When our son Jeremy was eleven, he desperately wanted a dog - as they do, amid great promises of doing all the work and training etc! So we agreed!

We went to our nearly stray shelter and chose a lovely young female Border Collie/Labrador cross (well that's what we call them here). Jeremy said he wanted to call her Jacquie, however we had to wait a few days until all her checks and injections were done. The shelter took our name and details and told us to come back on Sunday afternoon at 1pm - which we did - however when we got there, she had gone to someone else. Someone mixed something up and so our Jacquie was no more.....we were very disappointed!

On the rebound we did everything we had been told not to do and went to a Sunday market and looked at the pups there! Jeremy saw this little black, white and tan pup and asked if he could have him. Being the softies that we are, we said yes and he said very matter-of-factly "his name is Tony"!! Goodness knows where he got the name from but who were we to argue? So Tony he was. Maybe he had heard the name 'Toby' which is often a dogs name and misunderstood - I should ask him sometime if he remembers.

Anyway about the care and training promises and all that, well, we won't go there. Needless to say that I built a very strong bond with Tony over the years and seemed to be 'blessed' with doing nearly everything for him and with him!

We all do miss him though and I had a few tears again today!