My name is Blob Thing and I am a small pink soft toy. Together with my sister Winefride I have toured across Tyne and Wear over the course of two weeks and together we have attempted to complete the Great North Snowdog Trail. This consisted of us having to find sixty-two Snowdogs and ninety-seven little Snowdogs. That's one hundred and fifty-nine dogs in total.
And that's a lot of dogs.
We almost succeeded too. We managed to see one hundred and fifty-eight of the dogs in their locations. The only one we missed was called Patchwork who wasn't in Tyne and Wear at all. Seeing Patchwork was impossible for us. Never mind. We saw every other Snowdog and little Snowdog and we are very proud of ourselves for this achievement. We've also seen a lot of amazing sights along the way because Tyne and Wear is full of wonderful places.
For more information about our amazing quest and the way we were helped by our person, please see my first post on this blog. It can be found at http://blobandthesnowdogs.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/blob-thing-and-winefride-welcome-you-to.html I confess that we all got more than a little obsessive about Snowdogs in the first half of November 2016. There are worse things to get obsessive about.
Please remember that the Great North Snowdogs existed not just as an enjoyable addition to the landscape of our wonderful county of Tyne and Wear but as a way to raise funds for St. Oswald's Hospice which is our local hospice and which does amazing work. To find out more about the hospice and see ways in which you can donate, should you wish to, please head over to their website. It can be found at http://www.stoswaldsuk.org/
I will include the above text in all my posts. It explains everything. If you get obsessive about Snowdogs too then don't feel you should read it every time. That would just be taking obsession a step too far.
Today's post contains pictures of the following Snowdogs:
Little Snowdog Pack 5
Photographed mainly on 11th November 2016 with a few on 1st November and the last one on 15th November
These dogs lived, for the duration of the Snowdogs festival, inside Newcastle Central Library in Newcastle.
We had trouble with these dogs. The only time we ever had trouble with Snowdogs. Not with the dogs themselves. Oh no. They were wonderful. But when Winefride and I went to meet the dogs properly on 11th November (having met a few of them already on 1st November) and have our pictures taken with them it all went wrong. A man came over and talked to my person in a very rude manner and said it was a bad, bad thing for us to sit on the dogs. She got very told off - even though a woman from the hospice had said that our photographic quest was a good thing. She was already feeling bad that day, short of energy and her head was struggling a lot and she was only still out for the sake of me, Winefride and the dogs. She couldn't cope any longer and melted. It was horrible to see. She ended up collapsed on the floor of the library between one of the dogs and the window and kept saying the same few words over and over again and she was in quite a lot of distress. Nobody came to offer her any help though.
She had to get herself out of the situation. I tried to help but I had to look after Winefride too because she was getting worried about our person and she might have melted too if I hadn't held her tightly and comforted her. I'm just one small pink soft toy and I'm autistic too and it's hard for me and there I was having to cope with looking after not just Winefride but my person. Winefride was my first priority because having her melt too would have made everything much more difficult. I'm afraid my person had to fend for herself mostly.
Eventually she happened to look up and saw a changing screen and at that moment it happened to say that Newcastle Central Library is an autism friendly place. She slowly calmed down and went to talk to a friendly looking woman and talk about autism and about everything that had happened and to ask whether Winefride and I could have our photos taken on the dogs. The woman didn't know but she went to ask another man who was a lot more friendly than the first man. His name was Tony and Tony said we could have our pictures taken. He was a very nice man.
We took our photos. But with all the difficulties my person later realised that we had forgotten to meet one of the nine dogs, Saint Bark. So a few days later we had to take a special trip back to the library to meet one little Snow Dog.
All together there were ninety-seven little Snowdogs to find and each one had been decorated by children from different places. The little Snowdogs, for their own safety I think and so they would have some sane conversation at night like I do with all my friends, had gathered themselves together into packs of dogs. The smallest pack had three dogs in it and the largest had nine dogs. And we went to see them all.
Some of the packs I will show you in just one post. Others will take more than one post. When there are eight or nine dogs there are a lot of pictures.
The pack I am showing you today is officially pack number five.
Here are our pictures of Little Snowdog pack number 5. There were nine dogs in this pack. I'll be sharing the photos across more than one blog post because there were so many dogs in the library.
You can see how excited and happy both Winefride and I were to be on the trail of Snowdogs. We have had an amazing time. And I think our person has enjoyed herself too.
This first dog is Saint Bark, that last dog we saw, decorated by children from Saint Bartholomew's Church of England Primary School.
The second dog is called Rio, inspired by the Olympic Games and decorated by children from Ponteland First School.
The third dog at the library was called Sky, created by children from Kielder First School and representing a kind of 3D map of Kielder.
The fourth dog was called Star, created by children from the Education Centre For Children With Down Syndrome. This dog was our favourite at the library. Our very favourite. Because of the words on the side. Same But Different. We liked that a lot. Because children with Down Syndrome are the same as any other children. But different. And we are the same but different too. I think Winefride understood the message when she saw the dog and I read the words to her. She certainly seemed to be very happy about it all.
I'll show you the other five dogs next time. They were all pretty too.
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