'The Numbers Game' at the end of 2017

Well Christmas is over for another year, the sales are on and millions of people are taking their presents back and getting something they actually wanted.

We deliberately had a quiet one in 2017 and we enjoyed a few days of just us an and the dogs, the batteries are recharged and we are ready for 2018 and all that may bring to our doorstep! The Christmas period itself is quite special as we celebrate the big day on the 25th, my birthday is on Boxing Day and then our wedding anniversary is on the 27th, so although we may not have the house full of visitors its still a nice time of year. For the record I was 57 and we celebrated 4 years of marriage.

This year we had 5 dogs with us as our new foster Leo is with us and becoming more of a character as each day passes. He came as little terrified 18 month old boy who had never stepped foot inside a house, you couldn't even stroke him without him cowering away, god knows what he has been through.

Anyway we have had him over a month and things are progressing nicely, he was 16kg on arrival and has put on 2kg since he was eating properly.

Suzy has got him to walk on his lead and we have recently bought him a new harness now that he is behaving outdoors. Last week we took him to the beach just for a stroll along with Frankie and Sky and he was enjoying himself so much we ended up letting him off lead with the others. The beach was deserted so we felt the time was right. He scampered off to play with Frankie and loved every second of his new found freedom, I have to admit it was quite an emotional moment for Suzy to see him change so much within such a short time. Hopefully he will continue to improve and maybe one day will be able to be rehomed.

We have had a month off working on the house although we have spoken about the kitchen maybe taking preference from the garden so I expect to be sorting that out early on in the new year. New sink, cooker, units and worktop all required and hoping to do most of it myself although we will have to call the gas board in to sort out the old cooker which needs disconnecting as we are going full electric.

I have to say 2017 has been a decent year overall, we have successfully fostered three dogs with many more to come now we have got a good point of contact and plenty support available. You feel a bit lost without a proper rescue behind you.

2018 will no doubt bring fresh challenges and we both fear that could mean health related issues on both sides of the family, also our Sky is not getting any better with her lung problem and once that gets uncomfortable we wont let her suffer at all. So a funny year ahead, it nice to be positive but we are in a situation where we have to be realistic too.