A stray dog beats more training updates

Well so much for great plans huh?

After the 4 miles in Heaton Park sunshine on Thursday I knew the forecast wasn't great and the idea of doing another 4 miles on Friday evening, Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon got washed down the drainpipe so I reverted to the gym but clearly not for 4 miles given they close at 8pm on a Friday and 3pm on a weekend (I do actually support the idea that their employees would like a bit of a weekend as well). This post though starts with Saturday and the tale of a lovely dog.

After the gym on Saturday morning (oh before I forget, thank you to the Flanagan family for adding £5 to the pledge sheet that Iveridge Hall have so kindly put up, as well as all the previous pledges of course) I just had time to get home, freshen-up and collect my eldest from her morning team meeting before we were due at my Mums for lunch. At least that was the plan but as we drove along Canal Lane we saw a black Cocker Spaniel wandering aimlessly up, down and across this busy road.

A car slowed to avoid it, a lorry had to brake and wait to see were it wandered and I was hoping the little thing would hop onto the pavement and disappear back from where it came .... but no .... and it remained in serious danger of being squelched.

Years ago we had a black cocker Spaniel called Pepsi (see below) mad as a bloody hatter she was ......

circa December 2003

..... and so there was an extra little bit of affinity with this dog's plight, no  more so than when Bex said "Dad we have to do something". There was a plea as well as a statement in there so we pulled over in the drizzle and she leapt out of the car. She picked up the dog (pretty heavy and clearly in need of some exercise) and walked back to the car with it, her sports hoodie damp from the rain and the wet fur, the dog looking calm but slightly bemused.

"Help, it's flipping heavy" she mouthed so I got out of the car, opened the boot and placed an old towel in the centre of the tyre I still had in there from Heaton Park. We placed the dog inside the tyre (bit like a rubber basket I guess) and I began to call a variety of organsiations to ask her help as the poor thing had no collar on. The dog just looked up at me totally unphased and unemotional as I stroked it under the chin and tickled it's ears as if to say "Dunno what you're doing Mr, not sure I've ever had this done to me before. Can you tell me where I am?".

After Becky had knocked on a few doors and I had spoken to the Police, a dog warden and finally Wakefield Council, we got support from a guy who worked for them and we agreed to meet him so he could take the dog into care.

In the meantime Becky insisted on texting her sister to tell her; cue the flurry of texts and messages "Can we keep  it if no-one else wants it?". I even had Lucia texting me from Ireland saying she would have also wanted to keep the dog but no, Mr Sensible realises it was a calm cute dog but it needed daily love and attention, regular exercise and (like all Cocker Spaniels) it had a 'smell. It's just not something I could commit to.

Stop it with those sad doggie eyes will you?!?!

Lauren had hoped we could have taken the dog home first to show her and she gave me her best fake drama-queen impression (with a smile) as she said "You gave my dog away" but we all realised that no, we really wouldn't be able to ensure someone was at home every day to walk the dog nor poop-scoop etc etc but yes I will ring the Council on Monday to find out if the dog was chipped and the owner found.

Other than that the weekend has been training, confirmation from Mark at the human-size snowglobe company that I can have a free photo in November inside one of their snowglobes; probably in the Manchester area but central London is also a possibility (Peter, start planning your fundraising and Stephen, start searching for a penguin outfit for yourself) and now I have to set-up my new printer and have 15 e-mails to write.

You know it never fails to surprise me how much time it takes (and money) to do all this Trek stuff. The only consolation is that if I think THIS takes a lot of organising just WAIT until I start planning the 2014 challenge; a 7-seater circular bicycle doing an A-Z tour of Europe, and I'm finding that prospect pretty exciting already!

(Photo from http://www.conferencebike.com/)

One challenge at a time Geoff, you're a long way off the £100 000 donations total so let's put the effort into that first. Speaking of which I have a few more ideas: -

- Piccolino's in Sheffield, Restaurant Bar & Grill in Harrogate and a restaurant in Leeds are all happy to support a fundraising evening

- PPiK (the indoor karting people) are happy to talk about an event

- There's got to be something we can do at the SnoZone at Castleford surely (by the way, their PR agency STILL has not contact me despite Emma's efforts)

- In terms of PR exposure, Virgin Money Giving is going to feature me on their blog and Co-op Financial Services have an internal UK-wide magazine that will carry a small article; they will both be interesting as will the efforts of Tottenham Hotspur FC to feature me in their matchday programme (one before and one after the Trek). Hmm need to buy an updated Spurs scarf as the one I've got still has Hoddle, Ardiles and Crooks on it - err, awkward

Right, better get on then. I'll be back on here sometime next week