PEDIGREE WALK WILL DEFY NEGATIVE PRESS

From my Dog World column ‘Crossing the headlines’ on 17 August 2016 promoting the Pedigree Paws Unite event.

‘It’s Good News Week, someone’s dropped a bomb somewhere contaminating atmosphere and blackening the sky’ – these are the opening lines from the biggest hit of British band Hedgehoppers Anonymous back in 1965.

The song takes a satirical swipe at the media’s all-consuming obsession with bad news and the lyrics couldn’t be more apt today. Every morning it seems we awake to hear yet more stories of gloom and doom in our press, more examples of man’s inhumanity to man and a heavy feeling of despair and unease.

THE BULLDOG WALKING MATCH

From my Dog World blog on 11 August 2016.

In my monthly column Crossing the Headlines (17 August 2016) I wrote about Gavin Robertson’s marathon charity fundraiser, Pedigree Paws United – a series of sponsored walks totalling 160 miles and featuring every recognised breed of dog in the UK.

Each dog will be walking a minimum of five miles.

 

‘King Orry, owned by Mr G R Murrell. Born January 25, 1889, by Pagan ex Koorie. Breeder J Tasker.’

 

The announcement put me in mind of another famous walking match, which took place in London, featuring the Bulldog. The full story is recounted in the marvellous The Bulldog – A Monograph by Edgar Farman.