Canine Partners

November really hotted up for us, which is odd as I haven’t seen so much ice on my car for a long time. It all started when I went to Bedford. (And that isn’t a euphemism for ‘going to Bedford’, as in ‘taking a trip up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire because I’m tired’). I actually went to Bedford the place – and why on earth wouldn’t I, when there were 100 puppies to be seen?!! And I wasn’t the only one who headed there for the occasion, as members congregated in the Happy Dog hall from far and wide and from all corners of the globe. Or to be exact, Charlotte, Bex and I drove up from Sussex and Ronnie headed down from Leicestershire. Most of the other 50 or so guests belonged to our wonderful Bedford satellite, and had joined together for a surprise 100th puppy and 10 year celebration. The person who was most surprised of all was trainer Lorraine, who oversees the satellite, and has helped and supported all our fantastic volunteers through the ups and downs of training and socialising 100 puppies for Canine Partners. It was a brilliant milestone, and a brilliant achievement, and capped off by the arrival of our 100th puppy herself, young Pixie in the arms of Roger and Nerissa.

And then, just a few days later, it all kicked off in Bedford again, as the satellite reconvened in the puppy class hall (which incidentally is the coldest place in the whole of the UK, being several degrees colder than Scotland. And I should know, as I was working with Dale in Scotland just two days earlier). This time it was the occasion of our Bedford satellite’s annual Christmas Fayre, and a very excited Lorraine texted me with the amazing news that the Fayre raised £2,320 for Canine Partners! Wow!

So that really marked the beginning of Christmas Excitement in the Canine Partners camp. This was closely followed by the amazing experience that has been the Big Give Christmas Challenge, raising over £60,000 for our little charity over the course of three days, thanks to the immense generosity of lots of people, and a superhuman effort by a staunch supporter of ours, who matched donations that were being made by other people. If you follow us on Facebook or Twitter you will have sensed the excitement as the donations came rolling in. All very very exciting!

Which then leads me to encourage you to join in our next dose of traditional Yuletide fun, with a lovely Christmas Carol Service organised in aid of us by the inspirational Angela Hamlin and her dedicated team at Draycott Nursing & Care. Please do join us. Tickets are available here. It takes place on the evening of Thursday 15th December, at St Mary Abbots Church, Kensington, in the presence of His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester. Lots of Christmas music including carols by the choir of Thomas’s School, Fulham, and readings by celebrities including Valerie Singleton, Rula Lenska, Tim McMullan and Jack Fox. You will also meet lots of people and dogs from the Canine Partners family, while we wine and dine you with drinks and canapés afterwards. What’s not to like? Let’s fill the church with our singing, and help raise some more money so we can go out and change some more people’s lives with these specially trained dogs of ours.

Happy Christmas everybody!! (I can’t believe I just said that, on December 5th)

Andy