Most of our previous trips seem to involve heading west from Stockton Top Marina towards Warwick and then Stratford or Birmingham.  This time, it was just going to be Jen and me, so we planned a trip with fewer locks.  As events turned out, we did end up with a third crew member, but one that needed constant supervision.

We acquired Tim and Tara on New Year's Day in 1996, being brother and sister from the same litter.  The mother was a Jack Russell and we think the father was a Border Terrier.  We didn't ever bring them on Hawksmoor, partly because of space and partly because of their age  -  old dogs and new tricks, etc.

Sadly, Tara died early in March this year after a very short illness.  A couple of weeks later Jen had found the perfect dog to keep Tim company  -  a sixteen month old, fully house-trained Jack Russell bitch.  The only problem was that she was in Weaverham, a round trip of 400 miles.

We arranged to travel up on the following Saturday, but the day before we received an email to say that the owner had been told that she wasn't a pure-bred Jack Russell and she couldn't sell her until she found out exactly what she was.  We explained that we didn't care, but the vague attitude of the woman made us nervous about travelling such a distance.  A short time later, the local evening paper arrived and fell open on a page with an advert for Jack Russell puppies at an address less than a mile away.

A couple of hours later, Tess had joined the family.

During our holiday on Hawksmoor, Tim would be staying with our friend Catharine, but we didn't feel we could inflict an eight week old puppy on her, so we decided to take Tess with us.  With just two weeks to go, the pressure was on to complete her house-training.

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