Good Deeds

This picture is for my mum - to remind her of happy times in years gone by. It's the Tinners Arms in Zennor.

This morning we were walking Mollie round the castle and it really looked as if spring was about to make an entrance. There was no wind – for once – and the sea mist was gently clearing to make way for a shy sun. The primroses are nearly over but they sprinkle the walls of the moat with their wonderfully pure lemon colour, and the bluebells are a carpet of violet and blue.

Half way round we met a friend, Maggie, who has a rescue collie called Jasper and an elderly black lab called Jackson. She spent so much time last year training Jasper and was unfailingly patient as she took him round the moat, every morning, calming him, praising him and most of all loving him. Something I suspect he hadn’t had before.

As a result he’s now a happy, calmer dog devoted to Maggie and his ball on a rope. The difference in him is incredible.

Several weeks ago we came across an elderly couple with a 10 month old collie called Roy who had been let off the lead for the first time and they couldn’t get him back. He was having such fun for the first time in his life. Luckily Maggie was there and finally got him back and she volunteered to go up to their house and train Roy (by which I mean, train the owners).

She’s now going up there 3 times a week and already Roy is a different dog – as are his owners. I love this sort of story, as I hate to think of dogs not having a good life. So I said, “this is your new career, Maggie. You’re the Victoria Stilwell of Falmouth.”

She smiled and said, “oh but I couldn’t do it like that. I do it because I love the dogs and I want them to have a good life. I couldn’t take any money for it.”

I’m glad to say that apparently Roy’s owners have given her bottles of wine and some cash which she reluctantly took. They said apparently that they didn’t want to feel obligated to her, which is a good thing to say.

Hearing about Maggie’s work with Roy made me sniff and gulp for the rest of our walk. It’s so heartening to hear of people like her, doing things out of the goodness of her heart. There’s precious little of it in this life and it makes people like Maggie all the more special.