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I was just looking at the last blog entry - yes I know it was way back in July - and it's sad but we lost Gretal (the white chicken in the video) to one of the local Buzzards, in the early hours of a Thursday morning, poor Gretal was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and although I suppose I don't really blame the buzzard, I am trying to understand that it's nature and her babies have to eat, I'm not ashamed to say there's a small part of me that wishes it was someone else's chicken. Needless to say poor Hansel was beside herself but doesn't seem to agree that Gretal 2 looks exactly the same, there's also a third bird who Katie has called Cruella

So much has happened, Annie and her boyfriend Matt (or should I say fiance, bearing in mind he proposed to her on day 4) did her 4 day walk across the Downs for Bulldog Rescue and raised over £700!!! And of course the annual Bulldog Picnic which took place on Saturday, raising a staggering (and record breaking) £4,000

Edward made a guest appearance and boy what a difference a few months make, we are now on the road to a new home and we are all hoping (except Annie) that he will be leaving the kennel very soon as he was an absolute super star and surprisingly increadibly famous!

What a manic few weeks the picnic is though, the week before I can't do any of the routine rescue work, so all the rehoming, new listings, applications and banking goes by the wayside whilst I spend the week making sure everything is where it should be and all the lose ends are tied up. Then of course the week after is all the catching up and tail chasing that's inevitable when the day to day stuff is a week behind. The hardest part of the day itself is all the lugging about, but once it's all set up it's pretty much handed over to everyone else to run and enjoy and at this point I really do just sit back and enjoy the show, it is such an amazing event that just gets bigger and bigger every year, and it astounds me the number of really healthy pet bulldogs that cope brilliantly with the crowds, the weather and the shear number of other bulldogs. Ever year we have a local vet on call and qualified canine first aiders on site - we have never needed the vet, I can only recall three dogs in 14 picnics that needs cooling or treating for stress, such a shame the likes of Jemima Puddleduck couldn't be there to give her something positive to write about the breed for a change. In fact the unhealthy one is me! As a CFS sufferer it really knocks me for six and today (Wednesday) the entire picnic has really hit me like a brick! CFS is one of those things that is still debated amongst the medical profession as to if it's real, for those that suffer this, ME or PVFS as it is sometimes called, will tell you it is very real and there are many out there that suffer much worse that I do. I'm not convinced that Rescue isn't the reason I've got it in the first place, as although I do recall suffering bouts of extreme exhaustion from as far back as my college days, the relentless effort required to run the charity as well as the business, home and family caused what I guess was "burn out", but I won't give in to it and have learnt the art of "pacing" over the years and the art of ignoring telephones or having a laydown and refusing to talk to anyone if I reach the point where it's necessary. It doesn't always go down very well, especially with the person who really needs to talk to me to see if her on line application she did this morning has come through OK, but hey ho!

So as we begin to get life back on track in the week the kids starts to go back to school, we begin preparations for the deluge of Bulldogs that will soon be requiring their new homes .... so keep an eye on the web site, if you have been unlucky so far with your applications then keep trying - sooner or later the right dog will be there and it will become apparent why you weren't successful on the ones you applied for so far when that perfect little squishy face lands on your doorstep.