Reunion Thanks

Alison Garforth and Sarah Cooke (www.waggytailsdtc.co.uk) of Waggy Tails Dog Training Club judged the Working Together classes together in the morning whilst Tina Flavell ( http://www.tinastails.co.uk/ ) ably assisted by her steward, Cindy Lockley, judged the afternoon Novelty classes. Once again, our local Holistic Vet, Nick Thompson (www.holisticvet.co.uk) came along to pick the winners of our top awards for us. Thankyou to all the judges for giving their valuable time.

 A huge “thankyou” to Dave Brown for being so brilliant as MC which meant working hard pretty much all day without a break. He brought a lot of humour and interest to the proceedings, which didn’t go un-noticed, and he tried to make sure everyone thoroughly njoyed the show. Of course, Dave’s job rather disintegrated at the very end of the day (but nobody could blame him for that) as his IRR rescue dog, Prince, handled by Wendy, stole the show by winning Best Golden Oldie and then going on to claim Best in Show. Dave was certainly one very proud Dad:))

There was a marvellous team helping me in the Prizes / Entries marquees this year and I really couldn’t have got through the day without them.

Jane Macphail and her wonderful husband Simon (who had both travelled over from Guernsey a couple of days before) completely took over the organisation of the prizes, special awards and rosettes from me. They carefully and neatly laid everything out before the show started and, with great efficiency, handed out all said prizes, special awards and rosettes throughout the day. I simply can’t thank you both enough.

In her usual very efficient way, Chrissie Heath took on the job of taking class entries and then went on to help me work out who had won what and who was eligible for competition for the top awards etc whilst her husband, also Chris, acted as a runner all day for us.

Chrissie was assisted on the entries table by Nicky Herring, who despite feeling very poorly, came with her family all the way from Cheshire just for the day.

Anne and Trevor Tuck, apart from taking the Parade of Rescues entries, also helped with odd jobs as and when required throughout the day. 

Thank you all very much for all your help and for keeping me going. I really couldn’t have got through the day without you all. You all worked so hard and definitely stopped me from turning into a gibbering wreck.

A very big thankyou to Di James for doing the photography throughout the day with help from Di Bowler and Nigel Lockley, who also makes a DVD for us which will be on sale shortly . Di also does a brilliant job as our website editor. This is an enormous job and can often be a thankless task so many, many thanks.

Apart from their other jobs, Nigel and Cindy also ran the Books and CDs stall for us again this year. They were relieved of their duties by Maggie and Andy Roberts and also Anne & Trevor Tuck so thankyou to every one of you.

Whilst Andy Bolton once again this year ran the Fun & Games for us, Sandra and Owen brought all their agility equipment and manned the Have a Go Agility for us all day. Sandra and Brian and Owen and Harley also demonstrated agility for us as did Alison Phipps with the amazing Stevie, who is blind.

Our other enjoyable Showtime entertainment this year was provided by Lola’s Travelling Troupe trained by Lynne Jones who clearly demonstrated how to have great fun whilst training our dogs.

Stevie and Lola are also Sponsor Dogs who help raise funds for IRR by putting paws to paper and writing newsletters and sending cards to their sponsors who they were happy to meet and greet on the day. Thankyou also to the other Sponsor Dogs and their generous owners who were able to come to the show and promote what they do for us. These were Digby and Tracey Reader-Hoer, Connie and Belinda McAvoy, Penny and Di James, Buddy and Sally Tooke nd my own Gizmo.

Apart from doing the demonstration, Lynne also ran her “Bears and Bottles” stall and “Guess the money in the jars” for us with help from her own little band of helpers whilst Ian acted as a chauffeur for us, both before and after the Reunion and was in charge of feeding the campers during the evening soiree.

Jane White took charge of Microchipping again and, with the help of Malcolm, Simon and Julie and Rozie, she successfully ran both a Tombola and a Lucky Dip stall so huge thanks to all of you.

Maggie and Ray Long ran the Big Raffle and Guess the Number of Sweets in the Jar with the help of Nigel & Belinda Dracup and, again, this was a huge success so thankyou all. Thanks also must go to Gwen Flynn and Christine Astor for running the White Elephant stall and to Anne Marie Wolohan for, once again, acting as Auctioneer for us in her inimitable way and assisted by Sandie.

Yet again, Pam Morris ran a Healing Tent and Sandra Dalmeijer, with the help of Christine Thomas, ran a CHC stall where they were happy to give advice about natural methods of treatment. Sincere thanks to you all.

Belinda and Terry McAvoy, in the absence of Jackie and Ron this year, ran the Sponsor Dog stall as well as their IRR Merchandise stall. They were ably assisted by their grandchildren, Joseph and Emma, and daughter, Isabella. Little Katie Millar took charge of Guess the Nameof the Elephant so it was a true family affair. Thankyou to you all.

We were also supported once again by Serenity, Gilly’s Gems and Mumsbies Bags who all had their products on sale at the show. Thankyou all very much for coming.

I mustn’t forget to say a big thank you to my husband, Steve, and to his friend Mick for setting out the rings and putting up the marquees and gazebos etc. This year, the job was made a lot easier for him because of all the help given by Owen and Dave earlier in the week.

Absent Friends

Thankyou to Jackie & Ron who were very much missed this year. Jackie works tirelessly sorting out foster homes for the new dogs coming over and doing her best to organise their transport despite her self-admitted, extremely poor geographical knowledge. 

A big thank you to our original Dave Brown (not to be confused with Prince’s Dad) who dug us out of a huge hole when he took over doing our website for us. Having taught Di a huge amount, he is able to take a very well deserved back seat nowadays but I know Di is really grateful for the thought that he is always there if she needs him to help her figure out the more complicated things. 

Several of the people who have fostered, transported dogs, done homechecks etc for us were unable to come to the Reunion this year for various reasons but we are extremely grateful to them and hope that they, and more of our doggy successes, will all be able to come to our 2011 Reunion.