195 special Christmas gifts ready to go..

We’re very grateful for the incredible donation from Mrs Helen McArdle McArdle CBE for our Christmas Appeal.  

Thanks to her kindness and generosity this is the very first time we have ever had our special Christmas gifts fully funded – so it’s absolutely wonderful and a huge relief for Wag in these difficult fundraising times.

 Not only will her donation provide for the 195 Christmas gift boxes for all the older dog lovers we visit in their own homes right across the region – average age 83 – but also for the delivery, the volunteer time and the visits as well as the handwritten bespoke printed Wag Christmas cards, Christmas bags and tags.

 We’re currently packing and distributing them so that during the first week of December they will be delivered by their Wag volunteers and their four legged elves.

Sometimes they’ll share them and have a biscuit and a cuppa together – dogs too of course 🙂  – sometimes their friends like to keep them and put them under the tree so they have something to open on Christmas Day. 

 It’s a simple thing to do, but really important.  As widowed farmer Eddie told his Friendship Collie “Dotty” one year, the last time he’d had a Christmas gift was 40 years previously given to him by his wife before she died.  He was moved to tears by the thought as much as the gift.

 So as a consequence we make sure everyone has a gift every year and we try to raise the funds.  As I said before, this year is the very first time we have actually raised all the funds necessary, and not only for the gifts themselves but also for the time involved in delivering them!  

Thank you Mrs McArdle.

 Finally, just to say the first Christmas gift was delivered early last week.  It happened to be our friend Edith’s 90th birthday so we made the most of the celebration and killed two birds with one stone!  

Here’s  her Friendship Dog Teddy the Toodle helping Edith to open her gift!  

What you don’t see is that 2 seconds after this photograph was taken, Teddy launched himself into the bag to retrieve a dropped dog treat making everyone howl with laughter! That’s really what it’s all about!

 

 

 To Mrs McArdle and everyone who helps in whatever way to keep Wag’s Waggy tails wagging, thank you ❤️

 

Wag & Company, who we are..

 Wag & Company is a small, local charity uniquely visiting and befriending elderly dog lovers alone in their own homes as well as in care and hospitals.   We have no guaranteed income, we never charge our older friends so that no one misses out so we rely entirely on donations, fundraising and grants to make this important difference to isolated, bereaved people mostly in failing health.  

 

Almost everyone referred to us is widowed, has mobility issues, can’t get out and about much or at all, spends too much time alone and badly misses the friends they’ve lost, two legged and four legged.  

With Wag they get both a human friend and a furry friend visiting most weeks of the year.  Comfort for the individual of course but also for their families knowing that their loved one has someone to visit and a lovely dog to make them smile… and laugh and cry!  

If you’re a dog lover you know how it feels to miss the company of a dog and also to be part of the dog owning community too.  

Here’s FD Verdi sharing his love ♥️ #wearewag