Snowdog 45 - Luna - Found outside Sunderland Minster

Hello again.

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.

And we've seen Patchwork too now, at the Snowdog farewell event.  That was a very special day for me, being able to see all the dogs again.  The streets of Tyne and Wear feel somehow empty without those dogs.

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 Snowdog:

Dog Number 45

Photographed on 10th November 2016

This dog is called Luna.

This dog lived, for the duration of the Snowdogs festival, outside Sunderland Minster.  There was also a little dog pack inside the minster so we went inside.  Some very nice Christians meet at the Minster.  They're not at all like the Christians we met in Sunderland a fortnight earlier who called my person an abomination.  The minster Christians are the nice sort of god people.

The dog was designed by Geoff Chappell and was inspired by the work of the Children's Heart Unit.

The tenth of November.  It's a date that will got down in the pages of history as a good day out for me, Winefride and our person.  It's the day we went Snowdog finding in Sunderland.  It's true that we had seen a few of the dogs before on previous visits.  Such as the day a fortnight earlier when my person went to Sunderland in search of a pink flamingo and ended up discovering nearly every other animal on the planet in the form of street art.

The tenth was amazing.  We caught the Metro to Seaburn and walked to the seaside where we located our first dog, Sparky.  From there we had a very long walk which took us to our second dog and first little dog pack at the National Glass Centre.  After that the dogs were more closely packed.  We saw two more dogs to the north of the River Wear, at the Stadium of Light before crossing the bridge into the centre of the city.  And then it was easy.  Four little snowdog packs and eight snowdogs were visited in quick succession.  It was nice to see some of them for a second time.  Felt like we were returning to old friends.

All that walking.  All those dogs.  No wonder we were all exhausted by the end of the day.

Here are our pictures of Luna.  Luna was damaged when we saw it.  There was a hole in its side.  Poor Luna.

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.

Little Snowdog Pack 13 - Found At The National Glass Centre, Sunderland

Hello again.

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 13

Photographed on 10th November 2016

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 thirteen, the first of five little Snowdog packs living in Sunderland.  Or seven packs if you include the whole area known as the City of Sunderland because that includes places such as Washington.  I don't call Washington Sunderland anymore than I'd call Chester-le-Street Durham just because it's in County Durham.  But Sunderland residents (Mackems) say that Sunderland is the biggest city in the North East - because they include places like Washington in the counting.

We saw these dogs on a very exciting day.  A giant Snowdog day on which we visited every single Snowdog and little Snowdog in Sunderland.  That's thirty-four dogs in total.  A very busy day.

Here are our pictures of Little Snowdog pack number thirteen.  There were four dogs in this pack.

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.

I present to you the thirteenth little Snowdog pack.   You'll be able to tell that even a week before having to finish our Snowdog hunt we hadn't mastered little Snowdogs.  I'm only sitting on one of these.  Good grief.

The first dog, who has a disproportionately unfairly high number of photos was called Dene Dog.  It was also called Snowdog By The Sea.  This dog was designed by Seaburn Dene Primary School.

The second dog was called Gideon, designed by Castle View Enterprise Academy.

Dog number three was called Nixon, designed by Ryhope Junior School.

The final dog was called South Hylton Primary School's Dog and you can probably make a wild stab in the dark guess at the place where its design originated.

Finally, a group photo.  Four dogs together.

Splodge - The Mystery Unnumbered Snowdog of Newcastle

Hello again.

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.

And we've seen Patchwork too now, at the Snowdog farewell event.  That was a very special day for me, being able to see all the dogs again.  The streets of Tyne and Wear feel somehow empty without those dogs.

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 Snowdog:

Dog Number xx

Well this is interesting.  An extra special mystery dog.  He wasn't on the official trail.  He had no number.   We wouldn't have found him had not my person gone into the shop by chance.  We had just been visiting little Snowdog packs in Newcastle, including the pack in Eldon Garden and the pack in Fenwicks where Winefride and I got to meet Darth Vader.

Photographed on 12th November 2016

This dog is called Splodge.

We were very fortunate indeed to meet Splodge.  It meant that during the trail we saw sixty-one Snowdogs and there were only sixty-one Snowdogs on the trail.  We missed number sixty-one because it was impossible to reach using public transport in November.  I'll show you pictures of that dog last because it was the last one we saw and was also the highest numbered dog.

Next time I will start to show you the twelve Snowdogs and five little Snowdog packs who all lived in Sunderland.  Then I'll show you dog sixty-one.  I also want to show you the snowdog merchandise I made my person buy, our trail completion certificates, and the fun we had at the Snowdog farewell event.  And then I'll have finished.  I'll have to find a brand new obsession or special interest.

This dog lived, for the duration of the Snowdogs festival, inside the little St. Oswald's Hospice shop in Eldon Garden, Newcastle.


Here are our pictures of Splodge.

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.

Snowdog 60 - Pawdington - Found at South Shields Custom House

Hello again.

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.

And we've seen Patchwork too now, at the Snowdog farewell event.  That was a very special day for me, being able to see all the dogs again.  The streets of Tyne and Wear feel somehow empty without those dogs.

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 Snowdog:

Dog Number 60

Photographed on 8th November 2016

This dog is called Pawdington.

This dog lived, for the duration of the Snowdogs festival, near the Customs House, South Shields.

The dog was designed by Mandii Pope.

You might notice that I suddenly jumped.  I went from dog 44 to dog 57.  That's twelve whole dogs missed out.  Don't worry.  I'll be going back to them.  I just thought I'd talk about all the dogs near the River Tyne before heading to the dogs near the River Wear.  So I'm going to mention dogs 57 to 60 who all lived in South Shields.  And then I'll talk about one very special dog who lived in Newcastle.  So special that he didn't have a number at all.  I'm considering talking about dog 61 too before delving into the riches of Sunderland's twelve dogs and five little Snowdog packs.  Dog 61 was the only one we didn't see on the actual trail, because he lived too far away and it was completely impossible for us to go and see him.

We visited South Shields three times in the first half of November.  Our first visit was at the end of a walk on the second.  That was an amazing day and my person had a moment of total clarity and knew that she had to live a little differently.  We weren't on the Snowdog trail then but happened to see a dog named Gizmo and we had our photos taken with him.

By November 8th we were seriously on the trail of the big dogs and returned to South Shields.  On that day we had another amazing time, walking from Cullercoats along the promenade, round to North Shields.  Then we caught the ferry to South Shields which Winefride found extremely exciting because she hadn't ever been on a ferry before.  After seeing the South Shields dogs we returned to North Shields on the ferry because it was fun.

We didn't stop to argue with the Christian street evangelist we saw walking in the streets moaning that we are all doomed.  We had seen him before, once in Newcastle and once in Sunderland.  In Sunderland he had his friends with him and one of them stopped my person.  She was in the mood to debate him and pretty soon had four evangelists crowding round her trying to convince her that people were intrinsically bad.  She wasn't convinced because she looked around and saw that everyone passing on that shopping street in Sunderland was an amazing human being.  It didn't matter whether they were struggling, in a mess, or even if they were doing bad things.  They were all amazing.  The evangelists called my person an antichrist abomination.  She didn't mind, she expected it.  We didn't stop for another argument in South Shields.  She would have been told that seeing the man again wasn't a coincidence.  It was a God-incidence!  That's the sort of thing they say.

Unfortunately on the 8th something sad happened.  There were four Snowdogs in South Shields but when we reached the fourth one, Rhino The Rescue, we were quite distraught.  He was missing.  Completely gone.  Only his plinth remained.  It was awful.  Later we learned that he was going to be returning a few days later.  And that meant we had to return to South Shields again to see him.  I'm glad we did. 

Here are our pictures of Pawdington.

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.

Snowdog 59 - Gizmo - Found at Pier Promenade, South Shields

Hello again.

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.

And we've seen Patchwork too now, at the Snowdog farewell event.  That was a very special day for me, being able to see all the dogs again.  The streets of Tyne and Wear feel somehow empty without those dogs.

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 Snowdog:

Dog Number 59

Photographed twice.  The first time was on 2nd November.  We then visited the dog again on 8th November 2016.

This dog is called Gizmo.

This dog lived, for the duration of the Snowdogs festival, in on the Pier Promenade, South Shields.

The dog was designed by Anonymous.  There is more than one Gizmo.  He's a clone dog.  His brother clone appeared in the Snowdog trail in Brighton.

You might notice that I suddenly jumped.  I went from dog 44 to dog 57.  That's twelve whole dogs missed out.  Don't worry.  I'll be going back to them.  I just thought I'd talk about all the dogs near the River Tyne before heading to the dogs near the River Wear.  So I'm going to mention dogs 57 to 60 who all lived in South Shields.  And then I'll talk about one very special dog who lived in Newcastle.  So special that he didn't have a number at all.  I'm considering talking about dog 61 too before delving into the riches of Sunderland's twelve dogs and five little Snowdog packs.  Dog 61 was the only one we didn't see on the actual trail, because he lived too far away and it was completely impossible for us to go and see him.

We visited South Shields three times in the first half of November.  Our first visit was at the end of a walk on the second.  That was an amazing day and my person had a moment of total clarity and knew that she had to live a little differently.  We weren't on the Snowdog trail then but happened to see a dog named Gizmo and we had our photos taken with him.

By November 8th we were seriously on the trail of the big dogs and returned to South Shields.  On that day we had another amazing time, walking from Cullercoats along the promenade, round to North Shields.  Then we caught the ferry to South Shields which Winefride found extremely exciting because she hadn't ever been on a ferry before.  After seeing the South Shields dogs we returned to North Shields on the ferry because it was fun.

We didn't stop to argue with the Christian street evangelist we saw walking in the streets moaning that we are all doomed.  We had seen him before, once in Newcastle and once in Sunderland.  In Sunderland he had his friends with him and one of them stopped my person.  She was in the mood to debate him and pretty soon had four evangelists crowding round her trying to convince her that people were intrinsically bad.  She wasn't convinced because she looked around and saw that everyone passing on that shopping street in Sunderland was an amazing human being.  It didn't matter whether they were struggling, in a mess, or even if they were doing bad things.  They were all amazing.  The evangelists called my person an antichrist abomination.  She didn't mind, she expected it.  We didn't stop for another argument in South Shields.  She would have been told that seeing the man again wasn't a coincidence.  It was a God-incidence!  That's the sort of thing they say.

Unfortunately on the 8th something sad happened.  There were four Snowdogs in South Shields but when we reached the fourth one, Rhino The Rescue, we were quite distraught.  He was missing.  Completely gone.  Only his plinth remained.  It was awful.  Later we learned that he was going to be returning a few days later.  And that meant we had to return to South Shields again to see him.  I'm glad we did. 

Here are our pictures of Gizmo.

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.

Snowdog 58 - Rhino The Rescue, Found at South Shields Marine Park

Hello again.

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.

And we've seen Patchwork too now, at the Snowdog farewell event.  That was a very special day for me, being able to see all the dogs again.  The streets of Tyne and Wear feel somehow empty without those dogs.

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 Snowdog:

Dog Number 58

Photographed on 14th November 2016

This dog is called Rhino The Rescue.

This dog lived, for the duration of the Snowdogs festival, in Marine Park South, South Shields.

The dog was designed by Leighton Denny MBE and was painted by Hilda Gething.

You might notice that I suddenly jumped.  I went from dog 44 to dog 57.  That's twelve whole dogs missed out.  Don't worry.  I'll be going back to them.  I just thought I'd talk about all the dogs near the River Tyne before heading to the dogs near the River Wear.  So I'm going to mention dogs 57 to 60 who all lived in South Shields.  And then I'll talk about one very special dog who lived in Newcastle.  So special that he didn't have a number at all.  I'm considering talking about dog 61 too before delving into the riches of Sunderland's twelve dogs and five little Snowdog packs.  Dog 61 was the only one we didn't see on the actual trail, because he lived too far away and it was completely impossible for us to go and see him.

We visited South Shields three times in the first half of November.  Our first visit was at the end of a walk on the second.  That was an amazing day and my person had a moment of total clarity and knew that she had to live a little differently.  We weren't on the Snowdog trail then but happened to see a dog named Gizmo and we had our photos taken with him.

By November 8th we were seriously on the trail of the big dogs and returned to South Shields.  On that day we had another amazing time, walking from Cullercoats along the promenade, round to North Shields.  Then we caught the ferry to South Shields which Winefride found extremely exciting because she hadn't ever been on a ferry before.  After seeing the South Shields dogs we returned to North Shields on the ferry because it was fun.

We didn't stop to argue with the Christian street evangelist we saw walking in the streets moaning that we are all doomed.  We had seen him before, once in Newcastle and once in Sunderland.  In Sunderland he had his friends with him and one of them stopped my person.  She was in the mood to debate him and pretty soon had four evangelists crowding round her trying to convince her that people were intrinsically bad.  She wasn't convinced because she looked around and saw that everyone passing on that shopping street in Sunderland was an amazing human being.  It didn't matter whether they were struggling, in a mess, or even if they were doing bad things.  They were all amazing.  The evangelists called my person an antichrist abomination.  She didn't mind, she expected it.  We didn't stop for another argument in South Shields.  She would have been told that seeing the man again wasn't a coincidence.  It was a God-incidence!  That's the sort of thing they say.

Unfortunately on the 8th something sad happened.  There were four Snowdogs in South Shields but when we reached the fourth one, Rhino The Rescue, we were quite distraught.  He was missing.  Completely gone.  Only his plinth remained.  It was awful.  Later we learned that he was going to be returning a few days later.  And that meant we had to return to South Shields again to see him.  I'm glad we did. 

Here are our pictures of Rhino The Rescue.

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.

These first pictures were taken on 8th November when Rhino the Rescue was missing.  We were very sad.  You can see that Winefride and I are crying our hearts out on that plinth.

These photos were taken when we returned to South Shields on 14th November.  I was very, very happy to see Rhino the Rescue had returned.

Snowdog 57 - Dog on The Groyne - Found at South Shields

Hello again.

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.

And we've seen Patchwork too now, at the Snowdog farewell event.  That was a very special day for me, being able to see all the dogs again.  The streets of Tyne and Wear feel somehow empty without those dogs.

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 Snowdog:

Dog Number 57


Photographed on 8th November 2016

This dog is called Dog on The Groyne.

This dog lived, for the duration of the Snowdogs festival, in on the Groyne Promenade, South Shields.

The dog was designed by Jenny Leonard and was sponsored by Barbour which explains the coat he's wearing.

You might notice that I suddenly jumped.  I went from dog 44 to dog 57.  That's twelve whole dogs missed out.  Don't worry.  I'll be going back to them.  I just thought I'd talk about all the dogs near the River Tyne before heading to the dogs near the River Wear.  So I'm going to mention dogs 57 to 60 who all lived in South Shields.  And then I'll talk about one very special dog who lived in Newcastle.  So special that he didn't have a number at all.  I'm considering talking about dog 61 too before delving into the riches of Sunderland's twelve dogs and five little Snowdog packs.  Dog 61 was the only one we didn't see on the actual trail, because he lived too far away and it was completely impossible for us to go and see him.

We visited South Shields three times in the first half of November.  Our first visit was at the end of a walk on the second.  That was an amazing day and my person had a moment of total clarity and knew that she had to live a little differently.  We weren't on the Snowdog trail then but happened to see a dog named Gizmo and we had our photos taken with him.

By November 8th we were seriously on the trail of the big dogs and returned to South Shields.  On that day we had another amazing time, walking from Cullercoats along the promenade, round to North Shields.  Then we caught the ferry to South Shields which Winefride found extremely exciting because she hadn't ever been on a ferry before.  After seeing the South Shields dogs we returned to North Shields on the ferry because it was fun.

We didn't stop to argue with the Christian street evangelist we saw walking in the streets moaning that we are all doomed.  We had seen him before, once in Newcastle and once in Sunderland.  In Sunderland he had his friends with him and one of them stopped my person.  She was in the mood to debate him and pretty soon had four evangelists crowding round her trying to convince her that people were intrinsically bad.  She wasn't convinced because she looked around and saw that everyone passing on that shopping street in Sunderland was an amazing human being.  It didn't matter whether they were struggling, in a mess, or even if they were doing bad things.  They were all amazing.  The evangelists called my person an antichrist abomination.  She didn't mind, she expected it.  We didn't stop for another argument in South Shields.  She would have been told that seeing the man again wasn't a coincidence.  It was a God-incidence!  That's the sort of thing they say.

Unfortunately on the 8th something sad happened.  There were four Snowdogs in South Shields but when we reached the fourth one, Rhino The Rescue, we were quite distraught.  He was missing.  Completely gone.  Only his plinth remained.  It was awful.  Later we learned that he was going to be returning a few days later.  And that meant we had to return to South Shields again to see him.  I'm glad we did. 

Here are our pictures of Dog on The Groyne.

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.