HELPING HANDS ERRAND AND PET SERVICE

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