My first British Labradorbook was 'Labradors' by the late Mrs Miriam Kinsella 'Brentchase'. I found it simply by coincidence in a bookstore in Gothenburg. To say I was thrilled would be an understatement and I couldn't stop reading it. My grades in English went straight up!

By this time I already had a couple of British penfriends, but they had one snag: they didn't care much about dogs. So I wrote to Mrs Kinsella, expressed my admiration of her book and asked her if she knew anyone about my age that would be interested to write to me.

After a few weeks I got a letter from Mrs Kinsella, yes, she knew a lad whose father bred and showed Labradors and he often joined him to help out with the dogs. This was Murray Parsons, and his father was of course the Reverend Michael Parsons. Their big pride was 'Tex', Sh Ch Melfin Half Guinea, he had been made up and he got tickets under names like Gwen Broadley, Jessie Taylor, Michael Boothroyd, Jean Waring and Peggy Rae. Mrs Broadley brought Sandylands Buzy Liz to him but unfortunately it didn't result in any surviving puppies. We bought a lovely son of his who unfortuantely only lived to be 9 months old due to bad hips, those things were much more frequent in those days and many un-xrayed Labradors were being bred from.

My parents and me visited the Parsons when we once stayed for a week in London in 1977, they lived in Ipswich so it was an easy journey . I did enjoy writing to Murray but he wasn't as interested in Labs as I was, so his father Michael and I became penpals instead. There are no such things as ages in the world of dogs! Eventually Michael and his family went to live in Texas, USA, where he passed away in 2002.

Raya was my first Labrador and was born on 30th April 1973. She was bred by Charlotte Lindell and was sired by Int Ch Powhatan Sentry out of Roydwood Right In Line, so that was a very nice pedigree with some top class British Labradors close up in the pedigree. Right In Line, 'Lina', lived with me the last year of her 13 year old life.

Raya and I did everything together, she was a wonderful Labrador and my best friend.

We went to our first show, Michael Boothroyd was judging,who placed Raya 2nd in a big puppy class. Following year she again gained  2x2nd placings, one under Margareth Clayton (Ardmargha) and another under Margot Woolley (Follytower). She also got CC quality awards under judges such as Jessie Taylor (Whatstandwell) and Miriam Kinsella (Brentchase), got a blood tracking award and also did well in obedience. On top of all this she was the dam of some succesful sons and had a very good record for hips.