Weather and training update:

A quick update about training.

Well 2010 has started with the coldest weather for how many years? I have been walking up and down the hill for the last few days, the snow and ice is very bad around here, with not much sign of a improvement.

The current weather conditions have forced me to cancel all training this week up to and including Sunday 10th January at least. If you are due to come, you will have probably heard from me, but in the unlikely event that you have not, please don’t attempt to come up. You will only get within a few miles of the house!

Our track is a foot deep in snow, the surrounding roads are impassable, the council are only basically maintaining the main road to Shrewsbury, and the course is buried. It is unlikely unless we get a dramatic increase in temperature that I can start training again for several days.

We are not very optimistic about making it to Wilmslow show on Saturday either, but my van is being kept away from the house, so I maybe able to get out at least... will have to wait and see.

www.leegibsontraining.com

Happy new year 2010, from Lee

Happy New Year 2010

Well, a simple message from me for the dawn of 2010.

It has been an eventful last 12 months, there have been many highs, lows, moments of sheer joy, and moments of utter disappear.

There will have been exciting, happy times. Times that you will always remember, moments you wish had never ended, experiences that you were all too glad that they had, and as it turned out most recently, moments in your life when you realise your surrounded by so many fantastic people who when you really need them, are willing to do all they can to help you.

That is a special feeling. In fact it keeps you even more motivated and determined to succeed.

That is, as I believe, is what we should embrace and take into the New Year. The special people in your life are special for a reason. Mine are, and I will try my best to be for them.

I wish a healthy and successful 2010 for everyone.

Live it, and live it well.

Lee

www.leegibsontraining.com

Thank you to everyone – the happy ending to this story!

Thank you thank you thank you everybody!

Scott and Flynn are back home and safe. I was reunited with them at around 7pm Tuesday evening. They had been missing since 12.30pm Christmas eve. We are still not sure quite why they went, they certainly don’t chase sheep, and maybe followed a walker or were encouraged to follow them... we really don’t know.

They firstly were sighted at All Stretton, at a farm. They were fed, but not caught and were still roaming around. Sometime in the evening of Christmas eve, they were sighted in the town of Church Stretton. I have been told that they were very close to being knocked down by a car, so they are very lucky.

A lady and husband managed to catch the dogs. The incident was reported to the police but they failed to make a connection between two missing border collies on Christmas evening in SY5, and two border collies found on Christmas evening in SY6.

So Scott and Flynn were taken to their new home about six miles away from our house at a farm / small house. They were looked after by a lady and two men for the next few days...

Meanwhile my parents had a horrible Christmas, having rang national trust, police, local farms etc, nothing at all came up. Every few minutes they went out to shout and look, however most of the time they were out anyway searching the hills with our neighbours.

As some of you know I was in fact abroad in Scandinavia, and only found out about the seriousness of the situation on my return 10pm Sunday evening. I was gutted, as it was already a few days on. However I believed I could & would find them, or what happened to them if I dug deep enough, and acted fast. Both dogs were micro chipped, so I was hopeful that they would be scanned!

So at 10pm, driving back from Birmingham airport, we set about getting the word spread everywhere. I contacted some of my close agility friends who took on certain aspects of the search for me. Clare Donnelly is my vet, and she immediately started networking those avenues. I posted on my blog, twitter, and Facebook. Many of you saw the news through this.

Ceri Jones and Dave Russell also took on a lead role in the next few hours. Monday morning I was up early and phoning numbers I had pulled off the net, and liaising with Ceri, Clare & Mum (who was speaking to every farmer in South Shropshire!) about any possible leads.

After speaking to a nice lady at www.doglost.co.uk and another national search co-ordinator (who also went to great lengths to tell me off for being a bad dog owner!) Ceri, David and I began littering various area’s with posters.
The information was now circulated nationally on websites and related forums. Agilityaddicts forum being one.

My phone was going crazy, so many kind offers of help and people wanting to come and help look, or asking what they could do. This was amazing and really humbled me, but my belief was that the dogs were not loose and running, but were somewhere being held, or taken, or, well you know what you think in those situations. We had to get some clue.

Alice and Christine took charge of ringing the radio stations for me, and after I had driven around to Church Stretton to put up posters, I returned home at about 4.30pm with still nothing to go on at all.

At about 5pm Monday evening I got a call from Ceri, who sounded positive about something. She had heard from a friend, that someone had seen the posters and recalled a convocation in a local pub that two strays had been picked up on Christmas eve. She gave me a description and a pub to head to, which I promptly did.

The put was the called the Crown Inn, at Wentnor. I went in with my poster and asked if anyone knew of this person who had claimed to have taken in two strays. The locals were very helpful and sent me toward a nearby farm...
This farm turned out to be the wrong place. It was a double farmhouse with a old lady being the only one in. I could see her sat in her front room in her arm chair, asleep in front of the TV. Of course I was desperate to speak to her, and eventually nearly gave her heart failure by banging on the living room windows. She thought I was a thief, and would barely open the door in case I robbed her. So I had little joy so headed back to the pub to ask again.

This time a local fella spoke to me and said the place I wanted to try was down the other way, so we both jumped into the van again and drove to the small building in the middle of nowhere. Sure enough we had located them!

We opened the front/barn door, and were greeted by two men and a very content Scott & Flynn. They had been looked after very, well, and I was told that they were not going to take these lovely dogs to a kennels or anything, but wait for someone to claim them... they also said they would miss Scott & Flynn a lot as they had ‘settled in so well!’

I went back to the pub to tell them the good news, and then I took them home and let them barge in on Mum and Dad, the dogs were happy, Mum and Dad were happy, and I was overjoyed. Really over joyed.

What has amazed me the most is the amount of support I have had over the last few days. I have so many people to thank, the local vets, kennels, councils, national trust, pub owners and drinkers. The people who helped me especially, there are so many to name but Ceri Jones and David Russel did such a lot without asking. Thank you so much.

To everyone who has posted on the forum, on my Facebook (I have not had time to get on there yet, as we only have dial-up internet but I will do!), the people who offered to come and help look from literally North, South, East and West.. it means such a lot, it really does.

A big thank you to everyone who contacted me by mail, phone, and internet, and everyone who helped. I am trying to get round to speaking to everyone, but the story ended happily for all!

Happy New year to everyone!

Lee, Lyn & Row, Scott & Flynn (from their ball and chain!)

Two Missing Dogs Shropshire - Please Help

On Christmas eve around 12.00pm two of our dogs went missing. Scott is a Tri colour, and Flynn is a Red and White. Both Intire Males, Both Microchipped.

Both dogs were at home - Ratlinghope, 5 miles west of Church Stretton (SY50SR) when they went missing

Police and local authorities have been informed...

Any help really appreciated.

Lee - 01588650638

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a fantastic Christmas.

Best wishes to all -

Lee x

www.leegibsontraining.com

Tonsberg, Stavangar, Frankfurt, Hotel, Birmingham, Shrewsbury.. home!

Hi,

I have just returned to England.. only 19 hours late and after 3 separate flights, two rescheduled journeys, and a overnight stay in Frankfurt...

I am shattered.. still in the clothes I left Tonsberg in yesterday morning, tired, fed up of queuing in lines at the airports, cancelled flights and hundreds and hundreds of stranded passengers struggling to get home for Christmas.

My route originally was from Tonsberg to Amsterdam and then to BHX, but they rerouted me first flying from Tonsberg to Stavanger (5 hours later) then fly to Frankfurt, and then to Birmingham, however when we made it to Frankfurt, the flights were grounded due to the horrendous snow. So then ensued hours of lining up for a hotel voucher, transport to a nearby hotel, trying to phone Lufthansa (which was a joke!) dinner at 1.30am...

This morning I woke up at 6am to go and start queing again at Lufthansa tickets (the que was an hour and a half long) and then I was only placed on a ‘waiting list’ for the morning flight to Birmingham. To be honest Lufthansa and Frankfurt airport were pretty poor with communications, and I will avoid using either again. However once I was flying back to Birmingham I was just pleased to be back. Am writing this from a train trying to get back to Shrewsbury now. I sometimes think about planting a tree for the CO2 with all this touring of Europe!

Today I did have lessons booked, but I believe the ground is frozen anyway, so the fact I was stuck abroad did not ultimately matter, I guess!

Good luck if you are travelling this Christmas, and as for wishing for a white Christmas, +15 would do me nicely thank you!

www.leegibsontraining.com

LGT on Twitter

I have set up one of these "Twitter" accounts for myself and LGT...

http://twitter.com/LeeGibsonLGT

Regards - Lee