This weekend I had the pleasure of hosting a few good friends who were kind enough to lend a hand with a very worthwhile side project of mine.
“Dogs for Veterans” are a great bunch of people who train and provide life-changing assistance dogs for current and former members of the British Armed Forces, to aid and support complex and varied mental health difficulties. I crossed paths with members of their team whilst at one of my 2022 festive markets and, thoroughly admiring what they do, I've been plotting how I might support the charity ever since.
Having finally settled on an idea, some good friends of mine took time away from their own work to come and help hand-forge one hundred dog paw keyrings, as you can see in the video! These will shortly be on their way to “Dogs for Veterans” and, hopefully in the not too distant future, be available to buy through them to help raise funds and support the great work they do.
You find, follow and support “Dogs for Veterans” through the links below, something I would heartily recommend;
Veteranswithdogs.org.uk & Facebook.com/veteranswithdogs
I also have to thank the friends who very kindly leant a hand and made the weekend thoroughly enjoyable! If you've got a mo to support help support small local businesses, have a look at their pages (linked below) and show them some love!
My old friend and ally, Tim Madden of Three Paw Forge. Talented craftsman, great beard - Facebook.com/ThreePawForge
Laura, of YapperDappers Dog Grooming, set up shop last year in the Cannock Chase area and is definitely worth a look at if your looking to treat your hound to some well-deserved R&R -
Facebook.com/YapperDappers
And last, but not least, Marcus Fox is an old colleague of mine, who flew all the way from Switzerland just for a chat and to help out! Marcus is a free-lance artist and illustrator, bouncing between genres but producing some great fantasy-historical pieces of late - Facebook.com/VulpusArt
When the pawprint keyrings are available from “Dogs For Veterans UK”, I'll be sure to share and let you all know where from. Watch this space!
But till then, thank you for reading this far and hope the rest of your week treats you well!