2009 Reunion
Irish Retriever Rescue Reunion 12 September 2009
A MESSAGE FROM SANDIE
I would like to thank everyone for their participation at this year’s Reunion and I hope a great day was had by all.
Although the attendance was down this year which is to be expected due to the economic climate, we still had a good day and managed to do some serious (much needed) fund raising. This was helped by our Auctioneer for the day, Annmarie, who was absolutely callous in taking money off people – making everyone dig deeper into their pockets. Thanks for doing such a great job and making everyone laugh with your Irish Jig.g.
For some reason or another 2009 wasn’t nearly as busy for rescue as other years and hopefully things are improving across the board. Even Andy & Val had a long period where they didn’t have a foster dog this year and that’s a first and I had periods where I only had my own eight dogs to look after. Let’s hope the trend continues and that the message “A dog is for life” is getting through to people.
I would like to thank all IRR volunteers, no matter what it is you do for us, transport, foster, behaviourist, web-site, sitting at a computer searching through websites for Golden Retrievers or simply just trying to pull it all together. Thank you from the bottom of my heart – you’re fantastic.
One person who deserves a special mention and a very big THANK YOU, is the lady who organises our reunion every year – PAULINE without whom it just wouldn’t happen. Although Pauline has a team of helpers, not least of all her husband Steve who works like a trojan leading up to the event and on the day, she is the mastermind who does such a fantastic job at pulling the whole thing together. Thank you so much Pauline, you’re really really special and we love you.
For me, the whole day is about seeing some of the dogs who I’ve rescued. As you may appreciate, because they sometimes go through my home on a conveyor belt so to speak, I don’t remember them all but some stand out and are very special in my heart. One of them is Perry who was carried into my garden on a blanket so traumatised that he couldn’t stand up. I drove him over to the UK along with Darcy and Jim. Perry went to live with a lovely lady, Vanessa who has worked miracles with him although he does sometimes revert to RSPCA mode as Vanessa calls it. It was so very very special to me that Perry was at our Reunion this year even if he was in RSPCA mode, at least he walked around on his own four legs which is testament to the work Vanessa has done. It was lovely to see him after all these years.
It’s the likes of Perry who make it all so worthwhile.
Finally, a huge thank you to everyone for my beautiful cross-stitched picture of Shannon. That’s very very special to me as, not only is Shannon very special in my heart, but also because it was painstakingly hand made by Ron Adams and took him six weeks to complete. I have to say, it’s THE most precious gift I’ve ever received. It now has pride of place in my hall, so it’s the first thing I see when I open my hall door. Thank you so much – I love it.
I look forward to seeing you all again next year and bring a friend or two!!!
Love
Sandie
A MESSAGE FROM PAULINE
On 12th September, we again held our Annual Reunion at Bury View Farm & Camping Site where we were given a warm welcome by Jim and Sallie Bowden.
The weather, unbelievably, was extremely kind to us for the 5th time in succession and everyone ended up with very rosy cheeks. Sadly, attendance was well down this year, with some people on holiday, others working and, unfortunately, one or two have not been very well or have suffered personal losses. We send our best wishes to Pea, Sally and Brenda and hope you all recover quickly and to Joy and Christine, we are thinking of you. We decided it is possible that quite a few people, with longer distances to travel, may have decided against coming this year due to the credit crunch and the price of petrol but, hopefully, we will see you all again next year and hope that all who came had a very happy and enjoyable day.
Our biggest regret is that we don’t have enough time to talk to adopters, fosterers, sponsors etc and so many apologies to anyone who didn’t get a chance to speak to any of us properly. We are thinking next year that we will probably scale down the number of classes to just those for IRR dogs and then run a separate show, open to all competitors, as a fund-raiser, at a different time of the year which should give us a lot more free time. We also plan to run our Photographic Competition at a slightly different time, with pictures still on display at the Reunion, but with prizes already gone out to all the winners which will save even more valuable time.
It was really great for people to see Molly and Monty in the flesh as, this year, Sandie came over by ferry from Ireland with Anne-Marie. She also brought dear Freddie, who is recovering from his op, then swapped him at Simon’s for her beloved Monty and she was able to bring two more of her own rescue dogs, Isabelle and Jessica too. Sandie, not being one to waste an opportunity, also brought over a lovely newly rescued boy, who is now in foster. Lorraine, of course, was also meeting and greeting as many adopters as she possibly could and, hopefully, having a much needed, relaxing time after a very difficult few months.
There are many people to thank for the success of the day and many apologies if I leave anyone out.
Firstly, in the planning stages, thanks go to Lynne Jones, Terry & Belinda McAvoy, Di James and Di Bowler and to Shelley Jennings. Also for all the artwork (posters, entry forms, prize cards, programs etc etc) Terry & Belinda are always there beavering away.
Many thanks to Amy, Anne-Marie, Katie, Mike and Nick for giving up your time to judge for us and for being so kind and friendly to all the competitors. Your stewards were also absolutely stars and we are very grateful to them.
Thanks also to Anne-Marie for doubling up as auctioneer, which you did brilliantly, and to Nick for giving us a wonderful talk with questions and answers on a holistic approach to treatment of our dogs.
Everyone really enjoyed being entertained by Helen with her IRR dog, Drake, and then more experienced Bernese Mountain Dog, Teal, showing their clever Heelwork to Music routines. Between the two performances, Lynne and Lola and Belinda with Connie (Drake’s mum) demonstrated a few of the more basic clicker moves from which such routines can be built up. Keeping it totally in the family, Connie’s son and Drake’s brother, Brian, then showed us, with Sandra, all his skill at agility as did the inimitable and much loved Stevie with simplified jumps, of course. We all find it totally awesome that a totally blind dog can so trust his handler that he will go round an agility course with ease so well done to Alison for all the hard work she has put in and for her total devotion to our Stevie.
Lynne did her Teddy Bear’s Picnic again (with help from Liz and Margaret) and she also helped Shelley (with Nicky & Jill) doing all the entries whilst Terry & Belinda were in charge of the Photo Comp aswell as running their merchandise stall with the help of Isabella and John. Di J and Di B did a brilliant job as photographers ably assisted by Nigel, who also doubled up as Book and CD seller with Cindy. Thankyou to Denise Fry for keeping an eye on me, bossing me about and pointing me in the right direction every time I lost something.
Jackie worked hard on the Sponsor Dog stall again helped by Sally whilst Ron was in charge of selling programs and handing out the goodie bags containing leaflets from our sponsors, food samples etc. Once again, apart from finding us so many generous sponsors, Wendy manned her gift stall and tombola all day helped by her daughter, Sue. The White Elephant Stall was, again, manned by Mary and Sal. Thankyou all very much.
Jane White, apart from putting together a wonderful goodie basket to raffle, doubled up as Microchipper (with Jan and Lorraine) and, with Malcolm, was also Pet Shop salesperson whilst Andy acted as minder to Sandie’s dogs for her so she could mingle and re-acquaint herself with many of the dogs she has rescued in Ireland. Gemma did the other part of the Pet Shop and Phil and Denise ran our Bottle Stall for us. Sandra ran the CHC stall and Pam was in charge of the Healing Tent assisted by Geraldine.
Once again Anne & Alan provided us with poles and rope for the rings which were put up, together with gazebos and tents by my husband, Steve, and by Mick who is recovering from illness. Many thanks to Owen and others for lending a hand with all this too, as well as setting up the Agility and Fun and Games for us. On the day Owen then manned the Agility for us, ably assisted by Sandra whilst the Fun and Games was, this year, run by Steve (Grist) and Simon. Tony put up all the signs and blew up millions of orange, white and green balloons. So “thankyou” to you all.
Thankyou to Pauline (not the bossy one) who brought her food stall and kept everyone well fed and to the other people who ran their stalls at our show which gave people other interesting things to look at ie Serenity, Gilly’s Gems and Angie’s cards.
Thankyou to Sandra for doing the CHC tombola and “Guess the Name of the Elephant” whilst my Mum did “Guess the Twin Teddies’ Name”. Esmeralda (the elephant) and Mac and Mabel (the twins) have now been successfully rehomed to Jan Barry and Hazel Payne. The lucky program was no: 27 and the delighted recipient of the beautiful Turtle Mat was Lynne.
Everyone lent a hand with clearing up and special thanks go to Anne and Trevor Tuck who, as our most experienced campers, were able to take charge of operations on Sunday and cut down on Steve’s work for him.
Everyone was delighted with all the wonderful prizes we had for our tombolas and raffles and as prizes for which we are indebted to our kind sponsors (as below).
Our eventual Best in Show winner, judged by Nick Thompson, was a very popular Ricky Granger who was adopted from us in 2005 by Julie. Ricky is no stranger to show success despite only having 3 legs and is a great character. Well done Ricky.