As some of you may know we were forced to say goodbye to our beloved pointer Fost a little over 6 months ago, and I have been heartbroken ever since. I miss him terribly, like all the time….

He was unwanted when we took him on as a local rescue back when we used to live in the French Alps. Threatened with a bullet because his hunter owner didn’t get on with his sensitive nature, and because he wanted to replace him with another dog. He had not been treated very well as is often the way with hunting dogs....At the time Fost was approx.2-3 years old.....

We had 12 wonderful years with Fost and it was truly a privilege to be his humans. and to have him as our family.

Whilst we can never replace him, there is a massive pointer shaped hole in my life and I think I am beginning to feel brave enough to try to fill it with another rescue pointer.

It kinda felt right to search out another unwanted soul with a difficult start in life, who also needed lots of love and time to recover from a crappy start to life, mistreated and scared, as Fost did.

So….please let me introduce to you Vagellis… currently under the supervision of the wonderful UK registered Pointers in Need charity. This little guy was found very underweight, scared and with a huge chain tightly around his neck, which had to be removed with bolt croppers. He had escaped from gypsies in Greece where he was found. He is also missing some teeth possibly from trying to eat rocks out of hunger, or maybe they were knocked out..

He has been fostered by the lovely lady who found him for the past 7 months, but no one has come forward to offer him a forever home.

The charity has had no enquiries for him at all….. and so I would love to help him…

This is where it gets a little complicated… here’s the thing… Vagellis is in Greece…we are in France… and to get him safely to France with the transport fees, vet checks, required travel documents, export papers and all associated costs to get him safely here and settle him in, means we are looking at an approx bill of around £1200….

To try and help get the costs together I have decided to do a sponsored bike ride…

To most this would sound like a fairly easy challenge but not so much for me, its gonna be a wee bit harder….

A little history..

I was a keen mountain biker when we lived in the Alps, it was my sport, and I did a lot of it, I loved it…… I was also a snow boarder and keen horse rider… Then my knee gave up….. I had 5 surgeries on said knee over the next few years which cumulated in a partial replacement at 48 years old. Something I really had to fight for because they don’t like to do knee replacements on folks so young, but none of the treatments or surgeries made any difference… I couldn’t walk without a fair amount of pain, I had to give up all my sports and couldn’t go for long walks with Fost anymore which really sucked, I loved our hikes in the mountains….it was all a bit rubbish…

The eventual knee replacement worked and I could walk again pain free but I had lasting inflammation (likely from the trauma of all the surgeries) which caused difficulties in flexion, I couldn’t really bend my knee well enough to do much of my old sports….Then came a pregnancy and following that post birth woes and then a small person to look after so any attempts to seriously rehab my knee enough to get back into biking were shelved….until now.....

The plan is I am going to cycle from home to Mont Saint Michel (55km) with my trusty toddler sidekick on the back of my bike…

Then the next day we are going to cycle from Mont saint Michel to Dragey beach (38km) which was a favourite place of ours, its where I used to take Fost for an off lead beach run…

Importantly, I am gonna take some of Fost’s ashes with me on the trip and then scatter them at the end of the ride on the beach he loved….kinda feels like that’s where he would want to be, running fast and free, ears flapping in the wind, chasing the sea birds…

I would try and do it all in one day but I think Martha (the toddler side kick) may have other ideas about how long she will tolerate being on the back of my bike…

I have only just started biking again very recently (as in last week) and I haven’t been on a bike properlly or regularly really for maybe 5 years so this should be a fun adventure..

how hard can it be to teach my knee to bend enough to cycle nearly 100km in 2 days....

Oh and Martha hasn’t ever been on the back of a bike yet either,,,

We have 3 weeks to get our s*** together to make this work.....

Thank you so much for reading my story, and if you would like to help in my quest to give this little guy a new start in life/sponsor me on my memorial ride for Fost/slightly crazy challenge ride for Vagellis it would be hugely appreciated… however small… it will all help

The plan is to get Vagellis here in January so the challenge will be taking place probably towards the end of the second week in December, weather & logistics permitting.

Thanks again for reading… big love to you all xxx

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p.s. if I am lucky enough to go over my target, all surplice funds will be going to Pointers in Need so that the charity can continue their great work helping the many abandoned, mistreated and stray Pointers in Europe.