This page was last revised on 25th November 2007
On 20 August 2007, Gemma and I took Julie for walkies in the usual way. Well, nearly the usual way...because this time Gemma and I were being sponsored!
Visit the Hearing Dogs website
So not only were we going on a longer than normal ramble - five miles - but we were also raising money for a very good cause, that cause being Hearing Dogs for deaf people. Now dogs are known to have extremely good hearing - for example, I can hear people walking round the corner two hundred yards away, long before humans can see them. Ian is convinced that I can hear him thinking about eating an apple (one of my favourite things!).
However, Hearing Dogs are even cleverer than that - they are trained to recognise sounds such as door bells and telephones, so that they can alert a deaf or hard-of-hearing human. Hearing dogs vary from the largest, scruffiest mongrel to the smallest pedigree, but each is easily recognisable by its distinctive burgundy jacket and lead, which also helps to identify its human's otherwise ‘invisible’ disability. Around seventy per cent of hearing dogs are selected from rescue centres, which is fantastic because the new-found responsibility provides safe and loving homes to otherwise unloved and unwanted canines.
The weather was not good - in fact it rained and, under normal ciecumstances, any sensible dog (or any sensible dogs like Gemma and me!) would have stayed at home! We were on a mission though, and together with our chums from Hotdogs (or should that be WetDogs!?), we raised a considerable amount of money for the cause, and getting abit soggy was well worth it!