How I Came To Be Involved… …Like most events in my life, I either do it fully or not at all. So I understand why many of you ask, “how do I know Diana and Terrier SOS?” Here it is! I lost my old girl, Tansy a Welsh Terrier to an inoperable and aggressive cancer. She left me with a terrier shaped hole, not just in me, but the whole family and in particular with Rupert (Rooty). He pined all day, every day – I changed food to try to tempt him back to life, whilst barely able to eat myself. I threw his ball, swung his tuggy, but the once playful and exuberant Rooty was gone. Walking became a pain, as he would go to the corner of the lane and BAM – brakes on. Endless drives to find new sniffs, new walk areas, village pub with his dad each night, ensued. Gradually through shifts in routine and copious dead toy carcasses later, Rooty started to pull through his grief, which lifted mine. He took to Twitter and became a staunch activist for doggy rights – ask his pals – sofas for dogs, toys for dogs, chews for dogs, big beds for dogs. This is where it all began. I had followed Wire Fox Terriers on Twitter, little knowing that behind the moniker sat a lady called Marie. She put up a tweet that filled me with horror. EMERGENCY FOSTER HOME required for a dog, whose time was running out. After pulling poor Roger out of a business meeting to answer my call, I said we could help, albeit I am afraid to say in a rather ambivalent fashion. My gut feeling was “I haven’t a clue about fostering” and “are we what they need?” Marie forwarded my details to Diana, we talked at length and afterwards I knew we were exactly what they needed. Foster homes are in short supply. As it happens that particular dog was fostered and subsequently adopted into another loving home. We met a lovely lady, who home checked us – whilst I worried about whether I had dusted the coffee table – she looked at the garden, at us as a family, at the resident dog, not at whether I had washing in piles everywhere, ready to go in. Hilary – I thank you for that! Post home check passed, I received a call from Diana, the dog in foster, whom we were asked to consider adopting, had been adopted by the foster family. Far from being upset, I was relieved for that poor dog. I had primed my children, who were 13 and 15 years, that it’s not whether the dog was right for us, but the other way around, so as not to get hopes too high. Both took it well and were also thankful that the dog was spared. But where one Terrier SOS dog gets lucky, another waits in the wings. Diana asked whether we would consider another little girl, who was currently being saved from death row in Spain. I was sent the before (perrera) and after (kennels) photographs. “YES” said I. But we had already made our mind up as a family – it is a family decision – that we would help a dog in crisis. We could offer comfortable sofas for lounging, big beds aplenty, long rural walks and a good garden to run in. Food and veterinary care is a given. But what these dogs need mostly is to feel part of the family, to be loved, reassured that no matter what, you are there for them. Dogs don’t need a cream dream home or manicured lawn. Our day came – you saw the photographs! In the interim we rescued another poppet in need. Fostering/adopting is not about me “doing good” or “playing the hero”, it’s because I cannot stand by and watch, when I know I could assist. I have my mother to thank for teaching me that. One day I hope the same for my own two. There are many of you on here and on Twitter, exactly like us. Maybe you are sitting on the fence, worried about how your own dog will react. Rooty is adored, spoiled a little even, but like all pack/flock animals they have an innate sense of sorting “order” and establishing “harmony”. Now as we walk the dogs by the river, or sit drinking coffee at outside tables, dogs on lap, I talk to those who engage me in conversation reference “the dogs”. I tell them about our “foster”, you generally get the “ahhs”. I spread the “Terrier SOS” word. I ask them, if they seem genuinely interested, to take a look at www.terriersos.com. I made the posters to put in my vet’s practice. I know some of you have downloaded those and done the same. In my dog cuddling moments I have provided admin assistance to the various pages, as do others. There are many ways to assist Diana. No one woman can do this alone…in my case it took Marie, Diana, Hilary, my family and especially Rooty. Like a chain reaction, the links bind and make the ability to do something an inevitability. So if you are sitting on the fence – hop on over it instead – there are many ways to help Terrier SOS. My old boss always said that he was only ever as good as the people holding him up. I hope this answers “well, how do you know Diana?”