 |
|
2009 Sponsored dog Walk On Sunday 14th June, we held our annual sponsored dog walk at Trent Park, Cockfosters. The event attracted over 80 people and around 90 dogs. We raised nearly £500 on the day but with the collection of sponsorship pledges the total raised is fast approaching £2,000! Many of the picures you see were kindly taken by Paul Loader. Paul is a long-time supporter, who worked at the 'old' Markopoulo shelter way back in 2001/02 and accompanied 56 dogs to the UK on 3 separate trips. 4 'old-timers' were at the 'walk', including Paul's and Titch's Dixie and Zorba, 11 year old Shep and his old friend Jessica were also there. I was involved in the rescue of several of the dogs who were at the walk and to see them so happy and healthy does make me feel like a proud 'mother hen'. Shep was one of these dogs, way back in 1999, when he was skin & bone and chained to a rusty old tractor, with no food or water in sight. Our Kali was also very thin and in season when I saw her being chased by a pack of males in Halkidiki in 2003 and there's dear Kalos, who would not be here today had he not been rescued during my last year's visit to Greece. |
|
Alas, the dogs who attended the dog walk are the lucky ones. Too many other poor strays in Greece can only dream about the life these dogs have. Of course we have homed many more dogs than were brought to the walk, but for some people it's too far to travel, while others had previously arranged commitments. Of the 90 or so dogs who were at the 'walk', (many are missing from the photos below, sorry if yours is one of them), but those which are included .... well, they speak for themselves! Note how many dogs are the 'hunting breeds'.....used, abused and discarded by their original 'owners' and by the time they were rescued, many were close to death. A big THANK YOU to everyone who joined us and helped us to make it such a fun day and our most successful to date. We hope to see you all again next year! Vesna Jones |
 |
 |
To view many more pictures from the event please CLICK HERE