Where does the time go?

There is one thing about being so involved with BIN, you never get bored, there just isn't time!

If you read the blog regularly you will know that Lisa and Mandy bought me a new foster dog on Sunday, his name is now Sonny, new life, new name. That is him on the left, he is such a lovely little fella, but so very active, he has obviously not had any training so I have been spending time with him teaching him a few manners and we are getting somewhere.

He has spent most of his life in a cellar and I think that now he is out in the wide world he doesn't want to be enclosed again. His kennel has a lovely spacious sleeping area with a bed and cushions and blankets, however, he drags them out into the run part and lays on them out there, not the best thing to do when it has been raining, it means my washing machine is on the go constantly to keep up with a supply of dry blankets. If anyone knows of an old working twin tub hidden away somewhere both Lisa and I could do with one for our kennel dogs, the constant use of our own washing machines isn't good for them and our own clothes are all embedded with dog hairs !!

I have also still been busy getting diaries, calendars and other merchandise ready for posting. Printing labels and getting packages ready is quite time consuming, so the shop system is shortly to be changed. I shall be in charge of getting the merchandise but it will be going to Helen in the main for her to distribute it, this should give me much more time for embroidering the t-shirts and other items, she will then keep a stock and when a certain garment is getting low on stock I can replenish it. Hopefully this will mean you will get things much more quickly.

I have several new designs coming out for this summer, one to look out for is a Hawaain bullie pup, with shirt and shades on, this will be on the front of the t-shirts and on the back is the rear view of the pup with shorts on!! This is a smaller version of the designs. Don't ask me for them yet though because it will be a few weeks before they are ready

I also start the preparations for the fun day now, it may seem a long way of but certain things have to be booked early otherwise they are difficult to come by. I will try to get an ice cream van that will actually turn up this year! The firm we usually use were all booked up last year so I tried a different one, unfortunately vandals broke in wrecking some of the vans a few days before the fun day and they didn't let me know, so on one of the hottest days of the summer we had no ice cream, if I had known I could have made alternative arrangements. The poor girl who usually brings the dog wash broke down on the way so there was nothing we could do about that. And of course the usual venue couldn't be used because with all the rain the farmer had been unable to get the grass cut in time, all in all a bit of a stressful time, but it all went ok on the day, apart from all the gazebos being wrecked in the wind of course.

Another task that takes up a lot of my time is replying to e-mails, I get many each day asking for information on aspects of BIN, I usually reply to them in order of urgency, unless a 2 or 3 word answer will suffice, so if you send an e-mail to me and don't get a reply for a while don't worry I do usually get round to them eventually, if you don't get a reply in a few days do please send again because it may mean it hasn't actually got to me. I don't often ignore them, only if someone is being downright rude (yes I do get ones like that too).

I also now take the general enquiries phone calls, this frees Lisa's time up a bit for the rehoming related calls, some people call at funny times to ask the most peculiar questions! One day I will collate a few of them for your amusement! Of course I would never laugh at the genuine calls, as some people do get concerned over things that to me seem normal, but I mean the sort of things that aren't related to what we do at all.

At the beginning of the week I had an electrician and his apprentice here for a couple of days, they were putting a new fuse box in and then the supply out to the kennel, they couldn't have picked a muddier time to do it, they had to dig a channel to put the cable in and now I have more of a bog at the back instead of a lawn, at least there is now heating and lighting in the kennel though and that is the main thing. It is done just in time for the next occupant due here in the middle of the week - watch this space.

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Have a great weekend and give them bullies a big cuddle from me!