Perdie

Several weeks ago our Trustee and re-homing coordinator Christine Breden home checked a couple who live not far from her in Norfolk. They had not long lost their dog and wanted to adopt from us. They had had a Rescue Dalmatian before but not from British Dalmatian Welfare. They passed the home check with flying colours and went onto our waiting list.  At one point they almost got a dog from us but the dogs owners pulled out at the last moment and rehomed the dog themselves with a friend.

Since Christmas BDW have had very few dogs to rehome and so they looked around and found a dog in Scotland who was being advertised by our sister organisation Scottish Dalmatian Welfare. The dog a six-year-old bitch was in the city pound in Edinburgh, she had been in there for about three weeks. The owners had given her up because she was pinching food from their toddlers hands and they were not happy about it.

Lorraine coordinator from Scottish Dalmatian Welfare contacted us about their home check and was happy for her to be rehomed with the couple. So after a lot of e-mails it was agreed that Lorraine would take Perdie to Edinburgh station (after collecting her from the pound at 9am) and get on a train with her and come ‘south’!

The couple were not able to do the drive and meet Lorraine on the only day that Lorraine could manage and so it was agreed that Christine would take Perdie from Lorraine and drive her to her new home. Doncaster was originally thought of as being far enough ‘south’ but Christine explained it was over 160 miles each way for her to drive there and back in a day – 320 miles. Christine thought that it had been agreed that Lorraine would come further south like Newark but somehow Lorraine booked her tickets for Doncaster so Christine was in for a long drive! So she left home at 10.00am.

Well Christine said she should have known that things were only going to get worse! The signs were all there! Lorraine’s train was over an hour late getting into Doncaster because the overhead lines had come down. An hour out from Doncaster all the passengers on a very packed stationary train were all told to change to a diesel one and of course it was shorter and so it was standing room only! Poor Lorraine was worried sick – Perdie had been so good on the train ride so far and then to be hemmed in with all these standing people – well she need not have worried Perdie was just so good it was unbelievable – Having a dog on board must have made everyone smile or at least feel a bit better in spite the disruption she must have been patted by about 100 people Lorraine said.

Lorraine duly arrived an hour late at Doncaster station 4pm just in time for the rush hour. Poor Perdie was very thin – very hungry and had very little food or water and it was a warm day so was very thirsty as well. Christine had managed to get a parking space in the busy station car park and Lorraine gave her a short walk and we fed her a bit more and she drank another lot of water. Then Christine said she had to leave because she was going to have to drive a different way back from the route she had taken to get there because the A1 was shut and had been all day on the south bound side. Christine had seen the several miles of traffic on the other side on the way up.

So to avoid all the traffic Christine had had to work out a new route back and so she drove to Lincoln because that took her far enough east and away from the A1 and all the blocked local roads. That was fine – a bit long but not too bad but busier than normal – others must have had the same idea. Christine did not hear a peep out of Perdie she must have been so tired. Christine continued south on the A17. By now it was dark and Christine was not that sure where she was except the Sat Nav was clearly getting them both home.

Christine’s ordeal did not end there, somewhere she was chucked off the A17 and sent round all the houses ‘a road closure’ it did not say why and to top it all she was stuck behind a wide load going all along these B roads and small villages and of course because it was a wide load no chance of getting past it and also he had to stop when he met a lorry coming in the opposite direction and sometimes because the road was not wide enough he had to go up on the pavements. It was very slow he had large yellow lights flashing all the time and we were off the correct route for about 20 miles!

Eventually they were put back on the A17 and then the A47, no motorways up here and at some points its single carriage way as well. At 8pm still with about 20 miles to go Christine was beginning to wonder if Perdie had died in the back of the car as there had been no movement or noise! Then to her amazement she shook herself – those ears making the usual flapping noise and she knew she was ok. She wined a little but Christine told her not long now!

They duly arrived at her adopters home at 8.30pm and Christine took her in, she was so pleased to see real people in a real home – Purdie had been travelling for eleven-and-a-half-hours. She was fed a little then Christine left them to it as she had just about had it! She told them that because she was so thin they must not give her large meals four or five small meals each day – little and often for a while otherwise she would be ill.

Well three days later Christine went back to see how Purdie was doing and her adopters are so very pleased with her. She does as she is told gets on with their cat, is very good with being near their horses at a local stable and has been a model dog. Does not pull on the lead and she has already started to put a bit of weight on and has a lovely personality.

Christine found out from them that poor Lorraine had to change trains four times on the way home and did not get home herself until 9pm! So no earlier than Christine because she lives about twenty minutes from the adopters. Christine had driven over 358 miles.

Below are some photos of the lovely Perdie with her new owners in their garden. It was really nice to be able to help a dog get a new home and working with Lorraine was a real pleasure. Across the many, many miles we managed to get a really lovely dog that ‘forever’ home. So well done to Scottish Dalmatian Welfare for setting it all up it was a lot of effort on both our parts but it was certainly worth it.

British Dalmatian Welfare, North of England Dalmatian Welfare and Scottish Dalmatian Welfare work closley to find the very best homes for the Dalamatians in our care.

Christine Breden

Trustee and Coordinator.