The Little Dog – A Crufts 2016 winner!

The Little Dog – A Crufts 2016 winner!

The Little Dog – A Crufts 2016 winner!  What a roller coaster ride the whole Crufts experience has been this year. It started off in January when we realised we hadn’t actually rebooked our stand. A major admin error as it’s our biggest retail show of the year. Thankfully there were two stands left so we squeezed ourselves into Hall 3. Then during set up, having been racing around all morning like a headless chicken, Anna arrived late and promptly decided to ignore all health & safety or common sense and stand on a filmsy folding chair to place something up high. Seconds later she came crashing down in a fabulous “You’ve been framed” style and sat there for many a moment absorbing the shooting pains in her ankle.

By the time the stand was dressed and she’d made it home, her ankle was nowhere to be seen. But again, here’s the good news, despite limping around for the following 3 days she had escaped with just a sprain. Lucky lady!

On Day 1 & 2 the stand was manned by the Girls. They had beaten the Boys last year in the annual Crufts “Best on the little dog laughed stand” competition. All was looking promising on the 1st Day until late afternoon when the girls had taken the chance of a quiet spell to tidy up and redress the front of the stall. During that moment their lovely fellow exhibitor friend Mariel and her beautiful boy Messi had popped by to say hello.

Unbeknownst to them it was also at this moment that the opportunist thief who had singled them out and had been watching them, seized his chance and slipped onto the stand, grabbed a handful of their takings and made to leave. Anna spotted him at the edge of their stand bent over their cool bag seemingly looking for something. When approached by Jo, he stood up and aggressively answered “NO” to her enquiries before leaving quickly. With the mobile phone, iPad and cash box seemingly untouched the girls assumed they had spotted the baddie on his way in. It wasn’t until later when they discovered the card receipts were missing, they realised they must have spotted him on his way out.

According to the NEC Police, who were marvellous, CCTV later shows him bent over the cool bag as he stuffs his ill gotten gains into a satchel. What miserable, sickening feelings his actions had caused and it was also rather unsettling for the Girls to realise they had been watched and targeted. But here’s the silver lining, in his haste to snatch and go, what he predominantly grabbed was a wooden peg and some worthless receipts. And now he is on the NEC Police radar the chances of catching him when he tries it again are high.

Day 3 & 4 for the Boys was a lot jollier as the Saturday morning began with the unexpected but hugely appreciated presentation of an award from the Kennel Club for the Best Trade Stand (small) in Show. Being previous winners of absolutely nothing and having enjoyed a long and undistinguished career, this award really has tickled us pink, not least because Gavin had to have his picture taken for publicity purposes whilst holding it. Gavin HATES having his picture taken so this has amused us all greatly. Now if only we could find that photo…!

And that almost brings our Crufts 2016 story to a close, oh except to briefly mention the Boys won.

Just.

Moving on swiftly we’d like to say thank you to all who popped by to say hello and purchase some of our humble gift offerings. We wouldn’t be here without your loyalty and for that we are truly grateful. Thank you xxx