Dusty and I were very excited when we travelled down to Wales, early in 2001, to pick up our new puppy from breeders, Annie and John Roberts.

The litter had all been sold - all gorgeous - and we were first to take one of the puppies to a new home. We asked Annie if we could name the puppy after her - hence, Annie.

She proved to be a delightful puppy and we had many visitors wanting to make a fuss of her.

When she reached six months we went back to our training classes - and entered her into a few local shows - where she did very well.The next stage was to tackle a Championship Show, which we did, and at eight months she qualified for Crufts. She went to Crufts two years running, but after this, she decided that she didn’t like the show scene, so we stopped showing her.

As she grew older she showed she definitely developed a ‘mind of her own’. She seemed a bit lonely, so when we heard of a litter being bred locally by the Gwynne family (Caroline and John) we viewed the litter and chose a boy and called him Cass.

At first, Annie wasn’t sure of the newcomer, but quite suddenly they started playing together, from then on they were the best of friends, with Annie acting like Cass’s mum. They went everywhere together and when Cass went to shows, Annie came too.

We went on like this for many years, until Dusty suddenly had a fatal stroke. When Dusty was in hospital, Caroline and John very kindly looked after Annie and Cass in their home for several months. I wondered, when they came home, how they would react with only me being there. I needn’t have worried, they were great and really helped me.

When Annie was about eleven she lost most of her sight, but one would have never known. She managed to do everything, and she always knew where her dinner was! Her temperament mellowed and she even wanted lots of cuddles and was quite a dignified old lady. Cass and I are very sad she had to leave us - we both loved her to bits and miss her very much.