“It was then the little brindle and white female pup clambered out of the bed and made her way over to me. Ignoring everyone else she approached me whimpering like a child and I honestly believe she was asking me to choose her. I picked up and cuddled her for quite sometime while she almost fell asleep in my arms. I had almost made up my mind “

 “ All I could do was listen. Carol telephoned the following night very tearful saying she had been to the vets that day so I immediately realised the sad choice she had made. Carol was absolutely riddled with guilt and sadness. I did my best to reassure her that what she had done was for the best and her dog, William would not have to suffer anymore. All Carol could think of was, would he have made a recovery had she not had him put to sleep but sadly and truthfully the answer was no. I listened to her talk about her faithful friend for some time and I have to admit unbeknown to Carol I had tears in my eyes on more than one occasion especially as I glanced down to Laurel and Harri asleep together on a blanket. I think the most moving thing she said was, when the moment came to take William to his final visit to the vets she produced his lead and the poor dog thought he was going for a walk so he staggered to his feet the best he could and even managed a slight wag of the tail. This, of course broke Carol’s heart. She vowed after William she would never have another dog. Remember the statement “when you buy a dog you buy heartbreak”.

 “ While heading for home, Laurel and me were approached by about four or five young children around six or seven years old. Laurel has always loved children of any age and she appears to be gentler the younger the children are so upon seeing the children her tail started to wag frantically. Staffies are sometimes nicknamed the ‘nanny’ dog because of their love for children and this is true of all the Staffies I have come across. With more than one child approaching Laurel, I think she must have thought it was her birthday. When the children saw her one of them, quite sensibly asked if he could touch her. “Will he bite me mister?” he said. “You’ve got more chance of me biting you than her”, I replied. There was an absolute look of horror on all of the children’s faces. I quickly had to reassure them I was only joking and that “ no, there was no way she would bite anyone and more importantly, nor would I.” With that they were all making a fuss of Laurel, who by this time was over on her back enjoying every second of it. We left with all the children waving goodbye to Laurel and completely ignoring me. As we carried on walking I began to think. What if the little boy went home and told his parent’s I’d threatened to bite him. With these days of political correctness exploding out of control, anything could happen. I had visions of being carted away by the Police for threatening to assault a child. I could see the headlines ‘ BULL TERRIER OWNER THREATENS TO BITE CHILD’.”

“ Heart-broken I buried my little cat, Dave at the bottom of the garden where he had spent many happy hours. For days after, Harri was looking for her buddy spending hours sitting on his grave. It was also a long time before I got used to hearing only one bell in the mornings. When I moved from Drayton a few years later, I felt I was leaving him behind and his little grave was the last place I visited before leaving the house for good. I brought his small plaque I made for him with me and I still have his photo standing in my kitchen today. Most of all I still have the memories. Dave was such a character. Somebody once commented to me that Dave must have thought all his Christmases came at once when he landed on my doorstep. All I can say to that is I hope I made his short little life as happy as he made mine because he certainly brought a lot of fun and laughter with him.”

 “ I left PACT that day with the knowledge that I had made some headway with Chrissie the Rottweiler and that pleased me no-end. I was now even more determined for her to gain trust in me so I could maybe take her for walks. The way I saw it was, if she was never going to taste the freedom of being in a loving family, she could at least taste the freedom with the kind people inside the boundaries of PACT. Sadly for reasons other than her manner this was not to be.

“ For much of the time during this very worrying period, Laurel seemed a very sad dog – something I had not seen in her before. Although she did her best to play and go for walks, she always crashed out and looked in so much pain when she tried to get up again.”