Greyt dog meet

Hey Fwends. Guess what. Me (Cat Greyhound) is branching out to be a event organiser. yes that's right. I was doing some thinkings on Tuesday last week and I did thinking I would LOVE to meet with my fwends from the twitter and the facebook and so I did asking thems if they would like to do meeting and come visit some nice places with me too. So after some talking with my hoomans and some talking with my fwends. we decided that there will be a greyt dog meet (you like what I did there? Greyt. not great. coz I a greyhound. haha)

The first one will be in South Devon probably at the end of March. and people can do making it a mini holiday by staying in tents or a carafan and we will do walkings on the beach and paddling in the sea and eating ice creams and chips and sandwiches and maybe go to a nature reserve or a country park and do lots of snuffling and sniffing and I going to make goody bags (or doggy bags) for every hound that comes. I might even do games with prizes. The event is on the facebook. heres the link If you want to do coming then please click on "yes" for the event.

The other one is going to be in the Peak District. and again people can do staying in places like Hay House Farm  or camp at Bushey Heath Farm or some other places I'm sure. Again I will do goody bags for every hound that comes and maybe some games. And there will be walks and maybe a picnic and ice creams. The event for the peak district greyt dog walk is also on facebook and again if you want to come please click "yes" (The date hasn't been chosen for this one yet).

Walk by the river and pub lunch - Saltford.

Heard the hoomans talking about a trip yesterday morning - it was raining!!!

About 11 o'clock they started doing the behaviours that usually come before a car ride and an adventure - you know filling bottles of water, getting batteries for the camera, doing some writing of the magic words to put in the machine in the car window that says "turn left" "recalculate!"

So we got in the car (I brought my new pillow along for the ride) and we went up the same big road we do when I go see the dogtor but when we got to the end the road we went the other way. We went in to a big car park outside a pub. The pub was called "Bird in Hand" BOL funny. http://www.birdinhandsaltford.co.uk/

                                                                                         

So I did some sitting here in this garden with the hoomans and we all shared a blackforest gateaux muffin cake - yuuum!!! Then after a bit more there was more food. Hooman girl had a big pie thing with vegetables and a weird red gravy. There menu says this about it ... 

Hooman girls lunch

                                                                                                                                                     


                                                                                         VEGINNIA PIE (v) Our ‘Bird’ Chefs’made              Pie of goats cheese, roasted bell peppers,

red onion & sweet potato with a chasseur sauce

and hooman boy had a bacon roll and a coffee. 

Well we all shared the pie and I had some of the bacon too. It was all very very tasty and I could even chew some of the pie with my lack of teeth. The chips with the pie that hooman girl had weren't cooked proper but you cant have everything. Everything on the menu sounded yummy scrummy. No cheesy chips? really? boohiss (which is what the swans said). 

When we were done with eating we moved the car down the road a little (hooman girl did. me and hooman boy walked - we got there 1st) and went for a nice walk along the road that goes past the river. I saw men catching fish, and I saw swans and ducks and we met a lady with 2 dogs. one was a hound type but lurchery with maybe salukis in her. She barked ALOT because she was excited. You got be careful here though coz with it being a road there are cars and vans driving down it. The road goes all the way from the bird in hand pub along the river, past a boat shop and to another pub called the riverside which is next to a weir with narrow boats. Then we turned around and walked all the way back to the car. Stopping to talk to the barking dog and look at the swans which hissed at me. 

Nice walk for an hour by the river. Can make more of a day of it if you walked the Bristol - Bath railway path starting at Avon valley railway. Stop at the bird in hand for lunch. then walk down the river road to look at the swans and ducks. before walking back along the railway path to Avon Valley where you can have a coffee and snack before driving home. I'm sure there are other combinations of the route you can do too. Maybe walk it from the Bath end instead, etc. 

R.I.P Eddie 12/10/98 - 06/01/12

Unfortunately soon after returning from our new year adventure Eddie became unwell and had to go to visit with the vets. After much looking and talking the decision was made that all things considered (he was bleeding from his mouth but we didn't know what the cause of this was, he had previously had a bad reaction to anaesthetic and due to his age his back legs and hips were very sore and weak) it would be fairer on Eddie to have him PTS and Eddie went to rainbow bridge at 0830 on Friday 6th January. Age 13 years 2months. Thank you to all our friends, followers and supporters for sending their love and condolences to us.

Rainbow Bridge 


Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. 

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. 

There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. 

There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. 

The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. 


Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. 


The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown... 

Catty will continue to have some great adventures with the hoomans and will be writing on here about those adventures. We will also update the blog on our past adventures that we had with Eddie as well.

Donkey Sanctuary Sidmouth Devon

We 1st visited the donkey sanctuary in June 2011 and then again in the August. We have been several times since then and always enjoy our visits.

Eddie and Cat chillaxing at the Donkey Sanctuary!

When we 1st heard about the Donkey Sanctuary I thought it would just be a few stables with old donkeys in and some benches to sit on ... but it's so much more. 


There's a large area of land with many different walks and trails to do around the site. Various paddocks and barns containing Donkeys, Mules and I believe we have seen a horse or two as well.

Dogs are very welcome, though I think we are suppose stay on our leads, there is a water bowl outside the shop for us to have a drink, plenty of poop bins around the area and lots of things to sniff around the walks; as well as plenty of grass for us to have a lie down and enjoy picnics. 










There are lots of donkeys who are all very well cared for and are very friendly animals who love to be petted and hugged and are obviously very happy here. 

Cat and Little Pippa getting to know each other. 

You will find lots of info all around about the individual donkeys and their history, their breed and the donkey sanctuary it self.


Benches situated around park so you can sit and watch the donkeys, have a picnic, etc. Well stocked shop with souvenirs of your visit, stationary, stuffies, magnets, cards, etc. Dogs are even allowed in the shop (or atleast they didn't complain when I walked in to see what my hooman was up to on our last visit! Restaurant/ cafe on site although we've not used this. (I'm not sure about it's dog friendlyness!).
. 

Cat's enjoying her visit. 

Donation boxes are dotted around for you to give to the cause but there is no pressure to donate or sponsor animals but after seeing the place and meeting the animals you will most definitely want to donate something to the sanctuary. 

2 of my new fwends at the farm

Take the time to pop across the road to trowe farm and see the Donkeys over there. They are all older or special needs donkeys and dont get as many visitors as the main site. 






We all love the donkey sanctuary. Humans and Hounds. 5 out of 5 


http://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/

The beaches of North Cornwall UK

Widemouth Beach - 3 miles south of Bude.


Runs for 2 miles from Black Rock in the south to Lower Longbeak in the north. Black Rock is dog friendly all year round. Large car park, toilet, cafe and beach shop. Very popular beach which can get very over crowded in the summer. Great water for surfing and watersports (be careful at low tide due to riptides near the rocks.) Easy accessible but bit of a steep climb on the soft sand back to the car park.
This is a nice beach, it was very wet when we went here but it is a very large beach with lots of room for walking, running and exploring around the rocks. 5 out of 5. 




Summerleaze - Bude. 

Lovely beach. well loved by surfers and dog walkers. Beach cafe "lifes a beach" and RNLI shop next to the beach. Lifeguard patrolled in high season, easily accessible via slope or steps. Toilets next to the RNLI shop. Large car park (pay and display).

We liked this beach but it was quite small so not very much walking to be done. 4 out of 5

















Trebarwith Strand - Tintagel 

A lesser known beach near to Tintagel. There is no beach at high tide but during low tide there is a good amount of sand. Dogs permitted all year. Lifeguard patrolled in summer. During high tide its quite nice  to stand and watch the sea wash over the slate rocks which you can access from the surf shop near the Port William inn.
We enjoyed watching the sea and seeing it wash over the rocks (see video below) but as it was high tide we didn't get to go on the beach or in the water so cant comment on how good it is. 

More info on the beaches of Cornwall that are dog friendly can be found on Cornwall in Focus  (will open in new window) but these are the 3 beaches we visited whilst in the area. 

Cornwall for new year - Our campsite Budemeadows Touring park - EX23 0NA

Budemeadows Touring Park

Widemouth Bay

Bude

Cornwall. 

EX23 0NA                                           

We probably lost all senses we had left and decided go camp in our very basic tent in Cornwall for new years eve. We looked on ukcampsite website for a site that might be open for new year - not really expecting to find any - and noticed budemeadows was open year round. Great. 

Booking was very easy. We enquired via email first to make sure they were open and did have space available and then followed up with a phone call to book and pay for the pitch. 

We require to be near to the facilities due to one of the parties limited mobility and Budemeadows were very helpful in answering any queries we had and accommodating our needs. Once the pitch was booked and paid for - £12.50 for 2 adults, 2 dogs, one tent and one car for one night - the proprietors sent us out booking confirmation and detailed directions to the site (with 3 route options depending on if you wanted the shorter more complicated route or a route which is longer but uses main roads as opposed to lanes, etc).

On arrival you pull up to security barriers and have to leave the car to go in to reception to "check in" where you are told your pitch number and given info on the site and local area; including where the local supermarkets are and of course the site rules which are pretty obvious and reasonable - no noise after 11pm, speed limit of 5mph on site, dogs on lead, no unattended children in the pool that sort of thing. 

The pitch we had been assigned was completely waterlogged and so we were offered several alternatives and shown these to see which we thought best. All pitches were wet; after all it was the last day of December and we have had some pretty heavy and persistent rain lately. but having made a decision on where we thought best to set up; we were left to get settled in. 

The ground in predominantly clay and like I said was very wet but surprisingly; the pegs were not only easy to get in the ground they also stayed in the ground through some pretty intense winds during our stay.  We decided to go off site for a couple of hours to get some food (and get out of the wind which was trying its hardest to uproot the tent - I wasn't certain it would still be standing when we returned). Unfortunately whilst we were off site we had some heavy rain and the tent wasn't as waterproof as I had imagined so we returned to muddy puddles and a slippy-slidey pitch (obviously not Budemeadows fault though). 

Although we only stayed one night I had plenty of opportunity to try out the showers and launderette washing the mud off myself and drying out my clothes -first when we arrived after a walk in the rain with the dogs  and again in the morning when I realised my coat was soaked from the rain that got in to the tent overnight. 

Showers - spacious, hot (but easily temp controlled), clean (quite an achievement given the weather). 2 cubicles in women's and men's toilets. separate individual showers at the back but these weren't open in winter PLUS a wetroom in the disabled/family bathroom AND a separate fullsize bath. Hair driers mounted on the wall for use. All included in the price and unlimited usage. No rushing to wash your hair and rinse the soap out before the water cuts off. 

Left: Launderette. Gents toilets and shower behind
 Right: disabled/family bathroom with ladies behind that

Toilets/wash facilities - Again clean, hot water. several cubicles with both WC and sink plus other cubicles which just had the WC with the sinks outside as you would find them in a public bathroom. Hand driers. 

Launderette - 2 large washing machines and 2 huge tumble driers. didnt use the washers but they seemed reasonably priced. the tumble driers were (I think) £1 for 10 mins which is again a good price. especially considering you dont pay for anything else. 

Washing up facility - Large room, plenty of sinks to easily avoid a queue when the site in busy (and inside which I've never seen before - its normally a bowl of water outside the bathrooms at other sites I've stayed at.) Bring own washing liquid. 

Other facilities - Plenty of bins plus recycling bins. taps for your drinking water. chemical disposal points and grey water disposal points.

Outside play area - slide, connect 4, giant chess.

In high and mid season the site also benefits from having a swimming pool, shop, bar and games room. plus an outdoor play park and games area with giant chess, table tennis, etc. It also (again in season) sales food and drink to eat in or take away. 

Plenty of leaflets, info packs in reception on all the local areas, taxi companies, take away menus, pubs, restaurants, etc. 

Nearby to local attractions- cinema, soft play, swimming pool with flumes, bowling, plenty of beaches, surf school, fishing, rock climbing, etc. Short drive from major tourist attractions country parks, zoo's, museums. Near to port Isaac, Bodmin Moor, and other major towns. 

Bar in wifi enabled, no min stay rules on site and you can arrive/leave any day of the week so dont have to stick to traditional sat - sat or mon - fri/ fri - mon holidays. 

Games room

Great location, friendly staff, great facilities onsite especially in peak season, fantastic prices. Lovely area. Got to give the site 5 out of 5. The weekend 4 out of 5 because of the sheer amount of wind and mud but I didn't expect sun at the end of December. We will be back I'm sure when the weathers warmer and drier. Thanks for a lovely weekend.  

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