Yesterday we did our Christmas Meet and Greet for Greyhound Gap; usual spot - outside Northampton Pets at Home.

We turned up a bit before 10 o'clock so we could get all set up and ready and a couple of minutes later Lisa, our favourite pet sitter from Critterz Pets, turned up for an hour or so. And just after we had the stall all ready our mate Curly with his mum and dad (Ann and Norman) turned up too.


Lisa and Ann

Next thing, out comes one of the PaH staff and says "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave", apparently an organisation called NAT had also booked to collect here. - you can imagine our reaction. On further investigation it turns out that this booking was made at the store whereas we had booked with head office and confirmed with the store and that is the right way to do it; we dug our paws in - nicely mind. Then it was the manager's turn to talk to us and we told him the same story; you could tell he kind of agreed with us. And anyway, here it was nearly 11 o'clock and no sign of anyone from NAT and we were in full swing with Troy, Mack, and Rosie doing their stuff. So long story short, the manager agreed that it was their (PaH) mistake that had caused the confusion and we'd done the right thing. And NAT had booked both days so at least they had Sunday to collect too; we stayed.

And so did Lisa. She was only supposed to be here for a bit. Just after mid-day she decided she really must go, so she did. Not long after Curly and her mum and dad had to go too; turns out Norman is not very well - all The Beastly Beasts hope he gets better soon.


Lucy and me with Lisa

So that left the seven of us plus mum and dad. They were talking about something called the credit crunch (apparently it's not the same kind of crunch as in a decent treat) and not expecting as much as last year, but all day there were people coming up and putting money in the tins and having a stroke.

We'd been there a few hours and then it happened. Me, Jack, and Lucy had gone for a lie down to take the weight off our feet and Jack was resting his eyes too. Then dad's feet appear in among us. He'd stepped back and trodden on Jack's leg and a bit of skin was hanging loose. Mum got in flap - she's not best with this kind of thing. Dad put everyone else in the Beast Bus for a bit and lady, who had only done a First Aid course that week - not thinking her first patient would be a greyhound - helped and PaH came out with a First Aid kit. With Jack suitably bandaged up mum whizzed him off the emergency vets. Jack would like to thank the lady and the staff at Pets at Home that helped. He came home that evening with stitches, and nothing else is wrong with him - he's back to normal today.

We got out the van again and carried on, then Jayne and Marcus turned up (Jayne comes and lets us out for a wee if dad is out all day). They were sorry to hear about Jack, but mum got back while they were still there and she said he was going to be OK.


Mum Lisa and Ann

By now it was starting to get dark. Our plan was carry on until 4 o'clock. In the end we stayed until after 5 o'clock and I have to give Troy, Mack, Rosie credit - they were on their feet all day making a fuss of people. Jack (before he went to hospital) and Kai did there stuff and even Lucy and me decided to get a bit more involved this year.

We did notice a couple of things this year. There were still a lot of people who thought that what happened to many greyhounds in racing industry was bad, which is good, but there were also a lot of people who knew we made good companions for humans, quite a few who knew greyhounds that were living with humans, and quite a few who said they would get a greyhound when they next needed someone to live with - and that was music to our ears. We gave away load of stuff on Greyhound Gap; let's hope dad has some homechecks to do in the New Year.

So I guess you'd like to know how we, or rather Greyhound Gap, did. Once again the people of Northampton were really generous and donated £552.87. The Beastly Beasts are going to add a bit to that and make the total



We are dead chuffed with that (hope NAT did OK too). We'd like to thank everyone who donated, the Pets at Home staff, Lisa, Curly and her mum and dad, and the lady that helped Jack. We hope everyone has a nice Christmas and a happy New Year.