THE February meeting of Crediton Townswomen’s Guild was very well attended by members despite it being a bitterly cold day.

The chairman welcomed members and speaker Bryan Hollingsworth, who came to tell us about “Hearing Dogs for the Deaf”.

The Guild also welcomed Janice Collins, our National contact with head office and who lives in Market Harborough, Leicestershire. Janice had travelled to Devon to present two long-service awards, both for long-service to Crediton Guild.

Glenn Northcott has completed 40 years membership of the Guild and Enid Keast has served 25 years.

Neither lady had any idea this was going to happen and were a little overwhelmed. Both ladies received an appropriate badge, certificate and a letter from our National Chairman.

A bouquet of flowers was also given to both ladies from the Guild. Janice had a chance to talk to members during the tea break and to give encouragement.

Our speaker, Bryan, then gave us an excellent talk on Hearing Dogs for the Deaf. How the dogs are acquired, mostly by their own breeding programme.

The puppies are first fostered by experienced carers and they then go on to be socialised and trained to a certain standard before being placed with a deaf person.

Each puppy takes about two years to train and all breeds of dog are trained and placed appropriately to the needs of the eventual owner.

Bryan brought along an elderly cocker spaniel who was very well behaved but who got a bit fed up with all the talking and who would rather have a lot of fussing and a biscuit!

It was a lovely afternoon.

Our competition this month was for a picture of a dog. This was won by Pam Durrant with a picture of a family dog. The entries were judged by Bryan.

Our next meeting on March 7 will be our AGM and the speaker will be Andrew Drayton, Community Champion at Tesco, Crediton, who will be telling us how Tesco works.

We meet on the first Tuesday of the month at 2.15pm at the Methodist Church Hall. Visitors are always welcome.

Mary Jack