Lucy's Newsletter

 

 

Subscribe to Lucy's FREE Newsletter...

Click here to send us an email
with your name and address!

 

November 2011

Dear Irish Terrier Friends,

Liberty Belle has grown large and strong. It’s happened so quickly and I keep looking at her little pink collar and wonder how on earth it ever fitted. She’s a darling girl and I adore her. She knows exactly how the household works, recognises friends and neighbours, has teamed up with other hooligan pups in the park and twice a week goes off on her own for a long walk with her beloved Aldo on Hampstead Heath. Life is swinging for her and she never stops smiling. She is such a joyful life force and Zuli and I, if trailing a little, are delighted to be caught up in her slip stream.

Zuli has cheered up more than I could ever have hoped. Miraculously she’s even put on a little weight and I think the answer is ‘competitive eating.’ She likes Libby’s puppy food, or should I say is determined to like it and we do the chicken and rice bit too. Her teeth are beyond redemption so sweet biscuits don’t matter any longer…and are a great comfort to an old lady.

Perhaps, more than all, she really loves Libby and they’ve become great friends chasing the squirrels together. For Zuli hunting has been a lifelong obsession. Not my best thing but she has always loved ‘the chase’ and now that Libby has been initiated and even spots the squirrels first Zuli’s joy in life has returned.

It is so interesting the way Irish Terriers, although sharing basic breed characteristics are huge individualists. Zu would have made a brilliant poacher’s dog!

Walking Libby has brought home to me the enormous changes in attitudes to dogs generally. The park rules are so much stricter and even chasing squirrels is not acceptable and killing one brings a hefty £500 fine. People are different too. I do miss the dear elderly people who used to sit on the park benches and say ‘we always kept a doggie, come here my darling.’ You’re more likely to hear a terrified scream now. But given that many more Londoners are foreign and often have a very different attitude to dogs it is quite understandable. It is understandable but far less fun. There are far too many Staffie / Bull Terrier type dogs too. They are not easy company and their strength alone makes them potentially dangerous to a lively pup. But there are still the charming youngsters who suspend their games of football to play with the puppy. Libby like all Irish Terriers can’t resist a child.

We had a great gathering at the Animal War Memorial in Park Lane on Friday 11th November. We stood for the silence and the representatives for the animals and animal charities laid their wreaths. There are so many now a double row from one end of the wall to the other with touching tributes to the horses, mules, dogs, cats, pigeons…it is thrilling to see how much the memorial means to everyone now. I remember that the first year there was only one wreath…from me…for the Irish Terriers. I didn’t take the dogs this year. Zuli would have been cold and trembly and Libbs would have been whirling. Everyone said ‘where are the Irish Terriers?’ I did miss my Beegie.

I thought that Rosie, retired pack mule, and her handler who had served together in Afghanistan were real stars. She had all her gear strapped on her back but looked very plump and polished up for the occasion. Her handler, who looked distinctly flushed, and I think had had a nip or two, kept saying very loudly ‘Rosie is for real you know, not just for show,’ which I think was aimed at the three incredibly glamorous Household Cavalry horses and their equally glamorous young soldiers. I said my piece for all the dogs and a special salute to the Micks. I always try to keep it light as some of the tributes rather catch one’s throat and one struggles not to weep.

I took a wreath for the Collies and Airedales this year. They too served with courage and must be remembered.

The autumn has been so wonderfully warm and it does make life easier. Libby was aghast at being walked in the rain for the first time one morning and kept shaking herself and looking accusingly at me. She has a lovely coat and I’m wondering whether her first strip is due. It will make her look so grown up.

We had a lot of fun at Discover Dogs at Earls Court last weekend. It seems to follow a well rehearsed routine now and the human supporting cast are tidy, efficient and cheerful. Karen and John Tritton set up the booth so beautifully and it is no mean task. The dogs of course steal the show switching on the charm and playing to their public. It is always a great joy to be with them. I loved the children coming round too. They chatter away and make me laugh. One little chap said ‘I’ve wroted a story about my dog, he’s called Hairy,’ I said ‘Did you say Harry,’ he started swinging his arms around like a windmill and said ‘No, no, not Harry…Hairy because he’s all hairied all over him.’ Well yes, how silly of me.

We had a warm autumn day for the Minstead show and the New Forest looked its best. I always enjoy the day and there was an excellent entry. The judge Mr Cole-Browne had come over from Ireland and has a lifetime’s experience with Irish Terriers. We had a very jolly lunch reminiscing about the old days and some of the great characters of the dog world. I sometimes feel that with all the strict rules and regulations, let alone ‘political correctness,’ that constrain our lives today we’re not nearly as eccentric as we used to be – well not quite!

The calendar 2012 has gone to print and I do hope you will all enjoy it. Thank you to everyone who sent in pictures. I’m so sorry we can’t use them all but they are stored and put on the web and could possibly be used for another year. You can order the calendar on the website or from me directly. I’m not asking for sympathy but it is a huge amount of work that each year threatens to completely overtake my Christmas. In spite of a bit of teeth grinding at the Post Office it really is a task of love.

The Christmas tree goes up next week and my household arrangements will need to be ‘Libby proof.’ We’ve had many a tree trounced and many a parcel mangled and I’ll tell you some good stories in the next letter.

 

With many greetings, do keep in touch,

Lucy