Dogs in Shops

I overheard this in one of the bookshops. "Isn't it wonderful?" the man was saying to his friend. "I was just in Tom's Record Shop, and someone opened the door and said 'there you go, Molly', and this dog came in. It belonged to the shop, and they'd just brought it back from a walk."
This is typical of Hay. When I worked at the Children's Bookshop in Backfold (now the Wool and Willow shop) Bic and her friend Clare used to come regularly to take Islay for a walk during the school holidays. Bic is the youngest daughter of Mr Lee, who owns the Chinese takeaway, and when I last saw her she was going off to Reading University to study law.
Islay and Molly aren't the only dogs who are attatched to shops around Hay, either. Janice takes her pretty little Sheltie Mab to work with her. She's worked all over Hay, for Richard Booth, and Boz of Boz Books and Mark Westwood and others, and is usually seen now at the Antique Centre.
Then there's Holly at Rose's Children's Bookshop - any dog who chews a Noddy toy can't be all bad! (Holly is actually quite shy.)
There's usually a black labrador at the Hourglass Gallery - the owner of the dog lives at the back of the shop, and doesn't actually work there.
Then there's Rita at Bedecked in Backfold, and one of the assistants at Marijana Dworski's bookshop takes her dog in, too.
Of the other shops in Hay, nearly all of the non-food shops allow dogs to come in the shop, including Country Supplies (where Islay gets some of her treats, so she likes going in there), and Jones' Hardware.
Addyman's sometimes has a cat in the shop, so they're not keen on dogs coming in.
A few years ago, the Guardian ran a series of maps in its Saturday magazine, showing the distribution of different things across the UK - most likely to have a microwave, for isntance. They did one for dog ownership, and this area had one of the highest percentages of dog ownership in the country. None of us were surprised.