A trip to the North East Dog Festival proves a wheely big hit for Abbi

A heartwarming story has emerged from this years North East Dog Festival as little Abbi gets her very own buggy!

Directors Rebecca and Dawn commented; ‘This is what the festival is all about, connecting people and their dogs with amazing supporters and giving a platform to charities like Roo’s Journey to raise funds, who are then able to pass on their support to the dogs that need it the most. After seeing this story on Facebook, it brought a very real sense of pride to our team and we couldn’t help but share! A huge thanks from the festival team to Fellowship Dog Training for lending Abbi the buggy, Charlotte of Spotty Dog Design for sponsoring the charity dog shows and to the Roo’s Journey team”.

Kellie Wills tells us all about this little super star and her fabulous story;

“Abbi came to us as a foster in August last year from Cyprus (so this is her 2nd festival) Abbi is a paralysed dog with complex needs. Several efforts to promote her for adoption had drawn a blank, so with the ongoing support of Sue Nuttall of Take Away The Tears we are now her forever foster home. This has only been made possible with the support of Take Away The Tears who will now fund Abbi's veterinary costs connected with her disability for her lifetime, whilst we personally fundraise to cover her weekly costs of hydrotherapy and massage sessions”.

So we landed at the festival on Sunday with Abbi in her wheelchair raring to go but given the terrain we noticed after an hour or so she seemed really tired & we considered having to leave.

It was then we notice that one of the have a go activities (Parkour with The Dog Log and Fellowship Dog Training) had doggy buggy’s advertised for hire. Not normally renting them out at the events only promoting them, the lovely lady agreed to allow us to rent one.

Abbi took to the buggy like a duck to water and sat there like the queen that she is. Abbi entered many classes across each of the different charity dog shows at the festival, coming 1st in Best Wonky Dog with Roo’s Journey. Speaking with Roos owner Nikki Dick as well as Abbi’s massage therapist, Sue Maclennan, who also had a stand at the festival, we just knew this was the way forward for Abbi.

Later on Sunday night I popped a post on my own Facebook page telling my wonderful supporters I would be bombarding them with raffles over the following weeks to try and get the funds to get Abbi her very own chariot.

Unbelievably within minutes of the post going on, messages started coming in along with payments into Abbi’s account. By late morning the following day (only 12 hrs after my post) we had the full funds in to get the buggy. We received many donations from our personal supporters but also received a fabulous donation from Nikki Dick of Roo’s Journey thanks to a fantastic weekend of fundraising at the festival.

We have been absolutely overwhelmed by peoples generosity, we know Abbi has a huge fan club, but given the cost of living crisis never did we think this was possible in only 12 hours. We raised the full £330 needed”

Follow Abbi’s adventures on Facebook ‘Abbi's Angels - UK’