Page 13 - K9 News - Issue 15 - March2021

to these new people joining our fancy is a good
thing. I remember being a young girl watching
CRUFTS on the telly, on the sofa with my little
JRT mix (Paddy) knowing that one day I would
go (and in my then naivety I believed I would go
with my little Paddy). I used to go to a lot of fetes
with my grandmother (who was a sucker for the
white elephant stands and bric a brac stands)
and take faithful little Paddy along and enter the
companion dog shows. Having also been able to
show ponies I already had the showing bug, but
it was when attending a terrier and lurcher show
at a hunt kennels open day that I knew I wanted
to show dogs.

The handlers were completely different from the
fate companion shows that we had attended
previously. There was a real local prestige to
doing well at these shows and these were proper
working terriers. It was this, owning Paddy
(who was incidentally bred by my father from Paddy
a little JRT mix bitch that we had), that was my Remembered for his antics
gateway into dog showing. Paddy was still alive
and living with my dad when my partner and I
Every column I close with a quote, normally
bought our first pedigree dog, our first beagle
reflecting what I have written about. For this
Izzy and I actually qualified for CRUFTS. Paddy
column I would like to share a quote from “The
passed away at the grand old age of 16 and is
Velveteen Rabbit”, it is from a passage about
well remembered for his various antics. So, it is
love, I read the passage in its entirety at my
my thought that we need to not be so ready to be
grandmother’s funeral and therefore I would like
snobbish about people with aspirations to show,
to share it with you.
that may not have had the opportunity or means
to own their first pedigree dog. It was warming to
“Generally, by the time you are Real, most of
see that the vast majority of comments echoed
your hair has been loved off, and your eyes
what I have written here.
drop out and you get loose in the joints and
very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all,
Writing this column has been very heart-warming
because once you are Real you can’t be ugly,
for me, looking back and remembering both my
except to people who don’t understand.”
Grandmother, who I have such a deep respect
– Margery Williams Bianco,
and love for and Paddy. My Grandmother was
The Velveteen Rabbit
a phenomenal woman, sadly I cannot go into
massive detail here as I am running out of

column space, but perhaps I will have another
opportunity to share stories…. I have, however, Andrea Keepence-Keyte
been thoroughly enjoying others sharing
andi.keyte@hotmail.co.uk
interesting stories on social media of their lives
including dogs and horses – notably Patricia
Sutton who has lived an amazingly varied and
interesting life so far!

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K9 NEWS DIGITAL / MARCH 2021