What a difference a year makes

This is our boy Jonty. We've had him for exactly a year. the photo on the left was taken in the rescue kennels where he'd lived for a year, arriving there as a six-month-old puppy - already beaten and terrified of everything. Over his year in kennels he became more and more frightened and withdrawn and it has been a long slow path to develop him into the lovely dog he is now.

Jonty's eyes and coat are now bright. He leads our two older dogs on their daily walk in the vineyard. Although still very wary of strangers, tall people, children and smokers, he calms quickly if they are patient with him. He's learnt to play and loves to retrieve endless tennis balls. He loves a really tight cuddle with either Ali or with me and he makes my elderly mum feel safe if ever she is alone in the house with just the dogs.

Apparently, at least here in France, no-one adopts black dogs so they are likely to be in kennels for a long time. So if you ever consider rescuing a dog from a shelter think of the black dogs eh?