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 42 - Dog on the Tyne - Found at The Angel Of The North

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 42

Photographed on 9th November 2016

This dog is called Dog on the Tyne.

This dog lived, for the duration of the Snowdogs festival, near The Angel of The North.

The dog was designed by Jane Headford, a scenic artist and creator of animatronic creatures for the movies.



The ninth of November was a good day for Winefride and me.  We were being taken out to see Snowdogs again and we were enjoying our excursions a great deal.  The ninth took us to a big shopping centre in Washington which we didn't enjoy that much apart from seeing the Snowdogs who lived there.  Then we saw some dogs in Gateshead who we hadn't seen yet.  We weren't obsessive by that point though.  We weren't trying to see all of the little Snowdogs too.  So we hardly took any pictures of the little Snowdogs in the shopping centre and totally missed a pack in Gateshead and I had to get my person to take me there on a special trip.  On the ninth we visited the library in Gateshead which is called central even though it's quite a long walk from the centre of the town.  Then we went to see two dogs who lived in Saltwell Park and then I got to take my sister to the Angel of the North.  It was an amazing day even though it wasn't as dry as we would have liked and the ground near the Saltwell dogs was very muddy.  I'm glad we didn't fall off those dogs!

Here are our pictures of Dog on the Tyne.


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 34: Snowberry - Found at Newcastle Quayside

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.


This blog post marks a transition.  This is the last of the big Snowdogs who lived in Tyne and Wear and North of the river Tyne.  All the other dogs (except for Patchwork Northumberland and a stray who wasn't on the trail) lived south of the Tyne.

Today's post contains pictures of the following Snowdog:

Dog Number 34

Photographed on 4th November 2016

This dog is called Snowberry

This dog lived, for the duration of the Snowdogs festival, on the Quayside in Newcastle.

The dog was painted by Simon Tozer. Snowberry is not unique.  It was a reproduction of a Snowberry dog from a previous trail that took place in Bristol in 2013.

It was November 4th and my person had taken us out on a horrendously difficult quest.  After an appointment at a mental health place in Newcastle we had to make our way to locate a particular type of pizza.  My person could have chosen a slightly easier option of getting the Metro a couple of stops, getting off it by Tesco and buying a pizza.  However, that was far too easy for her.  She had to do things the complicated way.

She decided that we would find a strange way to Tesco.  It would include the river Tyne and any Snowdogs we saw on the way we could take a picture of.  As it turned out it was a great time.  We visited a multi-storey car park first and the view from that was beautiful.  Later we got to hear Katherine Tickell as she was doing a sound check for a concert that evening in The Sage.

And we saw Snowdogs.  Perhaps it was this day that meant we would have to see all of them.  Not that I saw any dogs on the 5th.  Or any dogs on the 6th either.  Somehow my person decided that the quest was on after that.  We would find every single dog in Tyne and Wear.

Here are our photos of Snowberry.

Snowdog 33: Tyne Tail Jack, found at Newcastle Quayside

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.


Happy Christmas.  I'm posting about this dog on Christmas Day.  It's not a special Christmas dog.  All of the Snowdogs were special.

Today's post contains pictures of the following Snowdog:

Dog Number 33

Photographed on 4th November 2016

This dog is called Tyne Tail Jack

This dog lived, for the duration of the Snowdogs festival, on the Quayside in Newcastle.

The dog was painted by Corinne Lewis-Ward who "loves the thought that the Angel of the North has a secret life where it is able to fly away and be free, enjoying views from the sky and zooming around the North East." She's right.  Just ask me.  I've met the Angel and it told me some things about my life and my year that have come to pass.  I blogged about it all in July.  The Angel is very wise.

It was November 4th and my person had taken us out on a horrendously difficult quest.  After an appointment at a mental health place in Newcastle we had to make our way to locate a particular type of pizza.  My person could have chosen a slightly easier option of getting the Metro a couple of stops, getting off it by Tesco and buying a pizza.  However, that was far too easy for her.  She had to do things the complicated way.

She decided that we would find a strange way to Tesco.  It would include the river Tyne and any Snowdogs we saw on the way we could take a picture of.  As it turned out it was a great time.  We visited a multi-storey car park first and the view from that was beautiful.  Later we got to hear Katherine Tickell as she was doing a sound check for a concert that evening in The Sage.

And we saw Snowdogs.  Perhaps it was this day that meant we would have to see all of them.  Not that I saw any dogs on the 5th.  Or any dogs on the 6th either.  Somehow my person decided that the quest was on after that.  We would find every single dog in Tyne and Wear.

Here are our photos of Tyne Tail Jack.

Snowdog 32: Hadrian's Hound - Amicus Optimus - Found at Broad Chare, 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 32

Photographed on 4th November 2016

This dog is called Hadrian's Hound - "Amicus Optimus"

This dog lived, for the duration of the Snowdogs festival, on Broad Chare in Newcastle.

The dog was painted by Catherine J Bell, who based her dog on the idea that there is much of Hadrian's Wall buried under the streets of Newcastle.  Not an untrue idea.

Unfortunately we only took two pictures of this dog because we weren't on a quest to find all the Snowdogs.

It was November 4th and my person had taken us out on a horrendously difficult quest.  After an appointment at a mental health place in Newcastle we had to make our way to locate a particular type of pizza.  My person could have chosen a slightly easier option of getting the Metro a couple of stops, getting off it by Tesco and buying a pizza.  However, that was far too easy for her.  She had to do things the complicated way.

She decided that we would find a strange way to Tesco.  It would include the river Tyne and any Snowdogs we saw on the way we could take a picture of.  As it turned out it was a great time.  We visited a multi-storey car park first and the view from that was beautiful.  Later we got to hear Katherine Tickell as she was doing a sound check for a concert that evening in The Sage.

And we saw Snowdogs.  Perhaps it was this day that meant we would have to see all of them.  Not that I saw any dogs on the 5th.  Or any dogs on the 6th either.  Somehow my person decided that the quest was on after that.  We would find every single dog in Tyne and Wear.

Here are our two photos of Hadrian's Hound.  Poor dog.  Only two photos.

Little Snowdog Pack 07: The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle Upon Tyne

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 7

Photographed on 15th November 2016

I could moan.  I've moaned about this before.  We saw this pack of dogs on the day we went out to see six Snowdogs that my person had seen before.  Winefride and I hadn't seen them because my person forgot to take us out that day.  On 15th November she was making amends by taking us to see those dogs - which I've just blogged about recently - and the little Snowdog packs along the way.

It serves her right though.  On 6th November, the day she forgot to take us out, not only did she get very wet but she only saw two of the little Snowdogs in this pack.  She missed out on some dogs and that's funny.
 
These dogs lived, for the duration of the Snowdogs festival, inside The Biscuit Factory art gallery in Newcastle.  My person got quite confused when she took Winefride and me to see them.  When she had visited on her own the little dogs were scattered, each on their own, in different parts of the gallery.  When we went back she walked through the door and noticed that the dog near the entrance had vanished.  I have to tell you that she panicked a bit.  But it was okay.  In our absence the dogs had all climbed the stairs and were sitting in a group near to the large Snowdog, Gingerbread, who was at the gallery.

They're not the only little dogs to have a life of their own either.  The little Snowdog pack at Newcastle Central Library have completely moved around at least twice.  Every time we've been there the dogs have moved.  I think that during the night they go and explore and play games in the library and take it in turns to go up and down in the lift so they can look through the glass doors.  They remember to get back to the ground floor by the time the security man, possibly Tony, comes to unlock the doors in the morning.  But they forget where they had been standing and hope that nobody will notice that they've been so active in the night.  I don't think anyone from the library has paid enough attention to them to notice.  But I have and so has my person.

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 seven, the last of the seven little Snowdog packs to be living North of the River Tyne.

Here are our pictures of Little Snowdog pack number seven.  There were six 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.

This first dog is Fun at the Seaside, decorated by children from Dame Allan's Junior School.

The second dog in the pack was called Spotty Rainbow Dog, invented by Isabelle, from Dame Allan's Junior School.

And the third lovely dog was Patch, invented by Ellie, another student from Dame Allan's Junior School.  A very busy dog creation school.

I'm going to carry on and include all six dogs in one enormous dog post.  Here's the fourth dog, Sunshine, created by children from Brunton First School.

The fifth dog was called Peace, and was also created by children from Brunton First School.

And the final dog in the seventh little Snowdog pack - the very last one I have left to show you who lived north of the Tyne - was called Charlie, and was designed by children from Sir Charles Parsons School.

Sir Charles Parsons was an engineer who worked in Newcastle.  He designed steam turbines for ships including the turbine powered yacht Turbinia which can be seen in the Discovery Museum.

Finally, a group shot of the little dogs.