Our Coffee Morning at Co-operative Funeralcare where Babz works, was a great success. Because Wear Valley & Darlington Cats Protection, Ark on the Edge, Kays Hill Animal Sanctuary and Stray Aid are all overflowing with unwanted animals, we decided that we would try to make this event a really good one and they could all share the proceeds. We had so many people in at one time that the room we use for events was overflowing into the corridor and into Babz office too.
We had been a bit worried that not many would turn up, two elderly friends Tommy and Aileen, who always support us were poorly, another two friends Kath and Carol had hospital appointments and our friend Sue who along with her two daughters is a volunteer at Ark on the Edge, had a fall and badly hurt her wrist. She was going to run the tombola for us. Thankfully the two friends who always help us, Bryan who washes up and Pearl who sells the raffle tickets, came with Pearl’s auntie Joyce in tow and she agreed to help us out. Walter and Jozef had co-operated by coming in so we could have a good early start and we had everything set out by 10 o clock and even time for a cup of tea.
The people just poured through the doors, we had two small busloads of physically or mentally disabled, so quite a few wheelchairs around. Babz was rushed off her feet doing her usual daily job along with being hostess, I was to and fro with cups of tea and coffee and then along came Dylan the celebrity cat, with Chris who adopted him from Ark on the Edge.
It was lovely they came on behalf of one of the four Sanctuaries, even coming by bus because Sue who hurt her wrist had been going to drive them. Dylan wasn’t at all phased by his journey or all the people around when he arrived, he happily strolled on his harness amongst everyone and posed for lots of photos.
For anyone who hasn’t read about Dylan before, he is stone deaf and he goes all over with Chris, raising money for charities.
He’s such a lovely chunky boy, his fur is very soft and he just loves everyone he meets. He sat on the lap of Sharon Griffiths, a local celebrity who is an author and long standing journalist, she came to judge the Easter egg competition. We didn’t envy her the task, there were so many entries and all very attractive, there was an Edward Scissorhands and even a Wayne Rooney, everyone enjoyed seeing all the entries and the judging of them.
The morning went on and people came non stop, another friend Colin, who couldn’t come, sent a £20 donation along, everyone was very generous. Emma Jane brought us some hand made cards to sell and some of her knitted catnip mice, Dylan loved his, we bought two for our own boyz and they went mad over them when we gave them to them last night.
Babz area manager Jenette came along, she’s a lovely lady, she calls me an honorary staff member because I usually help Babz with charity stuff on behalf of the firm.
We had a laugh when it quietened down a bit. As you can imagine Babz and I were desperate to stroke and cuddle Dylan, we posed for our photos with him and Sharon but I got cast in the floor lol my poor old worn out legs just wouldn’t work and it took three to haul me up because I got the giggles which made it worse. I’m glad Babz didn’t have the camera handy then!
When all calmed down we had the raffle and then the count up, the total was £197 and Sharon kindly made it up to £200 even though she’d already donated and bought two catnip mice for a friend’s cat. She’s such a lovely lady, Babz and I hadn’t actually met her before but she knew of us because of what we do and also a few years back she awarded Babz ‘the bouquet of the week’ via her column in the Northern Echo.
After it was all over, the clearing up began, I came home after I’d done as much as I could but Babz was another two hours, tackling the lists of winners etc and then her usual paperwork she hadn’t had time to do yet.
Walt and Jo were happy to see me, they burst out the door demanding to know why they had been shut in so long. By the time Babz arrived home they had been out and fed and settled again, so we caught up a little bit on phone calls and messages, finding out how the poorly friends were and telling them how it all went.
It was hard work, the older we get the harder, but well worth it, we are very pleased with the result because £50 for each Sanctuary will buy a good lot of food for all the animals in care. But we couldn’t do all this without the support and generosity of our friends, we are lucky to have such a wonderful community spirit around us.
Happy Easter everyone.
This is a lovely write up by Sharon in our local newspaper, it’s a shame she didn’t mention Dylan but she’s not really a cat person, she did well to have him on her lap for a photo.
Well done. Love this.
Thanks Michael, we couldn’t do it so well without all the support we get from friends and from our local community.
page1 i did with permission from ruth.
Thank you Kylee, your scrap pages are lovely, you are so very clever doing these, I love the borders and the surroundings. You could illustrate books with your talent!
hi there thanks for that. I just use kits from different scrapbooking material that have cats and other things. Its great to be able to contribute to such a worth wise cause. Just wanted to show the others as well. It helps getting a good comment as it encourges me on. 🙂
Yes you must keep on Kylee, don’t let your talent go to waste xx
ill try and do some more had a bad nite last nite, think i might had a mini seizure but rest assured im ok. Think just was over stressed and worried and over heated. Went off to bed and had an early nite and slept well
Take care Kylee, give yourself a rest sometimes xx
yea i had a good rest last nite. ill be ok 🙂
just two scrap pages i did with permission from ruth
Last pic, I promise lol, the winning eggs!
Me where I usually am every chance I get, on the floor with any cat who is around lol I just had to take a break from being tea lady to get down with him…..then I couldn’t get up lol had the room in stitches
Lovely picture. Very sweet. Dylan is so loved and cared for so tenderly.
Chris is such a lovely lady, she along with Dylan does so much for charities
The backbone of Britain! The salt of the earth. People like Chris do so much that is good and don’t receive enough recognition, I believe. She is getting it here though.
Standing room only
Bravo, cool sisters! That spread looks fantastic. I’m still hungry for a scone and cake! Congratulations. A labor of love I know. In the end, it is always worth it. I love Dylan, the star. But going home to your own is the richest reward. Congratulations on great success.
Thanks Dorothy, we were very grateful that Walt and Jo both came back from their morning rounds early so we could get a good start and we brought them a catnip mouse a friend had made each for their reward. It’s lovely that Babz has a few days off now and ten days holiday soon too, we just love spending time with our boyz, although they are a bit miffed with us as we’ve mowed the lawns this afternoon and they liked playing wild cats in the long grass lol
Leanne of Kays Hill is fund raising today at Pets at Home so we met her there and bought their share of cat food, we had a £3 off voucher so got £53 worth for their £50 share 🙂
Pic of Babz and Leanne and the trolley full of food
An industrious duo 😉
Dear Ruthie and Babz:
I was floored by the great essay and glorious pix. And the pastries! There’s nothing under this roof but water and toothpicks. Can’t cook a thing. If you wanted to be halfway nice,you’d come over here and feed me! You’d get free rent! There are many animal sanctuaries on the coast, and two gorgeous cemeteries. People are dropping like flies around here, and Babz would have a years-long career. You could live upstairs in your own bedrooms, both with views of the woods and river and bay and the sunset over the ocean. The Boys would have a tempting attic to inspect(which my kids loved), and 14,000 sq. ft. of house, orchard and temperate rainforest vegetation to explore. NO barking Rots! NO neighbors nearby! Nobody but the…well, you know who…who’d be happy to give us the thrill of a lifetime when we ventured out front to mow the grass. This house is now catless, and empty as a sucked egg. You and your family could come on over and cheer up things a mite.
Jumping Jehoshaphat! Two hundred lbs. isn’t that shabby! Doesn’t that translate into @ $300? It’s unbelievable all you’ve both done, and you must be Shildon’s most prominent citizens. You’re both goodhearted to the nth, and I’ll tell you how much I admire you next time I write. Will mosey on up to the library tomorrow, Ruth, unless it’s pouring. No e-mail, as usual. So what else is new? xxxxx
(Dylan…such a stunning little Wee…)
Sylvia, you live in an enormous home! It sounds fantastic. Perhaps one day we (the Brits) will come over and stay in the place for a short while 😉
Thanks Sylvia, yes Dylan is absolutely gorgeous, it doesn’t bother him at all being amongst people, it was lovely to see him have a little snooze in his carrier so trustingly too then he was back on duty all refreshed. Chris is a really lovely lady, so very pleasant, Ark on the Edge was well represented.
Oh thanks for the invitation, we’d so love to live in the wilds of wanny in your big house with you, no barking dogs would be bliss, if we’d been younger and our boyz younger too we might have taken up your offer.
Looking forward to your email when you get to the library but don’t worry, take care of yourself now xx
fast asleep
wow very impressed!! Looks great You guys done so much, great you raise 200 pound which im not sure it is in nzl dollars but i would say it be alot it be double as much. Good on you guys!!!
Thanks Kylee, no I don’t know what it is in your dollars either but £200 buys about 500 big tins of cat food, so will fill some furry tummies for a while xx
i researched it and in nzl dollars it was $391.196 in nzl dollars so thats quite alot of money. i thought it would be alot of money as nzl money is usually alot more. So congrats.
Fantastic! What you did is impressive!! Thanks so much for your big caring hearts! xox Natalie
Thank you Natalie, it was hard work but we did enjoy it x
What a great time Dylan and i had. Well done to both of you, we are so proud to be your friends.xxx Awesome.
The Innovations group that were there, have asked Dylan to go and visit them. No problem at all with that for us. x
It was lovely to see you and Dylan, true dedication to come by bus! The Innovations kids loved him didn’t they! In fact everyone loved him 🙂
You two pulled off something that will live in the hearts of many for a long time.
Hard work and dedication really do pay off.
Take a little rest, girls.
A job well done!
Yes I think that was the Coffee Morning of all Coffee Mornings, we were amazed at the amount raised in our tiny town and some people hadn’t much to spend poor souls but the ones who had were very generous. Both your blue bunnies went to good homes 😉
Rest day tomorrow we hope, still catching up now xx
I trust that my blue boys went to good homes like you said.
I keep going back to all of this because it’s so wonderful and I smile all the way.
I love that Babz desk is a mess, but that bottle on it probably helped ease the stress. LOL! And, she has some time off. It’s kind of like “spring break”.
Such a nice ending to a perfect event.
Rest and have fun. Next time is just around the corner.
Thanks Dee, the bottle of port was given to us by a kind new friend but as we don’t drink port we added it to the raffle prizes with her permission and someone who would enjoy it won it.
Babz likes a whisky and lemon for her treat and mine is a gin and tonic 😉
Sherry or port = a headache next day.
We’ve had a hectic weekend catching up on housework and gardening and all the aftermath of the CM but a bit of a rest too.
Babz is back to work to 4 funerals this week but THEN….10 glorious days of freedom in which her BIG birthday comes.
Just wishing the retirement age hadn’t gone up, we would be so celebrating her freedom after all her hard work.
Beautiful.
Poor, Babz. How many more years will she have to work?
Another 5 and 1/2 years to work and it’s very worrying because her osteo arthritis is very painful at times, she’s suffering right now because the furniture was heavy to move for the CM and I’ve been up today to help her put it back to rights as she’s so busy with bereaved families. All the eggs from the competition were to sort out too for people who wanted them back, honestly those eggs have been more trouble than the bonnets last year lol She’s quite demented this week with so much to do and I can only really help with some of it so it will likely be midnight Friday by she gets home!
But then she will be free to have a rest and we plan some nice trips out and on Monday, her birthday, we will go out for lunch, she doesn’t want a fuss with it being her John’s Anniversary too, so just us. Sharon who judged the egg competition writes a column on Fridays in our local paper, if we get a mention I’ll post it on here, she did enjoy herself but went home with her posh clothes mohaired from Dylan lol
I gotta say that both you and Babz do amazing work! You must have some inordinate inner energy that keeps you going to do this, although it is for sure a labor of love. I loved seeing the photos! Almost made me feel I was there. The cakes and scones. oh my.
You guys ROCK!
Thanks Jo, boy was it hard work this time, still recovering lol but it was worth it
Yet another amazing event for 4 local animal rescues by two amazing ladies who have a heart of gold, and I am very pleased to say my friends. You both really do your best and put 110% into all your events xx
Thanks Susan, we were just sorry you couldn’t come, hope your wrist is not as painful now xx
It was a lovely day, so glad that we were able to raise enough to buy a decent amount of food for each place, I was so pleased when Sharon Griffiths agreed to judge the Easter egg comp, I’m certain that it made more people enter the competition and definitely brought more people to the event, she’s a really nice person and we all enjoyed her company, we also had the adorable Dylan who made himself quite at home, I’m sure I heard someone asking Chris if he was available for adoption and her rapid NO reply, no he is home for good with Chris, they obviously love each other a lot. By bedtime last night I was shattered, I’d woken up at 4am and never got back to sleep for worrying about the day ahead, and I know Ruth was also ready for her bed having worked hard towards it all the week, but it was all so worth while, thanks to Sharon, Dylan, friends and our local community, also several visitors from other nearby towns it was a great success.
A huge effort. I’m not surprised that you were both exhausted but what a great day and I have to say it again that I am really really impressed by the amount of money you have raised for animal welfare.
Thank you Michael, yes we are very happy with the result and so are the four Rescues.
It really was overwhelming this time, we could have done with a room four times as big!
Just catching up with ourselves today, our poor house and garden have been neglected, it’s nice Babz has two more days off yet, then work for four days, then 10 days holiday in which she has a BIG birthday 😉
On behalf of all our animals here at Ark on the Edge we thankyou for what you have done for us at your event yesterday. So pleased that above all everyone had a good time and enjoyed themselves and Dylan did to.
Kind regards
Pat Ark on the Edge
I am very impressed. You both put a lot of effort into this event and you pulled it off. To raise £200 is a wonderful effort and achievement. They are a great bunch of people up there who attended and donated their money and as usual Dylan is super. The photographs are charming. It is amazing to see so much direct effort going into helping animals. There aren’t many people who are so motivated and committed to animal welfare as both of you are.