Perkins
In 2013 we decided that something was missing in our lives. The children had all flown the nest, two of them to New Zealand (!) and the house felt lonely. So we decided to buy an Airedale puppy. Yes, that’s right, the largest of the terriers. This is not as easy as it would first appear, as there are so few Airedale puppies available nowadays.
But we found a breeder with a litter due at the end of September, only half an hour away from where we live, so we put down our name for a dog. Six puppies arrived three dogs and three bitches. We saw them first when they were about two weeks old. A scramble of puppies just nicely able to see and finding walking a big adventure. They were delightful!
At six weeks we saw them again and decided we would like to give a home to the laid back one that appeared to take whatever life threw at him with composure. Just right we thought, he would suit us fine!
But what should we call him? Jasper? Roscoe? Ben? The list got longer. . . then it occurred to me. The Airedale in the Barleybridge books that all that time ago I had named Perkins. He belonged to the senior partner, Mungo and his wife Miriam. What better name could we choose? Perkins in the Barleybridge novels had an interesting life and everyone loved him. He was sympathetic, mischievous, energetic. . .
The name seemed to suit our puppy and so we decided. . .
Perkins was to be his name.

