Star turn

We started our day today by going to Tesco in Galashiels to do our bit for Guide Dog fundraising. This was supposed to mean that Vespa sat around looking gorgeous and people coming up to stroke him and put some money in the pot. What it actually meant was Vespa spending most of the time on his back, waving his legs in the air trying to tempt his pal Zappa (a gorgeous, 15 month old,  reddy coloured lab/retriever cross) to come and play with him. Freda, who's the Border's border for Guide Dog pups was with Zappa and she and I had quite a laugh. Apparently Vespa's antics were quite a crowd pleaser and Vespa earned quite a lot of 'tips' in the form of £5 notes being put in the bucket. The fundraiser people were very pleased and said he should give up thoughts of becoming a Guide Dog and go for a full time fundraiser role.

We then went off to have lunch with a Clinical Psychology pal who I've met again after some years and that was fun, but we had to leave on time to go to our next event.

At 2 pm we could be found, along with Freda and Zappa, in The Main Street Trading Company, which is an independent bookstore in St Boswells, ready for a photocall with none other than Ben Fogle, who has a new book out called Labrador. Ben was absolutely lovely and is just like I've always seen him. Humble, but fun and very smiley. Sadly Vespa and Zappa decided it was time to have round 2 of the play stakes which meant that a table full of coffees almost went flying. Luckily we managed to separate them and then go out for photos. I'm not sure exactly where these pics will be placed, but they will be used on the Guide Dog website.

We then all went down to the village hall for an hour's worth of Ben talking about Labradors, which actually was incredibly interesting. At the end we got lots of folk coming up to ask questions and pet the dogs, who by this time had calmed down considerably. One of the guys from Guide Dogs was doing the interviewing and he'd got a copy of the book, which he very kindly gave me. It's signed by Ben and is also full of sentences highlighted in green highlighter pen, but hey... a free book is a free book and I was very grateful for it.

I don't have any pics of any of the day as I was concentrating on Vespa not being too much of a handful, but I'm hoping to get to see some of the ones the professional took and I'll post one if and when they arrive.

Meanwhile after all that excitement, Vespa has collapsed for the evening and is currently ensconced next to me on the cushion on the floor snoring his head off. I think that's going to be him for the rest of the evening.

It's hard work being a star turn!