Ten years ago today ....

... I rehomed my very first bulldog. Her name was Bella and we drove all the way to Great Yarmouth to pick her up from a lovely old lady who was moving into an old peoples home and needed to rehome her beautiful bulldog. No one had prepared me for the heart break that was taking someones well loved pet away from them, and I remember putting her in the back of our car and telling Dizzy to just drive. We had a tiny waiting list of no more that a handful of people and in our attempts to be organised we had set the journey up so we called in on her new home on the way back. Bella lived to a grand old age and eventually retired with the family we had placed her with to the Isle of Wight where she saw out her days.

Early April 2001, Olive Hunt rang to ask of we wanted to take over the running of Bulldog Rescue as they were moving to Tenerife. My initial answer was no and I joke that all I was meant to do was look after the phones for a fortnight whilst Fred and Olive went out to sort things out with their villa. During that two weeks I lost my Nancy (Shaloney English Rose) to a heart attack in a hydrotherapy pool, I remember sitting on the pool side talking to the lady about how I'd been asked to take on the rescue, she was heavily involved in a working dog rescue and warned me of the emotional stress it causes - nothing prepared me for what happened next though as I realised that Nancy was lower in her sling than normal, the rest is a blur of people rushing around trying to revive her and the bottom fell out of my world at that point. All our show dreams were in that dog, she was the sister of Shaloney Boy About Town who did well in the ring and a 22 month old bitch from our first litter having hydrotherapy for a shoulder injury after a stair gate fell on her when she was playing with the infamous Reggie Dawg.

In amongst all the grief and the realisation that my second litter wasn't going to happen quite as soon as I thought it would somehow I agreed to run Bulldog Rescue and life would never be the same again.

Looking back over the past 10 years there's been lots of highs and many lows. My children were young (only 11 and 12), we had three kennels which were my own, no paperwork, no waiting list and no access to the bank account, for those first few months we ran bulldog rescue out of our own pockets. I remember sat on the door step with my 11 year old son explaining what "quality of life" was after we'd had to put a dog to sleep. Nelly was found in a box in a garden in Liverpool by the new tenants of the house. No one knows how long she'd been there but her joints were seized, she was severely starved and was suffering internal bleeding - I'll never forget that moment for as long as I live.

Our first ever foster came in with dog number 6 - a beautiful brindle girl call Chips, she was Tom Sainsbury's first ever bulldog. The first heartbreak came with dog number 17 - Abbey who had moved on a home to home rehoming earlier in the day. Inexperience placed her with the wrong family who decided within only one hour they didn't want her after all. The trouble was she was in Bradford and I was in Sussex. The original owner wouldn't take her back so I managed to convince the new owner to meet me at Watford Gap services on the M1. At 9pm that night a car pulled into the car park and I knew something was wrong. I had my daughter with me who was only 12 at the time and in the back of the guys car was a dead dog, he claimed she simply stopped breathing. I cried all the way home with her on the back seat. She is the reason for the pebble memorial in the garden because it was my vet who gave me the proverbial slap around the face when I said I wanted to bury her in my garden - "she may be the first but she most definitely won't be the last" he said to me and so I reluctantly handed her body over for cremation and put the first pebble out along with her collar in her memory as I kissed her goodbye the tradition of the lipstick kiss began, the thought of her having no one that cared about her at the end was almost impossible to cope with.

My first ever Put to Sleep was a dog called Alfie in the August of 2001 (number 36) By now we had a handful of volunteers and a chap in Portsmouth was fostering him. Terry did a lot of car booting for us and had taken Alfie to a car boot where he proceeded to cause chaos which eventually ended with Alfie biting Terry quite badly on the arm. Thankfully I was only half an hour away and was able to get to the site quite quickly and get Alfie - that was an experience I hoped wouldn't be repeated too often - sadly I repeat that ending at least 5 times a year.

My first starvation case Emma (63) who belonged to a neighbour of an elderly couple of ladies in Kent, thanks to them we got her out just in time after several RSPCA visits had failed to help her. She went on to lead a very healthy and happy life in Seaford

Just looking down the list of dogs as I'm writing this is bringing back so many wonderful memories - Sherman (87) - the old chap who retired to live by the sea and who's children sent me a lovely picture they'd drawn of him on the sand with them. Ketchup (101) who was picked up by Vicky's partner at the time from a local boarding kennel where she'd been abandoned and saw a now familiar rendezvous at Watford Gap services. Pooch (122) who's owner thought it would be a good idea to withhold heart medication and not tell us she had a heart condition - 4 days later she collapsed - just as her new mummy was coming through the gate to see her. That all worked out fine though and the lady still adopted her.

By the following April I had overseen 114 rehomes. Little did I realise that there was at least another 9 years to go including Treacle (143) picked up by Jeanette and Trevor as a neglect case and who spent the rest of her life in a fantastic home - even playing the part of "Bullseye" in the school play. And Martha (161) who we bought from a junky in Birmingham for fifty quid. To feed a habit he took all the male "free to good homes" from the paper, mated them to Martha, forced her to free whelp (pulling the pups out with his hand if necessary) on the kitchen floor, selling on the male and the pups as quickly as possible. Her last litter had thankfully all died and I forget now how we got to hear about her but we did and she arrived here with mastitis and internal infections that should have killed her. She went on to live in a lovely village near Heathrow airport and every year at Christmas we'd get a fantastic card from her showing us just how well she was living now.

Cassie (169) who only had one eye who was here the same time as Butch (187) who had the oppose eye missing - shame we couldn't have taped their heads together and made a two headed dog LOL (joking obviously). Hatty and Dolly (214 and 215) or Hinge and Bracket as they became, the old ladies who's owners emigrated to Spain and who's memory will stay with us for a very long time.

Then there was Tessa, the first bulldog who I've ever heard scream in pain. Number 232 rehomed in May 2003 on a home to home and a prime example of how people lie about their dogs. Her ear infection was so severe she couldn't move without screaming and that night we went to see her and brought her back here in the middle of the night with a promise to her new mummy that I would make her better and bring her back. Thanks to my fantastic vet that's exactly what we did and the moment I walked back up that path with her was one of the most wonderful days of my life as their autistic son was so happy to see Tessa back from her "holiday". I can't think of many people that would have seen that rehome through to the end.

Max (291) put to sleep during surgery after a tumour was found in his bladder and here's a name you might recognised from April 2004 - number 332 was a dog called Molly and adopted by a certain Sue and Gav Phillips (the first of many)! Spud (382) who's serious bowel problem costs us a fortune in operations but who's new family loved so much they never once even though about giving up on him. In January 2005 was when we first met Peter and Beverly after they adopted Robbie (405) and Adrienne Llewellyn who adopted Phoebe (449). Helen Etherington with Bart (546) Glen and Amanda who came to adopt Dolly and took Colonel home with them at the same time (575 and 575) Adrian Ridley with Jade (643). The list is endless

But there's many dogs that have stayed with me, Douglas who died in his kennel following an epileptic seizure has been seen wandering the yard of a morning, and the many many bulldogs that have become personal pets including the infamous Winnie Pooh who's severe spinal issues led the vets to believe he wouldn't live any more than 6 months and who lived with us for 7 years. Buddy - the hydrocephalus pup who stayed with us for 3 months until he died, Billy and Bertie - the wonderful pups that arrived with severe demodex and who both sadly lost their battle, Maggie who after appearing on the Paul O'grady show in the Homeless dogs section ended up staying with me following a 6 hour operation that nearly took her. She died very peacefully in her sleep one Summer morning four years later in her favourite spot on the end of the sofa and of course now we have Reggie mark II, the pneumonia case who every time we discuss his rehoming decides to be really sick again.

So as we celebrate 10 years since that very first job, I'm filling out paperwork for adoption number 1200 - Cooper, the wee pup who arrived here with giardia and who's owner no longer wanted because the kids were scared of him. He was 11 weeks old!!! and following five days isolation went to be fostered by Dawn - who yesterday asked if she could keep him.

Here right now we've got Eddy, our £600 bargain currently being treated for demodex and starvation and Winnie Pooh's double - Spike with hemi vertebrae that no one has told him about, like Winnie he's convinced he's normal and the rest of the world are disabled.

So there we go, full circle and I'm sure I've missed loads of dogs out but I'd love to hear your stories on the dogs you have adopted from Bulldog Rescue - come on guys - fill in the gaps and give your bulldog a great big hug because they're not all so lucky.