I still have the leads and collars, the feeding bowls of all my Newfies these together with four cigar boxes with their ashes in are all I have to remind me of twenty wonderful years during which they were my constant companions. There are also the few photos on the dining room wall and if you look at my Twitter page you will see them in situ as I enjoy them. It was after I had already written five fictional books that I felt ready for book based closely on these years, I altered very little by way of the story or the action of the dogs it would have been wrong to alter anything about their individual characters. People and places can easily be distorted in the memory so I have used new names for them though I do remember them as supportive and in the main attractive. Vets have always played a big part, if I suspected literally anything was wrong off we would go to see them, especially for my dogs, prevention was always the better option. Because of this Meg was able to live a long and I believe a happy life against all the odds. William died without pain and so did Osca. Even on Hogan's last night Mike called the vet out to give him a jab to lessen the pain he was obviously in. In my book 'Life with my Newfoundlands' I have tried to show my approach to living with them and the huge return I received from them.