I did say that I would tell you about the Hearing Dogs last night, however events overtook, but first let me get a few things out of my system.

Apart from the usual ‘time of the month’ (again!) feelings at the moment I have just sat and had a quiet sob.

Our Accountant came round tonight to finish off some paperwork for us and announced that he would no longer be able to carry on working for us.

No we’re not rubbish payers or anything.  He has decided that the time is right to start spending more quality time with his wife and has been mulling over cutting back on work since the end of last year.  Totally understandable.

So why would I get emotional over an Accountant?  Quite simply because he has been more than just an Accountant to us.  He’s become our friend, someone who we could have a laugh and joke with quite apart from the fact that he took the pain of Accounts away from us.

It will be hard to replace him and moreover we have to start building a new relationship with someone else.

We also found out this week that our milkman is retiring at the end of this month, so it’s change all round.  I’m not convinced I like this kind of change especially when we have had so many changes in our own circumstances.

I am trying to be positive though by thinking of the good that could come out of it in terms of maybe this is just the start of many changes for us, hopefully for the better.  At the moment I’m finding that hard.

Work has been okay this week though.  We’ve had a good laugh even though the volume of work is about to hot up. 

My younger colleague has also been a lot more professional this week.  Plus I found out they think I’m a bit scary.  Even though it was said jokingly, there must be an ounce of truth there.  Me scary!!!!

On Monday at work, we had a really nice man, Bob,  come in with his dog Marsh to talk to us about the role of the Hearing Dogs. 

It was a superb presentation with a demonstration from Marsh which, for some reason made me want to cry.  Not just because of hormones either.

Bob explained about the work they do, the types of dogs they ‘recruit’ and how they use a lot of rescue dogs who’s fate could have been very different.

We were told about the varying levels of deafness and the difference in lifestyle having a Hearing Dog can make to someone.  

Bob told us of a young woman who was a virtual recluse because of her hearing impairment.

Six months after having a Hearing Dog, her mother commented how very, very different her life had become because of the confidence she had found in having her dog.  In fact, she jokingly complained, her daughter was hardly ever in any more. 

How fantastic is that?