A successful First open Day

This will be a very short entry as I am exhausted from having very little sleep leading up to the Open Day.I was so worried that nobody would turn up and that the weather would let us down.Well, as expected, the weather DID let us down,I could have wept when I woke up Sunday morning to see torrential rain and our gazebos which had been erected the night before in the middle of the field! Nevertheless by noon the rain had eased off but not before there was a mad scramble to move all the stalls and dog show indoors.We quickly utilised the barn and the stables.It was a little chaotic but it was the best we could do, It was still too windy and cold to keep everything outdoors. I was still wondering whether to put up a cancelled notice but then the cars started arriving.Instead of opening one field for cars, we had to open THREE!!People started swarming in , The DJ started up the music( The brilliant Eddie Vincent generously gave his time and services free to the charity) and the day took off. The dog show brought in loads of people and it was great to see some of our own rescued dogs again including Billy the staff who delighted in jumping up to greet us and covering all our clean uniforms with mud.Thank you Billy! We still love you. I dont think I saw all of our dogs but I did see little Meg collie who went about 8 weeks ago and Heidi the lurcher.Both looked very happy with their new owners. The total sum taken on the day was £2,500 and considering the awful weather I am more than pleased.Everyone here worked so hard to make it happen and we all enjoyed the buzz of being involved in our very first open day .There is no doubt we will now be making this an annual event and next time it will be even better.