News from Bournemouth Walking in the park with Zoe, my greyhound, the other day I came upon a most comical sight.  A large, brindle greyhound (Barry) was chasing a very fast remote con- trolled car.  When the car stopped so did Barry.  When the car went off again Barry was in hot pusuit.  Barry’s owner, Jane, tried several times to put Barry back on his lead but the owner of the car continued to tease Barry and this proved impossible.  Eventually, Jane and the car’s owner thought it might be quite fun to find out if Barry could run faster than the car.  Once in line they set off and Barry went like a rocket after the car.  They headed towards the fence and suddenly the car smashed into it, wheels and fuselage flying everywhere. Luckily Barry managed to brake and he came to no harm. At our shop, we occasionally receive donations of clothes suitable for fancy dress parties.  We recently had the fun of “dressing” the Captain of the Titanic.  A fairly tall, rather handsome gentleman came into the shop one day looking for something suitable and found a ladies jacket on our 50p rail and tried it on.  It rather hugged his chest but looked fine.  However, he preferred a man’s jacket sporting nautical brass buttons.  Just what he was looking for, he thought, but it was too small.  Then I had the idea of transferring the brass buttons onto the ladies jacket but he had no-one to sew them on.  I volunteered but, in the end, Penny spent a laborious couple of hours changing them over.  A captain’s hat com- pleted his outfit and we were even able to find a book entitled ‘The Titanic’ for him to hold.  Success!   A few days after the party his wife popped into the shop; she works next door!  Perhaps she couldn’t sew or did he want to surprise her? New customers continue to visit our shop.  Recently a whippet owner popped over from Switzerland to say “hello” and to purchase some doggy items.  The other day one of our regulars appeared in the shop on crutches.  She hadn’t been out of the house for two weeks and begged her husband to bring her to her favourite shop in Bournemouth!  Isn’t it wonderful that we are still so popular after almost 8 years in business? A big ‘thank you’ to Barbara and Robert Saywell who over the last few years have kindly been selling used books in their electrical shop in Keyworth to raise £££’s for our greyhounds and galgos.  Bara- bara and Robert have now retired and closed their business.  We wish them all the best for a happy re- tirement. Thanks to everyone who so kindly donated money for Christmas treats for the dogs in our care – the galgos in quarantine,  those in Spanish refuges as well as the rescued greyhounds in Wales and Chesh- ire. (See page 15)                                                                                 Sue   10