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My name is Shirley Hewitson. I have a family of four children very grown up now,

2 boys and 2 girls.  I must not forget to mention, my darling, shall I say long suffering

husband Derek.  He supports me and helps me more than I can say,

to look after my beloved dogs. 
 
I have loved animals, mainly dogs since I can remember.  I grew up and begged for a dog. 

Mother (she who has to be obeyed) said NO!  I went to my father and said “Dad Oh please,

please” to no avail, he was even more frightened of her than I was.  So that was that. 
 
When I was 11 years old a young couple came to live next door.  They were newly married

and ever so nice.  Not long afterwards they bought a dog a Chow Chow, (these were quite

rare at the time) they called him Brandy.  Well I offered to take him for walks,

which I did most days. In the school holidays we were usually out together until we

were both tired. I suppose I grew to look upon him as my dog. 

For two whole years this lasted.  Then we had to move out of the area due to my

father’s job. I was more upset at losing the dog than having to change schools.
 
I was without a dog for a very long time.  When I did get married, I was unable to have

a dog because we both worked full time so we both had a cat each.  Eventually the time came

when I was able to get my first dog.  She was a chocolate Labrador and she was beautiful

and adored our two children.  I went on to have two more children and we slowly accumulated

a family of chickens, goats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs and birds. We became known for

treating injured animals my children were instrumental in this. Hedgehogs would suddenly

appear along with cats and dogs but mainly birds.

Derek my husband was the bird ‘doctor’ and tended to many injured birds, sometimes they

stayed with us for a month or two. Our garage became the recuperating room as it had a

huge oil fired boiler that made the room quite warm and cosy, an ideal temperature for

injured animals. We fed and watered our injured. Hedgehogs would sometimes stay a day or

two or for a little longer before they went on their way fully recovered. 

Our cats shared their food with them.
 
Our magic formula for getting animals better was bread and goats milk fresh from our own

goats.  Animals seem to thrive on this. Some instances it needed a little brandy

(this was a very special brandy). Sometimes milk or brandy was not appropriate and we could

only try to make an injured animal as comfortable as possible.
 
After this I had a few more dogs they were different breeds, I loved them all but I never

seemed to meet the dog of my dreams. Then one day in 2002 I was at a championship

show when I saw two people carrying two small beautiful white dogs. Dogs that I had

never seen before. I literally ran after them and spoke to them to see what breed the

dogs were. They are Bolognese they both said and proceeded to tell me all about them.

Shortly after, my first Bolognese arrived.  I knew from the very first day that I had

met my soul mate.

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