Dogmobile update - October 2012

Some of you might be familiar with our Dogmobile, two mobile units that travel the country, visiting county shows, town centres and supermarkets, showing people what great dogs rescue dogs are.  The bright yellow Dogmobiles contain two comfy kennels for the dogs to lounge in for the day, (whilst looking for that perfect home), plus all sorts of other ‘doggy’ information leaflets and ‘goodies’ are on board.  Cathy, Dogmobile 1 Manager, is here monthly to keep you in the loop about all that is happening in the mobile unit world...

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September 2012 Update

At the Surrey Country Fair at Loseley Park Guildford, we set up on the Saturday in brilliant, warm sunshine. I almost had a bead of sweat on my brow it was that lovely. ‘Great’ I thought, ‘we might yet have a nice day in the morning’. I went to bed with great enthusiasm, only to wake up the next morning to hear rain beating down on the window

 Mark from Harefield was helping me on the stand, as Laura my usual trusty colleague was having a well-earned rest. Mark had bought ‘Sybil’ a young Lab x Spaniel along for the day. She was beautiful, and she knew it. Unfortunately, because of the heavy rain, we didn’t have that many customers come and see us, so as you can see in the picture, she snuggled down on her blanket and went to sleep. (Still, we couldn’t have done too bad, because ‘Sybil’ had quite a few people go along to the Harefield centre afterwards to rehome her, and because of that, she has now found a lovely new home).

We’ve also had an exciting time in Scotland for our West Calder centre near Edinburgh. Little did we know what the weather had in store for us up there!! We battled wind and rain on the journey up, only to arrive to hear the weather was going to get worse, with gales and torrential rain for the rest of the week!! ULP!!

The most exciting time we had was when we had set up at Asda Newmains. It all started relatively ok. Yes the wind was quite strong, but nothing we hadn’t had before. We had a little break in the clouds from the rain, so Laura took the young dog we had on board out for a walk. All was still ok until Laura had been gone about a quarter of an hour, then all hell let loose. Suddenly the winds picked up at an alarming rate, and our canopy was whipping up and down to such a degree I had to rope it down.

The wind didn’t ease at all, in fact it picked up speed and I was desperately trying to hold the canopy down as I couldn’t shut it up on my own because I’d have had to let go of the rope I was holding, and there was no way I was doing that. The gusts were lifting me of the floor as I desperately held on. It could only have been a few minutes before Laura came back, but that was enough thank you very much. The unit was swiftly closed.

Phew!! I’ve not had that happen before, and quite frankly……I don’t fancy it again!! It was a little hair-raising (and feet raising) I can tell you…………..

Here’s hoping October is better!!

Cathy

Interested in more Dogmobile updates?  You can see Cathy's monthly updates here on our blog or see her previous posts on the original Dogmobile blog.

Dogmobile Update - September 2012

Some of you might be familiar with our Dogmobile, two mobile units that travel the country, visiting county shows, town centres and supermarkets, showing people what great dogs rescue dogs are.  The bright yellow Dogmobiles contain two comfy kennels for the dogs to lounge in for the day, (whilst looking for that perfect home), plus all sorts of other ‘doggy’ information leaflets and ‘goodies’ are on board.  Cathy, Dogmobile 1 Manager, is here monthly to keep you in the loop about all that is happening in the mobile unit world...

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September 2012 Update

Northern Ireland was brilliant. The ferry over was very calm, much better than the gales we had last year! We did have a bit of rain whilst we were over there, well ok... quite a bit! But, hey, what’s a bit more rain this year?!

One of our venues was at Belfast zoo.  It was great, and the little dog we had on that day found a home with a lady who saw us there and fell in love with her. After a swift visit to the Ballymena centre following all our usual rehoming procedures, Sweep the GSD cross is now living happily in her new home with her new doggy friend.

Since then, we have been to the Bucks County Show, (which again was VERY muddy after torrential rain the day prior to the show), and yes we were towed out of the showground again.  But there was light at the end of the tunnel, because our next show was the Romsey Show, and it was HOT and SUNNY! Yes, I know, can you believe it? It was such a nice change and everybody who attended the show looked relaxed and happy, which I must say we haven’t seen a lot of this year.

Whilst there we met Tug Wilson and his family who rehomed Rags, a Lurcher we had on the unit at this show in 2011, plus, Sarah Hill and family who rehomed Del (now aptly named Del-boy) a Trailhound we had on the unit at this show in 2010! It was lovely to catch up with them all again and see how they are doing. Don’t they look great? Who’d have thought a day out on the unit would end up with them finding their perfect home... but it did!

Next time you see the Dogmobile, come and give us a visit, we’d love to see you and if you happen to be thinking of getting a rescue dog at the same time, you never know, you might just find the dog of your dreams with us.

-Cathy

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Interested in more Dogmobile updates?  You can see Cathy's monthly updates here on our blog or see her previous posts on the original Dogmobile blog.

Dogmobile Update

Good afternoon, everyone!  Some of you might be familiar with our Dogmobile, two mobile units that travel the country, visiting county shows, town centres and supermarkets, showing people what great dogs rescue dogs are.  The bright yellow Dogmobiles contain two comfy kennels for the dogs to lounge in for the day, (whilst looking for that perfect home), plus all sorts of other ‘doggy’ information leaflets and ‘goodies’ are on board.

For the last several years, we have had a Dogmobile blog on our website but have now decided to move it over here on our main blog.  We wanted to make sure the updates were easily viewed and shared, and this seemed like a great place!   So, without further ado, meet Cathy Walter - Dogmobile 1 Manager and update extraordinaire with her post for August!  

Dogmobile - August 2012

Well, the bad weather continues!  We have had three shows cancelled this year already and there may be more to come yet!

We’ve not long been to the Kent County Show, which, although they kept the show on for the three days, the conditions were abysmal, and due to them shutting the public carparks mid-morning both Friday and Saturday, there was very low attendance (picture above).  One saving grace though was those people that did manage to get to the show, didn’t have to queue for anything!

We fared better than most as we were dry and had light and heat, which believe it or not came in VERY handy when trying to dry off and yes, stay warm!  We did meet Paddy and Glen owned by Mr and Mrs Flannigan (picture below). They didn’t mind the mud and were enjoying the day regardless.

We’ve since been to the Driffield show for our Leeds centre, and although it was wet in the morning, the sun shone for most of the day and a good time was had by all.

Because we have had a few shows cancelled we were able to pop along to Basingstoke Market Place (pictured below) again, where it couldn’t have been more different to the last time we went... dry, sunny, warm and very busy (the water froze in the bowl outside the unit last time in February)!

We had ‘Tommy’ a lovely seven month old x breed with us for the day from our Newbury centre. He LOVED saying hello to everybody and seemed to have a brilliant day out as his tail didn’t stop wagging! I hope he slept well at the end of the day... I know I did!

Next stop Northern Ireland where we’ll be promoting our Ballymena centre. 

Speak again soon...
-Cathy

Diary of a Dogs Trust rehoming: Daniel the Spaniel

Taking your new dog home for the first time is a very exciting experience. For Daniel the Spaniel and his new owners, it was all caught on camera.

Daniel's now living with the editor of our supporter magazine, Wag!. Deana had been along to the centre before with the family to meet the sparky little Spaniel, and noticed that her younger daughter was a little nervous, but needn't have worried as pup and kid have become firm friends already.

The video diary below marks Daniel's first 48 hours with his new family... watch for the bit at Dogs Trust HQ in Islington!