Bridget Kelly

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Hamilton Hounds has gone to the dogs

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A pack of not so wild dogs at Hamilton Hounds

Bridget Kelly

It’s 4.30 on a frosty Hamilton morning, and if the darkness weren’t enough, heavy fog has made the Waikato its home for winter. It wasn’t the weather that brought Queenslander Deen O’Brien here, where he’s mopping the floors of a converted factory.

His dogs Rollie and Spook wear snug jackets, it’ll be six soon and his first customer, Stella, is due to arrive. Her boyfriend, Thor, won’t be far behind.

It’s not people that Deen is cleaning up for, it’s something he loves even more: dogs.That’s why he came to Hamilton.

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Tackling rural mental health through prevention

After working in the mental health sector for eight years, Gerard Vaughan came to a realisation: he didn’t want to fix people with depression and anxiety, he wanted to stop them feeling it in the first place.

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