Patsy

Patsy and I were very best friends around 1971-3 when I was living in Old Buckenham, Norfolk. We had moved there in 1970 and our next door neighbours a retired farming couple had her from the daughter's farm Poodle and Labrador. They weren't all that fit so were more than pleased when I started to offer to walk her, in the early days before I had a car, mainly with me on a push bicycle and Patsy running alongside along the back lanes.

When she got tired, I would put her on the  bike, front paws on the handlebars, one rear paw on the crossbar and one on my lap, and off we set. When I got a car in autumn 1972, the walks started to get less but that was largely as I was studying at college. Whenever possible she was with me at weekends such as today when we drove to the coast at Walberswick with the roof down.

We were a great team ... interestingly though she never spent a night at our house. The owners always wanted her home.