Many Tears. By Bessie

On Sunday morning Mummy saw a post on Facebook by Many Tears Animal Rescue - the rescue who saved Carly's life - saying they had 65 dogs dumped on them that morning and they needed all the help they could get.   So her and Tom got in the car and went down to help.   There was loads of people there, the car park was full and there was cars everywhere.  

As soon as they got inside, Sylvia the owner was walking past and she asked if they had come to help.  "We have if you need us," said Mummy.   So Sylvia asked if they could manage three small dogs.   Mummy said she could handle three any size dogs so another lady brought them three dogs, a little tiny yorkie, a pomeranian cross and a little black cross breed.  They didn't have names yet cos they were so new - as well as the 65 dogs from the Irish puppy farm they had 18 other dogs arrive last night.   Mummy and Tom named the dogs Arnold, Noodles and Billy.   Sylvia said to go for a walk and keep turning right,  After three quarters of an hour they would be back at the centre.

Arnold, Noodles and Billy were very good, they didn't pull or do flat basset or have projectile diorrhea everywhere.   But we think they must have got lost cos it took them two hours to walk round the block.  Arnold got tired and had a carry for some of the way.  

When they got back they saw some of the Irish puppy farm dogs being carried into the grooming room.  It was the most awful sight, Mummy and Tom were shocked,   You see these dogs on cruelty programmes with their fur so matted it looks like dreadlocks and they are barely recognisable as living beings, but to actually see them in real life, dozens and dozens of them.  They were covered in lice and fleas  All the dogs had to be shaved and doused in delouser.  Most of them were poodles.

One of the volunteers offered to give Mummy and Tom a tour round the kennels, they saw hundreds of sad little dogs.  If they had been going to choose a dog they would never be able to just pick one.  After they had their tour they sat in the kennels with some of the dogs who need socialising to make them more adoptable.  First they sat with Arnold, Noodles and Billy and then they went and sat in a kennel with six dogs; two cocker spaniels, two shitzus, a westie cross and a teeny tiny little chihuahua who climbed onto Tom's lap and went straight to sleep.

They could have stayed there all day snuggling but they had to go home.  It was very hard to say goodbye to all the beautiful doggies and they gave us extra big snuggles that night.

Oh and by the way Arnold, Noodles and Billy have names now.   They are called Tom (how cool is that?), Sid and Dolly.

Millie. By Bessie

On Thursday lunchtime Mummy texted a man who was advertising his Basset free to a good home on Gumtree.    At 2.30 he rang and said would she tell him more about the rescue cos most of the other messages he had sounded like they were from psychos.  So Mummy told him how Millie Basset would go to a lovely foster home and get spayed and vet checked and then we would find the perfect home for her.  She told him to go and have a look at the success stories on the website and call her back.  Half an hour later he phoned back and said come at 5 so she picked Katie and Bryn up from school and took Bryn home then Mummy and Katie went to pick Millie Basset up.

As it happens Millie Basset was more Beagle than Basset and maybe a little bit of Whippet thrown in there too but they brought her home anyway.   Daddy said, "What did you do that for?"  But Mummy said, " I couldn't leave her.  Of course I brought her home."

Millie stayed until Saturday morning.  She is very sweet and pretty and tiny but very bouncy and jumping off the settee and leaping onto the windowsills, stealing food and weeing everywhere.   But she will stop it soon, Mummy said she was very eager to learn so that makes her very trainable.  On Saturday morning Mummy and Millie drove to Sam's house.    Millie had a good run round the garden with Shirley, Ollie and Snoopy and then Louise and Dave came and they all had lunch and Millie stole some tomato but she didn't like it so she spat it on the rug.   Then Millie went back with Louise and Dave to Lisa's house to stay until after she has been spayed on Wednesday.

Nelson goes to his new life, Bryn joins the army and the humans don't buy a watering can. By Bessie

On Friday Mummy and Katie went to Cardiff to meet Lesley and Nelson.  Then they brought Nelson back with them for the night.   He was excellent as always.  He is always a very good house guest.  Bryn was at cadet camp all night.

On Saturday morning Miss Hannah and Mr Hannah came to collect him.  They brought their baby Basset Tibs with them.  He had a plaster cast on his leg but him and Nelson still wanted to play.  Mummy had to tell Nelson to chill out though, cos he is much bigger than Tibs and Tibs has a baddy leg.

Then Nelson went off to start his wonderful new life.   I think he is going to make them very happy, he is such a perfect boy.   

Then Mummy and Katie went to fetch Bryn and they came back, had a bit of lunch.  We went for a walk then the humans went to B&Q to look at wallpaper for the hall but they didn't like any of them so they came home.

Yesterday they went to Leekes and chose some nice duck egg blue wallpaper with a pattern of trees and birds and some paint for them wooden panels in the hall.   Then they went to Ikea and had a slap up lunch of dried up bun with a tiny snossij, cold chips and a flat coke.   But the cinnabuns were nice so that is ok.

As usual they came home with a million things they didn't know they needed and nothing they did.   What they wanted to buy was a pretty watering can for the kitchen windowsill, a soap dish and a picture frame but what they actually bought was two laundry hampers for Katie and Bryn's rooms - They were only £1.95 in the sale though -  four plant pots, two latte glasses and a solar powered light for outside.   Note, none of the things they wanted.

In the meantime Tom took us for a walk.     But then Katie had a strop on the way out cos Mummy wouldn't buy her a milkshake and called Mummy names cos she's 15 and she's like that.  So they weren't speaking to each other by the time they got home.  But Tom was happy cos he missed it all and Mummy bought him a cinnabun.

Mummy made a roast chikkin for tea.  Daddy wished they had roast dinner more often until he saw the amount of washing up.   I bet he's glad she makes dinner in the slow cooker most nights.

South East Basset Fun Day. By Carly.

Bessie said seeing as my last post was Ok apart from insulting her I can write another one.  But I have to say nice things about Bessie.  I can say anything mean about Lotty I like though.

So on the Sunday morning we didn't have to get up so early cos the fun day didn't start til one.  So we had our breakfast and the humans had a big cooked breakfast that Uncle Dave cooked.   Then we went to Crawley for the fun day.   This time Bertie and Frank came too but Uncle Dave had to go to work.

Miss Lisa and Mr Paul organised an amazing day.    We think they were more organised than the people who ran Pup Aid.   There was a barbeque and quiche and some cakes and even a cake just for the houndies.  And a dog show.    I don't really like dog shows though and Mummy was very concious that I had been very good all weekend with no growling or snapping so she only entered me for one round so I didn't have to pretend to be good.
 
There was loads of people came to the fun day, Mummy tried to do a head count of dogs.  She thinks there were about 40.   Our foster dogs Sasha and Sonny were there too.  They are both really lovely.  Mummy especially liked Sasha, she was sat on the floor cuddling me, Sasha and Sonny at one point and she was in houndy heaven.  Everytime she stopped stroking Sasha she would nudge her hand for more.

I think everybody was very well behaved.  Nobody escaped under the gate.  One child may have got hit over the head with a saucepan at some point but maybe I dreamed that.  I does sound to bizarre to have really happened.  And Bertie may have had a bit of quiche.   And I think someone did a wee up the stereo.   A boy.  Obviously.   I'm not saying who.  I know who.  But I'm not a grass.

Oh yeah and we all missed Bessie loads.   *sigh*.  Will that do?

After the funday was over we drove back to Aunty Louise's and Mummy and me and Aunty Sam and Shirley got back in our own cars and we went home.   It was very late when we got home so I had my tea, cuddled with my sisters and went to bed.

Pupaid. By Carly

Bessie said I could write this blog post but only if I talk properly.  No baby talk.   Sulking I am.   But here goes.

Me and Mummy got in the car and drove to London.    The G8 summit was on so we had to go the back road to get to the next motorway junction.  I did a poo in the car just before we got to the next village.  We had been in the car for about 2 minutes.  She was not a happy mummy.  She stopped the car and I said "Oh goody we are here."   "No Carly," Mummy sighed, "We are not here."  Then she put my poo in a bag and threw it in a hedge cos she didn't want to drive all the way to London with a poo on the seat next to her.  

When we got to Reading we stopped at the motorway services.  They have a nice services there.  There is a massive dog walking area with woods and fields to run on and a big picnic area.   Mummy went in and got us a burger king dinner then I got out the car and we went for a walk and ate our dinner.  I had half a rodeo burger and half a bag of chips but Mummy had all the coke to herself and I had a bowl of water.

Then we drove to Aunty Louise's house.   My friends Penny, Bertie and Frank were there.  Mummy told me I had to be on my best behaviour.  No snapping or growling.  I said I would try but no promises.    Mummy and Aunty Louise had to go and do a homecheck so they said I could come too.   They said it would be good practice for the lady and her Basset to meet a six year old girl cos that it what I am and that is what they are adopting if the homecheck went well.   Which it did.   And the Basset was lovely and cute and I didn't snap or growl and she showed me her toys and her garden.  I didn't want to play though.  I don't play much.  Except with Lotty.  But not Bessie cos she scares me when we play.

When we got back to Aunty Louise's house we houndies had our tea and I won the fastest eater competition.  Mummy said it wasn't a competition and did the others not look like they were enjoying their dinner first.  I don't care.  Fastest eater gets the best spot on the sofa.

After the humans tea Aunty Sam and Shirley came and we all went for a walk round the block.  A stoned Lithuanian man tried to kiss us all.  We all got a bit high from the smell of the drugs him and his friend were trying to hide so we went home and ran round the garden for a bit before bed.

On Saturday morning we got up super early and Uncle Dave drove me, Penny and Shirley and the mummies to Primrose Hill.  He found the best parking spot ever right outside the park gates and we went to Pup Aid.  This is a big charity dog show about puppy farming.   We got there a bit early though and the show wasn't open yet so we we walked to the top of the hill and took some photos and watched the joggers.   Apparently nobody says joggers anymore, they are called runners.  Pah.   While we were sat there this man came over and said "Is that the dog show down there?"  And we said it was but it wasn't open yet.  He walked off then came back a minute later and asked us if Hannah was there.   We said we didn't know but Dave was.    Haha.  Still don't know who Hannah is.

Then we went to sign up for the dog show.   They were only letting 50 people into each category.   Shirley didn't want to enter but me and Penny entered prettiest bitch and best rescue and the lady said we could join in with the rescued brood bitch parade later.    After we got our numbers we went for a walk to look at the stalls.  Most of them were selling very expensive stuff but Mummy bought a bag of dried whitebait for me to share with my friends.  We met another Basset.  She was pretty but very grumpy.  She growled at me but I didn't growl back.   In fact I didn't growl or snap at anyone all day.  Mummy and the Auntys said they was very proud of all of us cos we were such good girls.

There was a stall doing grooming.  Penny had hers done last week by Spongedog but me and Shirley needed our nails doing.  Shirley didn't really like it though so she only had one nail. I let them do all mine and they didn't even charge.  We was super pleased with my maniped.  

We met loads of people who was useful to our rescue and Mummy and the Auntys had their Basset Rescue Network t-shirts on and lots of people asked about our rescue.  We met some celebrities too.    The compere was Annabel Giles.  And the guest judges were Sue Perkins off the bake off and Peter Egan who used to be in Keeping up appearances and now he does tons for animal welfare.   We met Marc the vet.    Penny had her photo taken with him.  And Rachel Reilly who does the maths on countdown was there too but we didn't see her.  Annabel Giles was very funny.   She made us laugh lots.

We didn't win anything in the dog show and the brood bitch parade was a bit embarrasing cos even though they said we could join in and there were a few others that joined in, the lady who was reading out the cards about the dogs just read out what was on the card even though the dogs were stood in the wrong order and didn't come and ask about the extra dogs that had come in.  There were only three extras it would have taken two minutes to talk to us.   And all the people behind were going, "Which one is she talking about now?"  We wish we hadn't bothered really.   But then a lady came to talk to us later, we don't know who she was but she said she went to parliament with Marc the vet about the petition to ban the sale of puppies and kittens in pet shops so we think she must have been one of the organisers.  Anyway she was very nice and asked about our rescue.

We had a lovely day out and by the time it was home time we were all very tired and Uncle Dave drove us all home.  The boys were cross cos they had to stay home but we gave them some of our dried fishies and they were happy.  

Here comes the Presidents. By Sam.

The G8 summit is coming to town in two days.  This means total shutdown for the entire town,  more so for us as we are precisely 1.3 miles from where it will take place.    According to the Welsh Mail 9,500 Police Officers have come from all over the UK.    This is true, we saw Merseyside police guarding the motorway roundabout at the top of our road and tonight whilst cycling home - yes that's right, but hang on - I passed a Nottinghamshire police van parked outside school.  This was just before I saw two of Bryn's friends.  They looked at me funny so I said "You didn't see me in this stupid helmet right."

There are police literally everywhere.  On the way to work I passed a bloke having his rucksack searched outside Tesco cos he had a camera.  Lucky for me they didn't stop me and search my rucksack cos it contained a complete change of clothes and the entire contents of the fridge, nearly.   On Thursday school is only open 10-2.   The doctors surgery is closed and the bin men are coming on Saturday instead.   It was in the Argus yesterday that Presidents Obama and Cameron are planning on visiting a school.   They haven't said which one on account of the world press flocking there to have a gorp but it has to be our school surely.  It's the closest one to the summit, it cost £29 million to build so it has to be fit to show to the presidents and Katie said she's only going in if she can meet them. 

On account of the road lockdown I decided it was a good incentive to finally buy a bike to go to work on.  So on Saturday we went to Halfords and I picked a rather splendid bike.   John and I went for a bike ride on Sunday, after Tom helped me bath the dogs.  Which was a complete waste of time cos Lotty has rolled in something stinky today and needs another one.   We rode to the next village and back.   Halfway home I cried like a baby and begged John to fetch the car but he wouldn't and by the time I got home I was actually almost dead.  Nearly.    Then this morning I rode my bike to work.   It was OK actually.  My backside is still killing from Sunday but it was my knees that hurt the most.  I will get used to it though apparently.   I don't know if that means used to the pain.  I don't want to get used to pain.   The hardest bit was lifting the bike over the two kissing gates at the edge of the golf club.   That was almost impossible.   This bloke came over to help me on the way home but I said no I have to learn to do it myself.  Then he said to lift it over the farmers gate further up next time cos it's slightly lower.   Anyway it was fun once but I think I will drive everywhere again now.

I made the mistake of baking a cake on Saturday.  Now I'm expected to provide pudding after every meal.  how ridiculous.  I'm supposed to be on a diet.   We had lemon meringue pie on Saturday, Bread and Butter pudding on Sunday, Banoffee pie last night and Chocolate brownies tonight.   Tomorrow no cake.  They can bugger off.

On a separate note do you think exercise releases happy endorphines or is that a load of crap.   After a long bike ride on Sunday we sat and wet ourselves laughing at X Factor.   And all day today everything in work has been hilarious.    Maybe I'm just hysterical?   I mean like crazy not like haha look at me.