It’s very exciting. Our numbers are going up. There are about 52 of us in the country at the moment, but over the next couple of months at least 7 will arrive as imports and then hopefully both Shadow and Bella will have puppies too. There could be as many as 70 of us by the end of the year, which is a huge change. Obviously when you think there are about 220,000 Labradors we’ve got a little way to go, but we can no longer claim to be one of the rarest breeds in the country anymore. I know 70 doesn’t make us common but it’s a long way from the 10 there were in 2008. Maybe we could pass 100 in my lifetime, which would be quite something. At the moment our Mistress still knows them each by name and I guess as there are more that won’t be possible. She does say that she finds dogs a lot easier to remember than people though and she seems to know quite a lot of people.
In preparation for all the cooking she is planning to do when her birthday presents arrive, our Mistress decided to sort out the kitchen. It is alarming what you find in cupboards that you haven’t opened for a few years. There was the Apple Butter she made that was a complete disaster and which somewhere in the last five years had developed an added mould crust that was on the negatives side, but the good news was that she found a doughnut maker that she really didn’t know she had and now only has a vague recollection of the origin of. She thinks it was from my grandparents some while ago, but whatever the background it now has pride of place on the side and there are plans afoot to make some doughnuts.
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