Canine Partners

Today’s been a funny sort of day. At about 2pm this afternoon I received delivery of a very smart elephant, complete with sparkly Canine Partners jacket on its back. It isn’t a real one, I hasten to add. Just a papier mâché replica. But it is still pretty big, and unexpected. And thankfully housetrained. It turns out it comes from Horsham (don’t they all??), where it’s been part of the Elephantastic fundraising event. We were lucky to have three Canine Partners elephants in the herd of 183, sponsored by Wakefield’s the jewellers. And now he’s found his way into my office, until some lucky soul wins him in a raffle. Any offers?

Of course people aren’t just supporting us in Horsham – they are springing up all over the UK, doing all sorts of different things to support the overall Canine Partners team effort and make sure we go out and transform more people’s lives.

Just as an example, eight occupational therapists have just joined our ranks, adding to the existing network of OTs around the UK, both north and south of the border, who help us to assess our applicants by visiting them in their homes. Our Anita and her team are really ramping up our capability to assess more applicants, so that ever more people have the opportunity to put themselves forward for partnership with one of our amazing dogs. Ashley spends her days meeting with prospective applicants down in our Southern Centre while Laura does the same at our Midlands Centre, making our services much more accessible to people living in the Midlands and the North. And our team of occupational therapists then visit these people in their homes to complete the picture.

Now that we are partnering 80 dogs a year, we are seeing so many more people enjoying the benefits of having a canine partner by their side. The beauty of this job is that every day you see the transformative effects of these dogs, as we constantly open our doors to people with disabilities, who come and stay with us in our specially adapted accommodation. As I write, another three people have joined us at our Southern Centre, and are staying with us for a fortnight as they prepare to go home with their brand new canine partners – what a great Christmas present!

Meanwhile a whole purple army of Canine Partners volunteers and supporters help to make it all possible, a prime example being our Bedford satellite group, who dropped me a line this morning. They’ve just laid on a Christmas Fayre with all our purple army of puppy parents, puppies, partners and supporters in the area and raised an amazing £2,178 so we can train some more dogs, and change some more lives. How brilliant is that! And what’s more, Sheila and demonstration dog Chester are being presented with a cheque for £1,000 tomorrow evening from some extremely generous well-wishers in the Bedford area.

On the Christmas theme, have you bought your Canine Partners Christmas jumper yet? Complete with cartoon puppy Sunny on the front? If not, you’re probably about the only person in the UK who hasn’t. But don’t worry, you have an opportunity to buy yours from our online shop right now, or come and join us at our Winter Market this Thursday evening and buy it in person. The fun and frolics take place at our Southern Centre from 4.30pm till 8pm, with all sorts of stalls, Christmas gifts, mulled wine, festive food and live music from In Accord. Anything you spend when buying Christmas presents, helps us to train more of these special dogs.

Onwards and upwards, changing more people’s lives!