Rosa Hick

Monday 31 March 2025. This is the last day of fundraising for the March 99K Challenge for Dogs Trust. We completed the 99K by Day 17, and funds continued to come in up to today where we have raised almost €700.00. To celebrate we did a little lap of honour around some of our favourite stomping grounds. Well, and to add a little colour to the final day, I did contemplate the ‘Bathing Costume Optional Notice’ as you can see from my photo, but on reflection decided there was enough with the strip tides and cold water, so I quickly chickened out... Next, we went up the cat's ladder and I met loads of friendly people and had to say Hi to EVERY-BODY... we played ball on the Burma with some other K9’s and with the extra hour we came home really, really late, it was still very bright, Oh happy days. 

Now as we pass on the torch, it is Good Luck to all of you April 99K challengers, we hope you enjoy it as much as we did Woof, Woof, Love from me Sava and of course my Side Kick. 

March 17, 2025. It is 09.00hrs on day 17 and we have already completed 84.5K of our 99K walk for Dogs Trust. We have to date raised €540.00 with some more to come so, today we are joining the Aware group on their St Patrick’s Day walk from Howth Harbour to Dun Laoghaire Harbour. We don’t know how far we can walk, but we have all registered, ME(Sava), Rosa( 'yer one'), and our good friend Linda, we hope to complete the deficit of our 99k walk before dusk. There are no early morning trains with the bank holiday so our starting time will be 10.30 from Howth.... 

... Hours Later. Wow! what a day, the weather was dull and mild when we started off, so it was perfect for walking, and we kept a good pace as we crossed by Howth junction and onto the North strand. There was plenty of grassy areas for me and all the other K9’s to take advantage of as we admired the views across the North Bull.  Everybody was in good spirits and the intermittent cool breeze kept us from overheating. At some point along the Strand Road by Clontarf 'yer one's' heels started to blister, and we had to add padding to her boots, this really surprised her, she said, as we had for weeks walked much further without any problems however, onwards we marched and arrived at the Dublin Port Hooley at 1.20pm to a great atmosphere of lively music, refreshments, delicious sandwiches, face painting and an abundance of volunteers to guide us.  

By 1.50 we were ready to set off again and headed down towards the Eastlink Bridge, the breeze had become quite sharp by now and we were glad to be heading out past Ringsend and onto Sandymount Strand. I (Sava) had another great canter around the fields here and when we reached the beach, we thought it might be a good idea to walk barefoot on the sand, She was in so much pain she found it hard to separate her feet from the ground, yet supposedly had plenty of energy and wasn’t one bit tired!  Sadly, an hour after leaving the Port she had to succumb to her injury and call it a day. Me (Mr. Rubber man) and Linda were still good to go, so it was a pity that we could not continue, and we are extremely disappointed for that.   

Well over 99K is walked, well over €540 is sponsored, and in the process, we have also donated €100 to Aware through registration, and I have a special T shirt for my other, other, Mommie Patricia. We have loved every minute of this journey and fundraising for Dogs Trust. For that we are not disappointed. 

March 11, 2025. Today we walked from Bulloch Harbour up to Burma via Ulverton Road and Cardiac Hill, there was time for a few throws and fetch in the field before we took the Killiney hill path to the tearooms and exited here to enter Mullins hill. To our great surprise the Goats had already vacated and moved to greener fields. From here we wandered over to the Glenalua exit to take the pedestrian cuts down to Strathmore Road, (where of course we had to admire Paradise Garden), on to Vico Road with the bay looking fabulous, and Yer’ man at this point thought he might like to climb the Cats Ladder. no way! Mr. Duracell enough is enough for one day, down to Sorento, another Pedestrian cut through Victoria Road onto Colimore, Leslie Ave, and back to Bulloch. I am exhausted; he is still flinging squeaky bottles at us.... 7k according to world walking, I thought that we had walked way more.