THE SPONSORED WALK

By Barbara (UK)

You can see the four earlier posts on Barbara's walk by clicking on this link.

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Poster by Ruth AKA Kattaddorra

This is the final installment of the series of four written by my sister Ruth ‘Sharing the fun of fund raising for needy cats’.
 
The day of the walk dawned and it was pouring down! The forecast had said rain to start with but clearing…it didn’t clear! Anyway I got ready with the help of my dear (patient) sister and we both went up to my work so Ruth could take some photos and she’d said she would go over the road to a shop and get me a Cats Protection balloon filled with helium to attach to the pushchair. As it turned out she got two and free of charge as the shop owner said it was to help a charity, so there was another kind soul.

My manager Jenette was at work already as she was manning the office in my absence, she hooted with laughter when she saw me but said I looked good, just not like me, she also donated £10 which was lovely. Then we waited for Julee to arrive, she had to travel about 45 minutes to get to us and got lost at the very end, after phoning for directions she was soon with us and then changed into her doggy costume. She’d made it herself and admitted she’s no seamstress, so that made two of us, but she had to be stapled into her suit as she hadn’t had time to put a zip in!

Finally we were ready and Ruth took our photos indoors and outside, once the photos were done we’d had to cover the pusschair with plastic as it was raining so heavily. Then we said cheerio to Ruth and Jenette and set off on our journey. We made our way through the shops, knocked on the window of the hairdressers that Ruth and I go to and they came out to see us and started our collecting boxes off, despite having already sponsored us.
On we went, past the cemetery, past the last of the houses and onto the bypass, still pouring rain. We got a couple of beeps on car horns and a few waves but didn’t meet anyone except two horses looking over a gate and they were scared of us, or maybe the balloons. Eventually we came to the end of the bypass and made our way to the Bishop Auckland branch of Funeralcare where we had a quick cuppa and set off again for the last bit of the walk, down into the town centre where we positioned ourselves outside of the shopping arcade, dripping wet but still in good spirits.

Most people ignored us! They were of course huddled up in their coats and covered by brollies then Julee hit on the idea of handing the little CP furry stickers out to kids, which made some of the mothers feel obliged to stop and put some coppers in our boxes, one or two cat lovers came along to have cat conversations with but not as many as we expected, purely due to the rotten weather.

We stood for about an hour and a half and we had a laugh but really we were wasting our time so we phoned my manager and she came to pick us up and bring us back home, my feet were squelching in my shoes and my shoulders soaked through so I was glad to call it a day. We’d only collected £23.42 in our boxes.

I really enjoyed it, despite the soaking, I’d thought the walk would be hard going but it flew over, it would have been nice to have some sunshine but it wasn’t to be.

We haven’t got all the sponsor money in yet so I can’t give the total amount raised until we do but I know that each of the two charities, Cats Protection Wear Valley & Darlington, and Hope Animal Shelter will get £200 each at the very least plus the £100 each from the Co-operative Booster Fund.

I can’t believe I’ll get away with no aches and pains from today, but it was so, so worth it for the sake of cats!

Thank you very much to everyone who sponsored me for the walk and everyone who has been interested in the event. I’ll post the final total as a comment on this article as soon as possible.