18th June

Today we went up to the West Midlands for my uncle Clem's funeral. It was a wonderful tribute to a wonderful man with 140 attending the service. We had seen Auntie Bid last week at my Dad's birthday get  together.

My uncle Clem was a farmer, and through most of my childhood was herdsman for a privately owned herd of Jersey dairy cows. We spent many days on the farm with my cousin Jackie just 5 weeks younger than me and Pete. The house stood on its own off a main road but it was always full of people popping in to buy eggs or just to chat.
 My Auntie Bid kept Labradors and had a litter of pups from her bitch Honey. Apparently there was a houseful when the pups began to arrive. She had six and Auntie Bid gave her something to eat and was about to leave her for the night when she produced another pup, then another, eventually having twelve! I remember my cousins and I would be positioned to make sure they ran round the back of the house when they were let out for their food.

My sister,my Mum and my daughter Sara holding Jesse.

Another memory I have is of visiting some friends of Uncle Clem at their farm in Uttoxeter. We saw a litter of Collie pups with their Mum and we were each given one to hold, I am guessing they were around 3/4 weeks old. We then went on a tour of the farm still carrying a pup who just snuggled in and slept. I still marvel that we were trusted with them and given this wonderful experience.
Jackie worked as a veterinary nurse for a while and while she was there adopted a puppy whose mum had died at just 3 hours old and hand reared her, also a kitten. Auntie Bid and Uncle Clem kept them both, the tiny kitten grew into a bruiser of a Tom called Russell who was always fighting but both he and Sophie never grew out of the habit of sucking and the house would resound to them sucking their blankets as they went off to sleep.

So most of my puppy memories are associated with my Aunt and Uncle, so how lovely it was last week, when the loss of my Uncle was still fresh and my parents were feeling the effects of increasing old age to take  our little pup Jesse and place him in my Aunts arms, new life, new hope little Jesse has already brought  a lot of joy.