Tina

Picture the scene - January 2011,  I was sitting in my fairly posh office in  Leeds, complete with glass walls and my own parking space, looking  forward to the year ahead.

And yet I wasn't looking forward to it; I realised that I didn't  want ‘this’ to be it. I'd been a family lawyer for over 20 years, but I  was about to make a phone call home that was going to change  everything!

Fortunately, my husband Steve said 'go for it'  as he was sick of my early starts and arriving home late.  We just had to think of an alternative.

At about the same time, we were adopting our handsome greyhound Buddy  from Greyhound Gap. We could have him on the condition that we found a  dog walker to break up the day for him.  No problem I  said, we'll do that.

But it wasn't easy (in fact it was impossible), to find someone who  would take my dogs on their own to our local park, and I just didn't  feel comfortable with the idea of them being walked in a group away from home with  other dogs that I didn't know.

So..... maybe you can see where this is going..... I had a plan, and  six months later, York Walkies was born and I skipped out of that office  never to return.

I really had no idea back then how much I would love it; what  pleasure it would give me to build from scratch, a little business that I  am now so proud of, spend all my days with dogs, meet so many people  who love their dogs, and to get completely and happily exhausted every  day in all weathers and all seasons.

It may sound sentimental, but I pretty much feel that my life began  in 2011 as I had finally found something I loved to do, rather than  working just to earn a living. How brilliant is that??!!!

All these years later, I still feel the same, and York Walkies has  brought me the very best friends, two legged and four, and has enabled  me to spend more time with my own hounds and family, which was of course  the point of it all.

I'm currently owned by three greyhounds - Bryan, Wally and Clarice,  who just like all the other dogs who have shared my life, have been  rescued, and have had challenges and issues to deal with. My dogs are  and always will be, my family, and life revolves a bit around them.

Outside of dogwalking, I love crochet, eating and drinking and a bit of bird watching!

Rachael

And then there were two.....

In January 2013 I needed surgery on my knee and my wonderful friend  Rachael, who I'd known since I moved to York in 1992, offered to help me  out.

She drove me about while I was out of action, we went together to  meet the dogs, and I read a book and fidgeted while she took 'my' dog  friends out for their walks. I missed them!!

It worked well and by the end of the week Rachael realised that she loved what I was doing too, and asked to join the team.

She is one of the few people I would hand my dog leads over to, and I  knew she would be perfect, so rather unexpectedly, York Walkies wasn't  standing still as I had assumed it would, but was growing!

Rachael is kind, would do anything for anyone, absolutely loves dogs,  and is super reliable and careful. More than that, amazingly, she seems  happy to tolerate working with a total control freak and is able to put  up with me, so we became Team York Walkies.

Rachael's family now includes Patch the gorgeous lurcher, one of the most spoilt dogs I know (and trust me I know a lot of lucky  dogs!)

Rachael is a yoga enthusiast and loves scouring charity shops for bargains.