New Year, New Job!

Happy New Year! (Can I still say that??)

We hope you all had a fantastic Christmas – we certainly did!

Christmas was full of seeing family and friends, eating, nice long walks and you guessed it, dogs!

Hudson got into the Christmas spirit early, especially as he had his very own advent calendar (made by my clever Mum). I mean what Labrador doesn’t want to wake up every morning and have an extra biscuit!

The run up to Christmas is always my favourite and one of our standing activities is going to the Hearing Dogs Christmas Market. It was great to see friends and wander around all the lovely stalls and pick up a few Christmas presents. Hudson had two highlights from the day…

Visiting his favourite stall, the cuddly toy tombola!

And meeting Father Christmas!!

A couple of weeks later we then had the HD Volunteers Christmas Party! This is always a great opportunity to catch up with everyone, eat party food and play games!

Hudson had great fun playing with his little brother, Kai and snuffling around in the doggy lucky dip!

He was also incredibly lucky and got to meet Father Christmas again!!

This time he made sure to whisper in his ear and give him an extra slobbery kiss to make sure that come Christmas morning, his stocking was going to be full!

After the Volunteer Party we stopped off at Missenden Abbey to do a spot of fundraising as they had kindly chosen to support Hearing Dogs at their Christmas Fete.

As always, Hudson loved all the fuss and cuddles from everyone but eventually decided it had been a long day and he was in need of a snooze!

Hudson tried to help wrap all the presents for the rest of the family but once he realised there weren’t any he could eat, he found the whole thing a bit boring and had a snooze instead.

The big day arrived and all the kisses he had given Father Christmas had paid off! Hudson’s stocking was full of presents, he was so excited when he opened each present that he forgot about the others, so it took him a rather long time to open them all!

By the end of the day he was absolutely shattered and he’d taken himself off to bed.

On Boxing Day, it all started again at my parents’ house and with Hudson’s best bud, Billy Beau Baggins! However, we also had an extra guest! Hearing Dog Echo joined us for a couple of days whilst her B&Bers were away.

She’s such a gorgeous girl and fitted in with the gang straight away!

 

All three of them had a great time playing and as you can see the whole family enjoyed having a house full of pups!

After all the excitement Hudson was well and truly happy to be back in his own bed snuggled up with Big Sharky!

We then had a few quiet days with lovely walks and snuggling up to watch films; and then on New Years Eve another guest arrived!!

HD Sponsor Pup, Kai!

Hudson LOVES his little (half) brother and they had a great time on their walk, running around and chasing each other!

Since Christmas, Hudson has been rather busy!

A couple of weeks ago he went to meet his new recipient! From what I heard, he had a great time and he’s going to fit into his new family perfectly!

So we are now coming to the end of our time with our gorgeous, happy, handsome horse as he goes off for his pre-placement week tomorrow with his recipient at The Grange. We are so proud of him and everything he has achieved! He’s a very special boy and know he is going to have the best time with his recipient and new family!

I know there will be a lot of people who will miss him lots and who have played a huge part in helping this big life changer become the fantastic Hearing Dog that he is! With special mentions to Catherine, his HD Brood Holder for trips to the Isle of Wight when he was a little pup, Karen in Welfare for letting him barge his way through the baby gate for cuddles every morning, Meg, his wonderful trainer for teaching him all his soundwork (he says thanks for all the sardines!) and Peter & Sharon, his puppy socialisers, who clearly stuck in him a bag of miracle grow every night! And I’m sure he will always be known by many as Uncle Huds for all of the puppies he helped look after during the summer.

Now… we just need to work out how we’re going to get all of his toys into his suitcase!