Friend for life

A kind reader emailed me to ask about the well loved toy dog at the top of the blog - what was his story she asked, and was he for sale?   This chap has been with me for nearly all my life, he was a first birthday present (as the photo shows, he was somewhat whiter and fluffier then).  Since then he has played a part in numerous games - including being tied onto the newel post of the staircase of the house where we lived in Bristol where he became the head of an imaginary horse harnessed with reins (the sort small children used to wear made of leather and decorated with bells) and has subsequently sat on the ends of beds and shelves during college, early jobs in residential children's homes and eventually in our own homes- this being the seventh house we've owned and the eleventh place I've lived.  He's had a varied life!

He's looking his age a bit now, a bit bald around the eyes (one of which has been sewn back on several times), and his felt ear linings are a bit the worse for wear, but he hasn't lost any of his stuffing and I think he's enjoying his new status meeting new people.  Oh, nearly forgot, his name's Bouncer.