Week 7 - Volunteers award ceremony

This week I have two pleasant experiences to talk about. Firstly, every year at this time of the year, Guide Dogs like to say thank you, to their volunteers, by way of organizing a get-together for us, this year, it was at the new training centre at Atherton, where a lovely buffet was provided, and we had a chance to have a brief look around the centre, although we cannot enter the kennels, for fear of disturbing the dogs. However, we can go upstairs, and view the dogs in kennels, from a window, where the dogs are not aware of our presence.

There is usually an informative talk, from a Guide Dog member of staff.  This year it was by the breeding stock manager, from the breeding centre at Warwickshire, where there was a large monitor to view different subjects. The one I found very interesting was, where we were shown the cross breeding format, for example, we were shown a picture of a Labrador bitch, also a Golden Retriever Dog, and then a picture of how their offspring will look, also several other cross breed examples. The talk was very interesting, and gave us all a good insight, to the background of our puppies.

Then later there was a presentation, where awards were presented to Puppy walkers as a big thank you, to those who had accrued the qualifying months to receive an award. The first award is a Bronze miniature Guide Dog in harness, standing on a plinth, with an engraved brass plate at the front, displaying the Puppy Walkers name, and the qualifying months. This year I was very pleased to accept one of these Bronze dogs. It has taken pride of place in my hall, along with my lovely framed photographs, of my qualifying Guide Dogs in lovely white harness.
The awards begin with the Bronze dog, then the next one is a Silver dog, followed by a Gold dog.  I know a lady who has just received a much larger Silver dog, for Puppy Walking for a total of four hundred months, which is forty dogs in all, and puppy number forty one is arriving in March.

My other good news this week, is that we are expecting the patter of tiny feet, all four of them, in the shape of a Black Labrador, called Quella. So it is off to the charity shops, to buy new fluffy toys for her, where care has to be taken, to choose ones that are safe for her, for example, not ones with beads inside, as sharp teeth can soon disembowel a fluffy teddy, and puppy could swallow undesirable or even dangerous objects. I usually remove the eyes and noses from soft toys, and replace them with felt ones. I have bought Quella a lovely fluffy cow, with a hot water bottle inside, for her to cuddle up to, on her first few nights here, and away from her mum and siblings. Hopefully Maya will also be a comfort to her, and help welcome her into her new home.