I hasten to say, it was something to do with Father Christmas and Lapland and a     slippery floor at Gatwick Airport on her return! who sadly never went into training due to a skin problem)
Then there was Ike, a gentle giant of a      German Shepherd, son of Marco, which is   

another story in the making, who is in training at the moment.
Yuri, our present dog came to us at 8 months old in January, Peter only met him by photo link on my mobile phone, we held on to the hope that he might one day meet him but sadly he was to ill and died much sooner than we ever thought.
Which brings me back to an earlier sentence, 'Once we have lost something we can't get it back'. Get writing one and all, we all have something to offer. I am going to write more often in Peter's memory.


I enclose a piece on Henry that I wrote for our local church Magazine a while back
Regards
Vikki Holt
Redditch,

A rather batty P.W. who once she relaxed, which didn't take that long, is thoroughly    enjoying this puppy walking experience.