Frankie lands in Southport

A couple of things have happened since my last post, firstly Spookport came and went and secondly our pack was increased to four when we fostered a 6yo German Shepherd.

I also mentioned last month that i was intending on visiting the Blackpool Illuminations before it ended and i have to say that both Spookport and Blackpool were extremely disappointing and in no way lived up to my expectations.

The best part of the Blackpool trip was the dog walk around Lytham on the way there. It was weird looking over to Southport and seeing the Pier from a completely different angle and it was such a lovely night the sunset was breathtaking.

We drove into Blackpool and joined the queue for the lights and as it turned out foolishly expected to just drive through the Illuminations. We just sat there for ages without moving and when we finally did it was stop-start with the bias being firmly on the 'stop'. We gave up after an hour and about 400 yds as the Dogs were as fed up as the humans by this point. We saw a turn off and went on the look out for a chippy.

We tried a different approach from the North Pier later but it was just as chaotic. This was a Monday night, it was supposed to be dead. Let me tell you Blackpool was rammed and in a very healthy position despite what you may read about falling profits.

Spookport was a week long 'festival' of sorts in Southport with lots of little events taking place during half term for Halloween. They had a street parade planned for the Friday so i decided to go and support the thing and try and get some photos. Well i got there nice an dearly for the 6pm start and by quarter-past it had been and gone. It was poor to say the least and apparently folk came from all over the place to witness this well advertised event. I was embarrassed for Southport to be honest. I quickly went over to the Pleasureland to try and salvage the evening and took some photos of the fair rides.

Last Saturday we welcomed our second Foster dog to the family. We like projects as you know and this time Suzy chose a Romanian street dog to help. His name was 'Gallant' would you believe and is a 6-7yo German Shepherd. We later found his date of birth on his passport and it made him 6 and a half.

We were never going to call him Gallant so quickly changed his name to 'Frankie'. Hey he's Romanian he wont know what we are saying anyway!

Frankie has settled in well considering, at first he was unsure about being inside. He wouldn't move from the kitchen into other parts of the house and it was the second day before he made it into my office or the lounge. Four days in and he's laying on the spare sofa which is in my office and playing with Ben and Shadow like they have known each other for years.

Not sure what the future holds, i reckon he will easy to place but we haven't had him out for a proper walk yet. Suzy took him for a stroll and he was really good so doesn't look to be a problem there.

Thing is he's just about the perfect dog in some respects to what we would look for, so when do you decide if he's a keeper or not. It was the right decision last time to move Sabre on to a new home, he needed to be on his own to be spoilt by someone and from what we have heard thats exactly what has happened. This lad seems to want to be around the rest of the gang, he even tries to communicate with Sky, he gets no change just like the rest but he tries!

The next few weeks will tell us the answer but for now he's off the streets and being fed every day, he has a slight limp so we will investigate that but apart from being a bit slim he's looking good.