It never fails to amaze me the amount of wonderful opportunities our love for pedigree dogs can bring.
Pictured here is Lord Julian Fellows, author of the TV drama “Downtown Abbey”.
By Lee Connor
The
Southern Dachshund Association’s
Celebration & Fun
F
rom close friendships (that, without dogs would never have happened) through to experiencing a day such as I was privileged enough to experience last weekend. I (along with my little miniature smooth dachshund, Alfie) was invited along to the Southern Dachshund Association celebration and fun day. This was to be an extremely special event as the organisation was celebrating its 100th Anniversary - a truly remarkable achievement and (as befitting such an august milestone) the fun day was to be held in the grounds of Stafford House in deepest Dorsetshire - the home of Lord Julian Fellowes. Yes, the Julian Fellowes - the highly successful author & playwright who has
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achieved such outstanding successes with the likes of ‘Gosford Park’ and, of course, his period TV drama series, ‘Downton Abbey’. As we pulled onto the large sunscorched meadow that lay in front of the imposing Grade II listed stone manor house, I never for one second believed that the great man himself would make an appearance. We were however very warmly greeted by his most affable wife, Lady Emma, who asked for my dog’s name and then scribbled, ‘Alfie’ across a gold cardboard cut out of a dachshund and then promptly pinned it to the front of my shirt before smiling broadly and saying, “go through and have fun!” I was handed a schedule (on gold pa-
per) that listed the day’s events and then, with some trepidation, we made our way out into the beautiful grounds that surrounded the magnificent mansion. Although still early on a Sunday morning, a large crowd of people had already gathered with their assortment of dachshunds of all shapes, colours, coats and ages. I had expected large areas of the house and grounds to be cordoned off with those formidable signs one sees in such places proclaiming, ‘no access’ or ‘out of bounds’ but this wasn’t the case at Stafford House. The schedule clearly stated that everyone was free to wander throughout the grounds and to ‘enjoy the walk’ by the pretty, little river that meandered through