LITTLE BADGES - GOING TO THE DOGS

Photo: (left to right) Greyhound (no.3) Hope Susannah, Lene Somer and Henrietta Koch

www.thebiglittlebadgeco.com

Hi

The virtual kettle's on..... So while I let it boil I just have this to say

The thing I love about our business....is our customers. I cannot stress highly enough, without them, we would be nothing. Literally.

It is for that reason we take an interest in every customer we serve....and also, well... I'm a little bit nosey! There I've said it.

It is due to my Noseyness that I can tell you about a lovely customer we recently had the pleasure of helping. We sell a set of Greyhound badges, 1 through 8, based on the designs of the coats worn by the racing greyhounds. Nothing odd about that...I hear you cry (•coughs). Well no, there is not. We sometimes sell individual ones as birthday badges...we sell complete sets of them, we have had requests to personalise them for certain racetracks...., but this order was different.

The lovely Lady buying them bought all the same number, and what seemed an odd amount. So I had to follow up contact once the badges were let out the traps and posted to her, just to find out a bit more.

Well it turns out, that she wanted the badges for an excursion that she was making to Portsmouth Greyhound stadium. Nothing odd or interesting there you may think...but no. Dig a little deeper and a lovely little story emerges.

Jayne Bought the Number 3 Greyhound button badges for herself her Husband and two current World Cup holders for the 470 sailing class called Henrietta Koch, and Lene Somer, oh and she owns two of her own Greyhounds.

Jaynes Husband is a sailing coach for the Danish Olympic Sailing team!! I know....that's what I thought. Fantastic. He is currently training the girls for the 2012 London Olympics, so I expect a lot of you to be shouting for them when the Olympics come around. Remember those names, Henrietta Koch, and Lene Somer because we could well be seeing them picking up medals.

The girls had never heard of Greyhound racing before they met Jaynes husband, and Minnie their retired greyhound, and Demonforts Lady (also affectionately known as 'Mavis', their racing greyhound. The girls wanted to go to a greyhound race and see Demontforts Lady race.

And which trap does Demontforts Lady race in.....Yep, you got it, Trap number 3! We are very proud to say that the team of them all wore trap number 3 button badges to support Demontforts Lady.

Unfortunately....Demontforts lady did not win her race that night (ahhh) but she did win the previous Saturday though. (hurrah) Here is how Jayne her owner describes her.

"She's a fantastic little dog. She'll never amount to much but she's the most gutsy little dog you could imagine. Her whole attitude is 'GET OUT OF MY BLOODY WAY' when she's on the track. Absolutely nothing daunts her. Her trainer thinks that when she retires she'll probably qualify for a bravery award! "


Photo: (left to right) Lene Somer ,Henrietta Koch and Greyhound (no.3) Demontforts lady

The Winning dog in the photo at the top of this page with the two girls, is Hope Susannah, so as you can see Lucky trap 3 worked, and hopefully the power of the support that the girls showed, doubled with the lucky trap 3 badges... helped to secure a win for 'Hope Susannah'.

Jayne says:

"The winning dog on the podium is Hope Susannah who's a fantastic dog and wins most of the time. Both Susie and Mavis are trained in the same kennel. My other dog Flying Arkwright (pet name - Stanley) would have been racing that night but there was a hold up with his paperwork and everything has to be right before they can race. He races in trap 6 though. "

which brings me onto the third bit of this interesting story, We have the Danish sailing girls, Jayne's husband the danish sailing team coach, the racing greyhounds.... and of course Jayne who bought the badges in the meantime.

Not only does she love her dogs, and the greyhound racers but she also volunteers her time to her local branch of the 'Retired greyhound trust' and running their website. This is where retired greyhounds who have given their time to the track get a chance to retire, and re-home with a loving family for the rest of their retired lives. This is their time of life, to bring joy to a family and receive the love back that they deserve, and Jayne and her team make this a possibility and a reality.

Liz is a Kennel owner, who also trains Jayne's greyhounds and the owner of the winner in the picture 'Hope Susannah.

Liz's mother Molly was one of the founders of 'GREYHOUND RESCUE' and Liz has taken up the challenge after her mothers death, to continue the great work her mother started.

Jayne says:

"Thanks to her kicking it all off, the future for retired greyhounds is much brighter now and most of them live out their lives happy and loved. Liz sponsored the dog race for the Danish girls as a thank you for me running the website and going up twice a week to do voluntary work for her. The girls thought it was fantastic. "

"last month completely bucked the current trend and more dogs were adopted from Portsmouth than in any other month."

So I urge you all to take the time and visit this website and support Jayne and Liz in their efforts,

http://www.portsmouthretiredgreyhounds.org

where I am quite sure you will fall in love with these adorable animals and do what ever you can to support this very worth while cause.

and here for the central website for Retired Greyhound trust:

http://www.retiredgreyhounds.co.uk

Thank you to Jayne for purchasing the badges in the first place and letting me into the story of why she bought them.

Well, I can hear the kettle has just finished boiling so

Milk and sugar?

Join us in our little shop for a virtual cuppa www.thebiglittlebadgeco.com