PAULINE I am number 2 to Lorraine in the UK and, in turn, I am helped and supported in all I do by my trusty Glasshopper, Joy. . We have no specific jobs as such as all three of us muck in with everything as and when needed.................fostering, transporting, homechecking...........aswell as trying to make sure IRR runs smoothly from day to day. Our phonebills are horrendous, our fuel bills are astronomic and we spend hours on our computers. Sometimes, when things get really bad, we all cry together but, when we hear an update from one of our adopters and we see pics of one of our dogs settled happily in his or her forever home, then we know why we continue to put ourselves through what can be agony sometimes. I am the only one of us three who has any idea of the geography of the country so I have to try to get our dogs from A to C via route B and not via Y or Z as Lorraine and Joy would do:)) I also work closely with Donna, feeding her with information to put on the website, and dotting all the Is and crossing all the Ts, whilst keeping her over-exhuberance in check, for which I have earned the name Pickyknickers. Helping the Irish dogs in distress is both my hobby and my passion. I seem to have always been involved in rescue to a degree (homechecking for the RSPCA about 20yrs ago) and, over the years, I have had 9 rescue dogs of my own. In my madder (and younger) days, I was owned, all at the same time, by 4 GSDs, 3 of whom were rescues, 2 rescue crossbreeds and a golden retriever and 7 rescue cats. My husband then, sensibly put his foot down when I attempted to bring rescue dog number 8 into the house and I settled for just helping with homechecking and fundraising instead. I was introduced by these boys and girls to the worlds of working trials and obedience and, despite me, the dogs managed to gather a plethera of rosettes and certificates. But time crept on and eventually heartbreak came and, one by one, my babies started going to Rainbow Bridge:(( After I lost Rags, Tessa and Honey (2 GSDS and my GR) in 8 weeks, it was Barney who saved me from going over the brink. He was a delightful golden retriever puppy and the runt of his litter. The next year my darling Bobby (lab x GSD) and Abbey (GSD) also went to the Bridge and the next year was no better losing Lucky (collie X) and finally Max (GSD) shortly after bringing Freddie, the most adorable GSD puppy into our family. Freddie had ongoing health problems, due to a serious adverse reaction to vaccination, and he introduced me to the world of homeopathy and complementary therapies. I joined CHC in 1998 to glean as much information as possible from people whose dogs had suffered in a similar way. I kept my promise to my husband to keep to sensible numbers (Barney and Freddie) for about 4 yrs during which time I concentrated on doing working trials with both dogs and obedience, and even breed showing with Barney but my instincts to help out the unwanted and unloved dogs were still there, just bubbling beneath the surface. In 2001 Ricky (GR) arrived. He was not a true rescue but he was a failed show dog (and nephew to my Barney). I was supposed to be looking for a home for him but after fostering him, he went no further. In 2004, the same thing happened again when I was looking for a home for Eddie (brother to Ricky and nephew to Barney). 
In 2005, IRR was created, to help Sandie who I had met through a Canine Health Concern chat group, and the rest as they say is history.
In 2006, we completely fell in love with one of our foster furkids and Danny (our first Irish boy)came to stay. He has proved to be an angel at settling in other rescues who arrive, bless him. He is the one sitting at the back.
Last year was a very bad one for me as I lost both my beloved Barney and my very special Freddie but one good thing did happen when we failed, yet again, as fosterers and naughty Gizmo (another Irish foster boy) came to stay for good.
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.LOGISTICS and GENERAL ORGANISER
