Renae ‘one in a million’
After a sudden, short and devastating illness, Renae died on Christmas Eve. Sadness consumes Michel and I as we struggle to accept our incomprehnesible loss. But accept we must and for the sake of...
Category: Posts
Creating and keeping memories
I’ve been going through photographs recently. It began as a task to find one for the cover of the 2022 Schnauzerfest Calendar. Having Susie-Belle there has become a tradition. Each year when I’m asked...
What we do is what we are doing
Late spring and we’re walking a familiar path with the dogs. The sun’s warm but a nippy wind keeps us from lingering. Albert Claude is hurtling along up ahead, nose to the ground. Hard...
Grief, not unlike love
“Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality. Emily Dickinson When Susie-Belle died, a dog newly saved from a puppy farm was adopted in her memory. A couple of days later, Camilla...
Far from shore – is that how it feels?
The other day I was out walking with Cerise. Just the two of us. It’s rare that Cerise goes anywhere without a sibling. As we headed out from home I wondered how she’d fare...
Not For Profit Vet Makes History
Since coming to live in France full time one major difference I’ve noticed with the vet care for our animals is the much lower cost here compared to the UK. It’s drastically different, which...
What Makes A Fosterer?
What makes someone become a fosterer? To foster a dog means to take a vulnerable, dependent animal into your home, to nurture them, allow yourself to fall a little, or a lot in love,...
Where Do I Start?
I haven’t known where to start writing a blog since I did the last one. Every day I’ve sat down to do it and it’s proved impossible. I couldn’t hang onto any clarity, or...
Inside The UK’s Puppy Farm Capital
This time last year, Schnauzerfest supporter, Aimee, at the time 13 years old invited Alun Cairns MP, Seretary of State for Wales to join her for the Barry Island Schnauzerfest Walk. He attended, took...
It Rained on Twinkle’s Last Morning
After days of heatwave the morning Twinkle died it was raining. The irony wasn’t wasted on me. When she arrived in our life in February 2013 she had a phobic response to rain. Her...