I am a bit of a film and TV nut, and I also love going to conventions and dressing up (cosplaying) as characters.

“What has that to do with Lilly?” I hear you mentally mutter.

Well there is one in particular, Sci-Fi Weekender, that I have attended every year, sometimes twice a year, since I discovered it about 7 years ago. It is not a comic-con style event, it is more like a geek festival with celebrities, cosplay, comedy, music and 3 days of partying, and I mean PARTYING! 

“Yes, yes, but Lilly?” - don't worry I'm getting to it.

You see it is so much fun that Damian and my Mum come along too, which caused an issue in that my Mum is my usual dog sitter, so we had no one to look after Lilly.

Trying to find someone to look after her started 3 months before the event, which was when it was finally confirmed that the dreaded COVID wouldn't put a kibosh to this one going forward.  We found reputable places - they were all full, and a couple that were recommended, but we found they were only dealing with current clients due to the COVID dog boom.

I then got a list of Bolton Council approved dog-boarders, and started ringing round. Again, out of around 30 people, most were either booked up or had stopped trading. I got through to one, and she sounded promising, but after Damian and I went to meet her along with Lilly it took me less than a minute to decide that I would NEVER EVER leave my lovely dog with her!

I was starting to get desperate, so starting looking at kennels rather than home boarders. I did what people say and rang a couple of vets for their recommendations, and headed off to one of them to have a look. The people were friendly, the dogs were excercised individually in a field, the kennels looked OK from the outside, but when we were taken on a tour what we saw looked like a Gulag for dogs.

It wasn't that the kennels were dirty or badly made, it was that there was no creature comforts, nothing to show that these dogs were being given more than the basics.  The noise was deafening as the set up was more stables than enclosed units, so one dog set off barking, and all the rest did too. Lilly does not like loud noises, so not a great situation. The final straw was the look on the faces of the dogs, it made my heart sink, so much so that we didn't even go to look at another kennel. The pictures below are not our photos, but they give you an idea of what we saw.

Next up was Rover.com, a sort of swipe right for dog walkers and boarders. People offer up their services, and homes for a fee, but the problem we found is that the people with plenty of recommendations on the site had no availability, and we later discovered after meeting one of them that 'anyone' can advertise, they do not have to have had any training or even experience with dogs; no one checks any qualifications.

The lovely lady that we met I have no doubt would have loved looking after Lilly, but had little experience, and when we discovered that she didn't drive we didn't go ahead - how would she have got Lilly to a vets if the worst happened?

Finding a dog-sitter was getting me so down that I was on the verge of not going to the event that I had been eagerly awaiting for for nearly 3 years, so I started looking for dog sitters in Great Yarmouth which is where the event is, again no luck. Lastly I thought I'd contact the holiday park we were going to to see if I could get recommendations from someone who lives in the area. I headed to their website to get the number, and spotted a small line that I'd never seen before -

'New for 2022, dog-friendly accomodation.'

It was now about 3 weeks to the event, so an email was hastily sent to see if they could organise us one of those dog-friendly caravans.

For only £65 (half of what it would have cost to board her at home), and some Pet Remedy soothing wipes later Lilly got to go on her first holiday with us.

Afterwards Damian said that he now knows why people say "If I can't take my dog I'm not going."

It was so successful that we have sorted another dog-friendly caravan for the next event in March.

Roll on to 2023, and another doggy adventure!