Zara has had a busy few months with many adventures!

Zara continues to learn her soundwork at our training centre in Buckinghamshire. During weeknights and weekends, she lives with Abi and Thomas, who are her 'Bed and Breakfast' volunteers. They've taken her to plenty of places since your last Pupdate - and, as you can see, taken plenty of great photos too!

First up, here's a lovely photo of Zara at our Spring Open Day recently. We had quite a few sponsor pups make an appearance, but never before have we had three at the same time. Below you can see Zara with Abi in the middle, with sponsor pup Hebe and volunteer socialiser Annette to the left, and sponsor pup Nutmeg with volunteer socialiser Wendy to the right! They're all proudly holding up their pups' latest printed updates - except for Nutmeg, who hasn't had one yet, so Wendy is holding up his sponsor certificate.

Thomas tells us a bit more about this: "Zara had a great time meeting all the visitors and showing why puppy sponsorship is invaluable to training all these clever pups. Zara also got her five minutes of fame and made it into the local newspaper."

What a fantastic photo! It also shows off the variety of breeds we use, so that we can match our pups to exactly what our deaf recipients want, whether a slow, steady Labrador, a cheeky Cockapoo, or a loving Cocker Spaniel...

Here's another of Abi with Zara (who looks like she's about to exit stage left!)

And here's one of Zara with that lovely, quizzical look on her face:

Over to Abi to explain the next photos: "Last month Zara went on a little holiday to Lulworth Cove and got to run around on the beach and experience the sea for the first time! She loves water but was a little unsure at first as to why it was chasing her!! She soon got used to it and had a great time."

We're building up quite a library of sponsor puppies and seasides. Here's Zara loving life on the coast...

What else has Zara been up to? Abi says: "She also visited the Punch Bowl at Windsor Great Park recently and enjoyed the sunshine and all the pretty flowers." Here she is looking extraordinarily pretty in the flowers...

Is that it? Not quite! "We also met up with Zara’s puppy socialisers, Louise and Gary for a lovely long walk and a pub lunch.", says Thomas. Abi continues: "On the way, Zara found a big field with lots of very long grass and spent ages leaping around like a gazelle. She then had a little snooze in the pub garden whilst everyone had lunch."

It's so nice that our volunteers meet up like this. Louise and Gary, you might recall, looked after Zara during her first year, as well as sponsor pup Honey before that. We even have some photos of them together, funnily enough, at last year's Spring Open Day.

Anyway, back to the walk...

Looks like fun!

And finally, Zara's special impression of the Queen of Sheba (again).

We really hope you enjoyed this latest look at life with Zara (and Abi and Thomas!).

Zara is well on the way to becoming an amazing hearing dog, thanks to your support. From all of us, as ever... thank you!