HELPING HANDS ERRAND AND PET SERVICE

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What a great festive season we have had here at Helping Hands. Thank you for all your gifts and cards, we have been very spoilt again. We hope your pets liked what Santa Paws left for them!

This weather has made christmas and new year feel very magical. On one of our dog walks on New Years day we were in Saltwell Park in Gateshead, there were lots of families and couples enjoying snow ball fights and having a stroll, the park looked wonderful. The dogs love the snow, except little kym, she only likes it when its soft.

Ive decided to stop writing my Quick chat / blog. It was lots of fun writing them for 2009, instead I will be having a "quick chat " to my site members with a monthly newsletter. Ive received lots of feedback about my blogs from clients and website visitors, not all of it good...

( Oooops it seems I offended some of the other services out there ) but im glad you enjoyed my little rantings. Ive just joined Twitter, just to see what all the fuss was about and so i could read Celeb Big Brother tweets...and its really funny, im not sure if i like it or not! I do like the fact you can follow your favourite celeb and catch a bit of gossip, but i could imagine it to be very time consuming....so i wont be Tweeting.

So thats it for the quick chats....Thanks for reading them.

Best wishes

Dawn

Hello!

Well the end of the year is nigh....and what a year its been. I have had a wonderful time running Helping Hands with the help of my staff and family. Right from January we havent stopped. I thought things would go quiet in the new year of 2009 but it didnt ( much to my delight ).

We employed Amy back in January as our weekend worker and what a great member of staff she was, she did eventually have to leave us to start her career as a doctor but she stayed working for us much longer than she thought she would as Amy enjoyed the work so much.  Then along came Kirsty in May , employed to be our Gateshead dog walker. I remember it was such a relief to get help with the dog walking as we were getting rather stretched and tired running all the services. Kirsty is a natural to her job and all the dogs like her as do the clients, she is a little gem!

 Spring and summer were very busy, Martin our son was a huge help with the mobile cattery and pet visiting services, the cat man of winlaton we teased...he didnt mind! He thoroughly enjoyed all the pets he helped with, which included Rabbits, chickens, guinea pigs all from different families in Whickham and of course the cats. We had a lot of bookings that were for months at a time. It was great fun visiting all these pets and at the end of a long summers day we would all meet up and pop to a beer garden for a quick well earned drink. We launched our dog boarding service in July, which was a great hit.  We now only provide this service for the clients who have already used the service and also the dogwalking clients, this is because we dont have enough carer's to provide a full service, but it still keeps susan and donald very busy.

 Autumn soon arrived! We provided our last house sit which was in consett for a lovely cat called Holly. It was a pleasure to stay with this little happy cat and we have agreed to go again next year even though we dont provide the house sitting service now, but i couldnt resist when asked...Holly is a joy and the house is lovely, the conservatory looks out over the countryside, it felt like a holiday for us!

 We employed Gina to be our new weekend worker in October...sadly it didnt work out, she just wasnt the right person for Helping Hands. I had an uneasy feeling about her commitment to us so i asked some of my clients for feedback about her and lillian one of my elderly clients hit the nail on the head " There is something about her, i cant put my finger on it " is what she said and thats how i felt, so after only 4 weeks we parted company with Gina. In November after many months of looking for the right person we employed a young lady also called Kirsty to walk some of our Newcastle dogs. What a treasure she is turning out to be. Its funny because before she applied for the job, i had been watching some stable girls working hard in their yard, putting the horses away and i said to paul, thats what we need a hard working stable hand. Well Kirsty does work with horses and owns 2 of her own! These type of girls are use to hard graft and being out in all weathers and It was a plus that kirsty also had worked at the cat and dog shelter.

 December has been a very busy month so far. We have had lots of new clients booking in for the mobile cattery service so ive been busy with consultations. We have lots of cats being visited over Christmas and New Year. Im very proud of this service, its a pleasure to provide and it gives us a real feel -good- feeling knowing the cats are happy and the clients too. Its a service that makes you feel very festive, we are out for 6am on Christmas morning, its so quiet and dark, we look at the houses we pass with the odd light on and can imagine how excited the children must be looking for their gifts. We see people's homes wake up and come to life whilst on our morning visits then at teatime when we are doing the pm visits we see people's homes snuggling down for the evening, getting cosy for a night of telly. We have a few dogs to walk at lunchtime on Christmas day, so i think we will do this after our lunch, walk off some of that turkey!

 So lets hope 2010 will be as fabulous as 2009 for Helping Hands. We owe it all to our wonderful clients and their pets and we couldnt have provided such great services without the help from Martin, Emma, Amy, Kirsty, Kirsty, Susan, Donald, Laura, Linda and Steve...Well done my Helping Hands.

 Well im about wrote out....I must just mention the X Factor,  i will be voting for Joe this weekend, along with the rest of the north-east.... what will i do when its finished...Roll on Dancing on Ice!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Bye for now

Dawn

Saturday 21st November

Hello!

What a busy week we have had here at Helping Hands....Christmas is coming so everyone is getting booked in.

Im going to have a quick chat about our Dog Walking Service. We at the most would walk 6 dogs with 2 dog walkers, and my insurers agree. We find it a managable amount and keeps the dogs and walks enjoyable and safe, so when i saw a dog walking service this week with 14 dogs i was astounded. Usually i would expect to see people on horses chasing a fox with that many dogs! ( i have an opinion on that but wont go there today ) What also made me gasp was that this service was working alone....MMmmmm ?. Health and safety should be a priority in this pet business world, no matter who you are or how long you have been running your business.  Im not convinced that you can control that many dogs on your own all the time nor am I not convinced you can pick up the poo of that many dogs on your own. Im sure my clients would be concerened if they knew their dog was in a large pack like that. So safety in numbers doesnt ring true in this instance..

We have a New Dog Walker joining Helping Hands,  Kirsty !....who is going to be walking some of our Newcastle dogs. Im really pleased to be taking on board someone who is so in tune with animals. Kirsty worked at the cat and dog shelter for a year, she is also an experienced horse owner and rider. Its funny because we also have our other kirsty who runs the Gateshead side of the dog walking service, something in the name maybe!

Onto personal things..... well ive lost the momentum with the X Factor, no matter how many glasses of red i have i cant get the Twins....so im glad to see the lovely Ant and Dec back on TV with the  " Get me out of here " Jungle.  Its great watching and cruelly enjoyable to watch the celebs suffer. I do have a life beyond TV and not totally chavvy ( we are going to see the sound of music at the sunderland theatre, Ooeeew! ) but you cant beat a cosy night in....with Ant & Dec..Yummy.

Thats all for now...Enjoy the weekend.

Best wishes

Dawn

Wednesday 3rd Nov....6pm ( the time shown on the blog is wrong and i dont know how to re-set it?? )

Hello!

Well we had a wonderful Halloween, great weather and we went to 2 castle ruins, which were very spooky!. I love the north-east we are so lucky to have this vast countryside and coast line. I first lived in Gateshead in1985 for 2 years then my husbands work took us back down to Nottinghamshire which is where i am originally from, then 10 years ago we moved back up! It was a great time to move here as Gateshead and Newcastle were really thriving and our children were just turning into teenagers so they immedietly loved all the facilities that were on their doorstep. I really feel that this is my home now, when i pop down to Notts i cant wait to get back to Gateshead! I have adjusted to the weather, i was really nesh with the cold northeastly wind....Brrrr it was freezing and this was in July! im hardened to it now and funnily enough my work has me out in all weathers. So im proud to be an adopted geordie.  Emma and I dont have the accent but my son martin does??? We have a season ticket for Newcastle united...which is great fun, but paul is very upset with the possible renaming of St James Park...(.he is very passionate about his footy ) so it will be interesting on Saturday to see if the fans Boo the Ashley fella!

Bonny night is nearly upon us....thankfully we have not heard many fireworks being let off...at one time kids were throwing bangers from September? We are getting the dogs walked a little earlier so we can keep them out longer so they will be really tired and hopefully sleep through all the fireworks??? and the cats and pets we are visiting will have radios on or TV's set on timers just so there is some noise other than bangs and cackles, PHEW i will be glad when its over. I remember when i was young and my parents had the same problem with their cattery, they had to make sure all the cats were cosy and happy and not stressed with the noise of Bonny night.

We have a few interviews lined up for the dog walking position in Newcastle so hopefully this vacancy will be filled a.s.a.p. We are gearing up for the Xmas bookings, which have already started, which is very exciting! This year has flown by, but it has been a great one for Helping Hands and it will be fantastic if 2010 is the same if not better. We have fabulous loyal clients and their praise for us and recommendations has helped this family business to be the success that it is.

Thats all for now....But i cant write a blog without mentioning the X Factor.. I just dont get this Twin thing??? I do try and watch them ( through my fingers ) and they are rubbish!  when Penny smith on GMTV called them deadwood, i couldnt agree more! Oh well Pizza and wine will help me through it !!!

Best wishes

Dawn

Wednesday 7th October

Hello!

Have you seen the Melanie Griffith film " Working Girl " It is a feel good, 80's chick flick. Its one of my favorites, I love the part where she has been caught out immitating her sly boss but Melanie Griffith does eventually get to prove that it was her idea the work project that they had been working on, and not her boss, who had tried to pass off it off as hers....where is this going you may wonder....well, Paul came up with the name Helping Hands and i came up with the idea's for our services,  i didnt invent them, but when Helping Hands was being thought up  ( which kept me awake for nights on end having all these idea's ) they were all honestly based on the help i needed,  i just didnt know what to call them?...particularly the Errands!  I knew i needed help with my home life when busy at work so how would i turn this into a service...was there such a thing out there??...I couldnt call it  Mum / sister / friend..im stuck at work could you pick up my shopping  or mum / sister / friend im not well and spencer is booked in for his check up at the vet can you take him or even mum /sister / friend i cant take time off work and my new washer is coming can you let them in with it!! so i did my research, and i found quite locally one or two concierge services, which were beautifully run but very formal and a bit posh! i eventually found that the Americans use Errand Services as commonly as we Brits book our cleaners. When i looked at all these services i couldnt beleive how they were the exact same help that had been buzzing around my head! So one of the Helping Hands twins was born, the pet services flowed more easily, all truly based on what we needed, and what feedback i got from friends and family of services they would use. We did have more pet services than what we do now, we did have  Dog Bathing and a Pet Taxi service but when we started to get really busy we decided to focus on the services we now have and not spread ourselves to thinly.  So back to the " Working Girl "  film,  I noticed on another Pet Service site that they have discreetly added an Errand Service and called it an " Errand Service " so i feel a bit disappointed that they have done this particularly as I know the people who own this new pet service, as they came to me for advice about how to start up! I have seen other pet services adapt our Errand Service but they have named it differently and tweeked it, but for this particlar pet service to call it the same as ours is a bit sad... But at least i can proudly say i know how Helping Hands Errand Service came to life and why....what can they say if asked???? Nicked it off Helping Hands doesnt have a great ring to it does it !

I dont usually talk about our Errand Services, I think because it is quite a personal service for our clients, but i can tell you that the most popular services are... Wait - in - service, Pick up / drop off and Senior Service. I can tell you  ( because i know she wont mind ) how lilian uses the Senior Service for Xmas shopping at the Metro Centre. Its a lovely afternoon out for us all. Poor lilian is house bound and doesnt get out too much, so Helping Hands collect her and take her shopping around the Metro centre, so she can buy all her xmas gifts. Its great to know how we can help our clients with their home life so they dont have to put on family and friends.

Thats all for now....

Best wishes

Dawn

Thursday 24th September...6pm

Hello!

I thought i would write a "quick Chat " before i dash off to have a consultation for a house rabbit.

We have had 2 new dogs join our service a couple of weeks ago...both are Boxers and Both puppies, one 4 months and one 5 months old, how strange that these two little beauties joined Helping Hands in the same week and they are from different parts of gateshead...whats the odds!  We have been walking them together along with some of the Newcastle and Gateshead dogs, we have found they draw lots of attention from people, ive given out so many business cards sinse walking them!!  I must admit though they are really cute, Bentley has been losing his baby teeth so he is all gums...Jessy doesnt seem to be teething. They are a bundle of joy, we will however be handing Jessy over to Kirsty to walk as from next week, as these two little bundles are a handfull when together, so it will be best to seperate them now before they bond too much...especially with them not being neutered! Look out for their photos on our Album pages.

Well thats all for now...must dash I have a fluffy rabbit to meet!

Best wishes

Dawn

Hello!

We had some very sad news on Thursday, our daughters cat bobby was hit by a car and killed. This lovely little cat was only 18 months old and very friendly and sociable, he loved cats and dogs! Emma was so upset as were we. The kind person who found the cat took him to the vets where they scanned his chip and found Emma's details. It broke our hearts to bury him in the garden. It does make me cross that a car driver can hit an animal and not stop, its not as if it was dark, it was 11am in the morning. Some people just dont care, they dont realise that a much loved member of someone's family is now lost. Emma cares for all her pets, has them neautered, chipped and vaccinated, they are all cherished and now because of someone rushing and not paying attention, she has lost one of them.

Ive deleted my previous "quick chats " as they went right back to January...so i thought i would start a new run of them for Autumn.

I havent had chance to write a blog for a little while because we have been busy providing our House sitting service and taking care of a lovely cat called Holly.  We have stayed in a lovely house that overlooks the beautiful countryside of County Durham....yes it has been such hard work sat in the conservatory admiring the view while stroking Holly! This is however our last house sit as we have decided that we really are stretched for time, especially with us having a busy office to run, so i have made the most of this sit and its been a pleasure.

We are currently looking for more staff...a weekend worker to replace Amy and 2 dog walkers to help lighten the load off Kirsty, Kristie and myself. We have had lots of applicants and now that im back i can focus on arranging interviews, its going to be a hard choice though.

Kirsty has just added some more of her photo's that she has taken of the dogs that she walks, and they are very good, i did notice that kirsty is not in any of them!! i think she is camera shy.

Well i hope you have a lovely weekend....and enjoy this indian summer!

Best wishes

Dawn

Saturday 22nd August

Hello!

Its a very busy time of year for Helping Hands...we have had a huge amount of bookings for all our services.....its been an absolute pleasure meeting so many different pets and lovely owners.

Im very glad of my Helping Hands...Kirsty, Martin, Emma and all my dog carer's who are all booked this weekend!. We even have Kristie to help us, she is here on a work placement from Shaw Trust and gaining valuable experience from our dog walking service, Kristie is a natural to walking the dogs and is very chatty and caring to them. Kirsty is supervising and and teaching Kristie....they make a dynamic duo....the 2 K's!

Linda and Steve have done a great job this week caring for Sissy the bulldog who was having part of her holiday with them...for the rest of her stay she is with Susan and Donald, who have found Sissy to be a delight. When Sissy was first booked in her full stay was with linda and steve, but then due to an unforseen event with a passpot our client had to re-schedule at short notice...which was very tricky for us as our carer's were booked...but Victoria was so pleased when we  manged to share Sissy's care between our two carer's.

We have thoroughly been enjoying visiting the hens at whickham....their owner kindly told us to keep any eggs that they lay and what a difference they are to shop bought !...and thanks to donald and susan giving us some home grown tomatoes and cucumber, we have been enjoing some very tasy egg salads and sandwiches!

Christmas is just around the corner and we already have bookings for December.....we have our regular clients who know they can just text me even on the day that they leave and know we will always fit them in...i think that is why the mobile cattery service is such a success...our clients are free to enjoy weekends away at the drop of a hat if they choose, they dont have to book and take their pet to a cattery..they just text me and leave their pet happy and content at home how nice and simple is that!

Well thats all for now...its X factor night.....Red wine and pizza springs to mind...what a treat!

Best wishes from

Dawn,one of a great team of Helping Hands!