Dalmation diary?
The following is adapted from my diary. I've edited out large amounts of text which are irrelevant to this project. This is why they may be disjointed, and not always seem to appear in context. It's not because I'm rubbish at stringing sentences and paragraphs together.
It starts in February, the second month of the year in which I had made a resolution to do at least one random, spontaneous or quirky thing per month, in order to cure a chronic case of boredom�
Wednesday 18 February 2004 - An amusing idea
Inspired by the delightfully silly and whimsical adventures of Danny Wallace, Tony Hawks and Dave Gorman, as well as the inventive nature of projects such as Bookcrossing.com and 1000journals.com, I hatched a plan which was to keep me amused for many weeks:
This month, my resolution to do something quirky every month could be fulfilled by my own social experiment. The idea was a simple, yet very incomplete one. I would buy about 50 objects to distribute around York. For the sake of explaining the idea to Paul, my housemate, I mentioned toy soldiers. Each soldier would have a note attached, inviting the person who finds it to help me gather my army by meeting me at a certain place (probably a pub) at a certain time. Then I would go to that place on the set date and see if anyone turned up.
I decided to do it.
Monday 23 February 2004 - Operation Dalmation
As I clicked around on the internet, I happened upon a fantastic idea. The execution of my February plan could involve the distribution of 101 dalmations around York. It was perfect. And it was more work than I planned upon but the project wasn’t about planning. It was about experimenting on society (I liked the evil genius feel that turn of phrase gave). I decided on Fimo as a medium to make the dalmations and ordered some off the internet.
I named the project ‘Operation Dalmation’ and set up an email address to make it all official.
Tuesday 6 April 2004 - Bodiless heads
Oops, I thought. I had dreamed up Operation Dalmation back in February. One and a half months later, all I had to show for it was 16 fimo dalmation heads (I was struggling to make the bodies look convincing.)
Saturday 8 May 2004 - On breeding Dalmations
It had been over two months since the conception of Operation Dalmation. So far all I had to show for it was an unused email address, one and a half kilos of white fimo (and a bit of black), 3 raw dalmations and 13 raw dalmation heads. In the many hours that followed this realisation, I sat at a table manipulating small lumps of FIMO into recognisable forms, I tried to explain to the people I lived with just why there were a large number of dalmations in the oven, I questioned my sanity, I gave myself neck ache and I fantasised about the possibilities of my project.
By the end of the day I had 32 cooked dalmations, complete with hand-written, numbered, dalmation spotted tag and plea for help to be reunited with its brothers and sisters.
Sunday 9 May 2004 - Getting there
48 cooked dalmations
Monday 17 May 2004 - Phase 2
I made 21 more dalmations. This got me my 101, 100 to distribute and 1 for me to keep. I was ready to go into phase 2: releasing them all into the wild
Wednesday 19 May 2004 - It (finally) starts
After work, I wandered around York University campus, and distributed 4 dalmations.
As I walked away from campus I met Robbie, a friend of a friend.
“What are you doing wandering around campus?” he asked
“Erm,” I hesitated. “Just, y’ know, wandering around campus.”
I didn’t fancy my chances of being able to explain that my purpose was the furtive distribution of clay dalmations. I’d only met the guy a few times before. Luckily he was on his way to a date so had other things on his mind.
Thursday 20 May 2004 - Victory is mine!
As soon as I logged into my computer account the next day at work, I immediately checked my email account. And there, displayed on the screen was one, yes one whole message in my inbox from someone called Steve.
He wanted to know just who I was and what was I up to leaving small dalmations lying around the place?
It is impossible to describe the excitement I felt upon seeing that message in my inbox. Very few will have experienced it but I was to hear exactly that feeling described by one of my muses, Danny Wallace, just a few weeks later when I attended his book reading for Join Me and he explained how he felt when he received his first reply to the advert. He was delighted too!
I replied with a brief explanation of my motives and a 10 question questionnaire so that I could gather some statistics. This was a scientific experiment after all.
Friday 21 May 2004 - A new word is born
I decided to do a search for my name combined with the word ‘dalmation’, just to check that anyone who had replied couldn’t track me down through the world of google. They couldn’t, but my heart sank when I looked at the top of the screen.
Google underlines any words that are to be found on dictionary.com. That is to say any real words. Dalmation wasn’t underlined. Which meant that it wasn’t spelt correctly. My heart sank as I checked on several dictionary websites and Disney’s own 101 Dalmatians website to find that Disney were right. The spotty breed of dog was spelt with an a, not an o.
I didn’t panic. After all, I wasn’t dealing with furry large spotty dogs: I was dealing with small clay spotty dogs. And there was my solution. A Dalmatian is a large furry spotty dog. A dalmation is the small clay descendant of the large furry Dalmatian. All I had done was unwittingly invent a new word to suit the purposes of my project.
Friday 28 May 2004 - Going Public
Every day I had been checking my emails and every day I was collecting more and more dalmation replies. I had only released 38 and already there were 10 replies. It was working better than I had ever hoped it was but suddenly I was a bit bored with it. The previous night, I told my friend Susanna what I had been up to and found that she was more excited than me. It had been days since I had released any so I decided to reveal it to those who had been so keen to find out, and to delegate the dalmations to anyone who would volunteer. Paul, Susanna, Simon and Kate did.
Tuesday 15 June 2004 - Reunion anyone?
With 12 replies under my belt, but 40 more dalmations left to release into the wild, I was all to aware that it was taking too long- people were bound to forget all about it. Many of my respondents were students and it was drawing towards then end of term when they would be leaving York, therefore more difficult to meet. That’s why I invited all my Dalmation finders to a reunion in the Postern Gate Pub at 7pm on Sunday.
Thursday 17 June 2004 - Branching out
I posted 10 dalmations up to Simon in Edinburgh so he could establish a Scottish branch of Operation Dalmation
Sunday 20 June 2004 - The Great(?) Dalmation reunion
No one turned up. I never expected them to.
I felt disappointed but at least I’d tried. It made me more determined to throw myself into other projects, as well as to continue with this one. And after sitting in the pub for my own for an hour I rang a friend and made sure I had a good night anyway!
Wednesday 23 June 2004 - Steve does it again
Steve had been the first person to make me happy with a response. When I checked into my inbox I found another email from him apologising for not being able to make it to the ‘reunion’ and expressing an interest in being there, should I arrange another one.
He made me happy again!
Paul and I started work on the website.
Monday 28 June 2004 - Viva Espagna
Paul, another of my ‘glamorous’ assistants had left a dalmation in Barcelona the previous week. I wasn’t especially happy about that as I was aiming to get as many replies as possible, so leaving it in a country where not everyone would speak English was never going to maximise my chances. Secondly, I wanted to keep it as local as possible, to maximise my chances of meeting as many of the people who responded as possible. Still, I had given them to him to distribute as he wanted and that is what he was doing.
I did however receive a reply for that particular dalmation (number 43). It was from a Brazilian student who was studying in Barcelona. Not only was this expanding into Europe, it had spilled over onto an entirely different continent!
Sunday 4 July 2004 - Slightly sinister
I was slightly worried about the welfare of Number 58 who was now in Scotland in the hands of someone called Cruella. Cruella was interested to know whether I had any more puppies.
Tuesday 6 July 2004 - Giving in to peer pressure
Ever since they found out, my friends were trying to make my project bigger than I wanted it to do by suggesting wild and fantastical things such as sending them overseas. Up until this point I insisted that this was my project and I wanted it to stay in the UK.
Today, I received a reply for number 29 from someone who lived in Holland, after being picked up in York back in May. In spite of my reluctance to go international, these little dogs were getting everywhere so I decided it was time to bow down to peer pressure and help them along. I decided to give 5 to Susanna to release during her impending trip to Sweden and Finland.
Wednesday 7 July 2004 - Almost sacked
Everyone who had volunteered to release dalmations had received specific instructions to note the precise location of each dalmation as it is important in such an experiment for me to know if they were found where we left them.
Paul had told me he left Number 46 at York Railway station. Today he changed his mind, informing me that it had in fact been number 40 he left there. I changed my records then went to collect some more to take to Susanna and there, at the bottom of my bag was number 40. Definitely not in York railway Station.
“Oh well it must have been number 45 then,” said Paul when I confronted him with the cold hard facts.
This, combined with the fact that he’d released one at Heslington Road bus stop where he knew I’d already released one, really wasn’t good enough. What if the same person had picked up the two left at the same bus stop? For all I knew, they could be waiting to collect all 101 before they responded to my plea… I was tempted to sack him but, as he was doubling up as my web monkey, I couldn’t really afford to lay him off. I was rubbish at web design.
Thursday 15 July 2004 - D’oh!
I was already on the train on my way to a conference at Keele University when I remembered that I’d forgotten to bring some dogs with me. I should probably have fired myself for incompetence at that point. On reflection I decided that I was too important-a-member of staff to be laid off at this point so gave myself a verbal warning and got on with my real work at the conference.
Wednesday 21 July 2004 - Rebellion
A phone call from Kate revealed that my minions were going to do things their own way regardless of my instructions. The last time we had spoken, she mentioned getting her dad to leave a few in Denmark where he worked. I had rejected the idea at the time as it was before the time I had been coerced into going international.
“I’ve got a confession to make about the dalmations,” she started ominously.
“Yes?”
“Well, I know you said you didn’t want to go abroad but…”
“Oh, that’s changed now, one ended up in Holland so I decided to help them along after all. I’ve even given some to Susanna to be released in Sweden.”
“Good because there’s one going to Japan and one to New Zealand and my Dad wants to put one in Denmark.”
It seemed that my authority was being overthrown on all counts. I didn’t mind that much. It was quite exciting really and I had given responsibility for them to my assistants. I was also secretly pleased that so many friends of friends were getting involved. To me, it proved that people liked the idea.
We also established that number 66 was ‘really cute’. It was so cute that Kate had been plotting to make up a random email address, just so that she could reply to the message and keep it for herself. I agreed that she could keep it in return for helping me out.
Saturday 24 July 2004 - Iris
This weekend I was visiting Kate in Manchester. Today she had planned for us to go to the Maize Maze to release a dalmation, followed by Lunch at ‘The Dog Inn’ somewhere in Cheshire to release another.
The maze, made entirely out of maize, hence its name, was themed around ‘the beast’ and we had to collect the names of 10 plants that the beast might eat from inside the maze in order to solve an anagram based on the initial letters of each plant. We left a dalmation perched on the ‘Iris’ board. I was secretly hoping that the person who found it would call her Iris, or Maizy (see what I did there?) at the very least. I suspected that if a reply did come back it would end up being called something like Bruce instead.
Mission 1 for the day accomplished.
The Dog Inn proved to be a lot more difficult. Kate knew of the pub after seeing it in the Manchester good pub guide and especially wanted to go there because the review said that, if we could find it, then we deserved a reward. It was also very apt for releasing a puppy in. Idiotically, we had left the house without the guide so had no directions as such to go on. All we knew was that it was off the A50 between Knutsford and Holmes-Chapel and near some sort of Peover. Three hours later, after driving up and down the A50 and exploring all of the Peover’s (which included Upper, Lower, Inferior and Superior Peover as well as Peover Heath) we gave up and returned to Kate’s house for dinner.
Mission 2 failed.
Sunday 25 July 2004 - In demand
Kate requested more dalmations, claiming that she was having difficulty in holding on to them. It seemed that, in Manchesterland, people couldn’t get enough of them; there were people phoning up and asking to be involved; Kate’s dad wasn’t happy with the one he had been assigned to take to Denmark and wanted more; another visitor in their house that weekend wanted one to take to Tamworth…
First of all, this was lovely. I was glad that people liked the idea and were enthusiastic about it. Not all of the friends I had told had looked particularly impressed and chose to respond with an ‘Oh right’ before swiftly changing the subject. If I was being honest, that more negative response, accompanied by a few funny looks, was more what I had expected from the outset, so to receive this sort of reception was fantastic.
However, the enthusiasm of Kate’s friends meant that I no longer knew precisely where each dog was. This was quite important as I had planned to use the information about where they were left as an essential part of my scientific report. I was also keen to find out how many travelled before they were eventually found, and not knowing where they started out was going to make that very difficult.
Even so, I was encouraged by the enthusiasm of Kate’s friends and allowed her to keep three of the ones I had with me for further distribution.
Monday 26 July 2004 - Can I keep it?
Susanna returned to work (and therefore to her email account) from her Scandinavian holiday with news of the Scandinavian branch and the fact that she was ‘having trouble’ parting with number 76. Being the soft touch that I am, I let her keep it in return for her hard work, though refused to send one to one of her friends to keep. After all, this was still a highly scientific experiment to see if random people will respond to a random puppy- I couldn’t just give them to people who asked because it would ruin my stats.
Tuesday 27 July 2004 - Where art thou?
The third of Kate’s allotted dalmations was found and replied to. It was driving me mad not knowing what part of the world it might be in and having to rely upon a further response to my questionnaire to find out. Not everyone replied. Still, this guy sent quite a good description of the dalmation’s activities for the evening so there was a good chance that he would.
Monday 2 August 2004 - No Sense of Humour
The latest reply I received was for dalmation number 48 from someone whose name I won’t mention for reasons that will soon become obvious… In the initial reply he asked what he should do with it now? Does he get a prize?
My reply was pretty standard, sending thanks, the questionnaire and promising to send on the link to the website when it finally appeared in the real world. I added that his prize was that he gets to keep the dog and told him that he was great (little did I know).
The reply I received was as follows (note I’ve corrected his spelling and grammar for your convenience):
“What? Keeping the dog is my prize? That’s sh*t. I will be binning it. Please don’t contact me again about your childish little dogs.”
Obviously I wasn’t very pleased with that response and had expected that many people might feel that way. After all, we can’t all be blessed with a sense of humour and have the ability to see beyond the materialistic rubbish clutters up our lives. I decided to feel sorry for him, and of course, I will respect his wishes and not be contacting him to let him know that I have slagged him off on my website. I’ll even let him remain anonymous!
Thursday 12 August 2004 - What a cynical world we live in
Simon had been continuing to email me with details of the Scottish branch of the project and the last one I received told me that he had decided to leave one in the staff room at his work because he hoped to be there when someone picked it up. Over the past few days I had received intermittent emails about the puppy still being in the place it was left. Today I found out why. Simon had initiated a conversation about the dog (without revealing his involvement) and discovered that most people thought that it was a get rich quick scheme, or an elaborate way to collect emails to SPAM.
I wasn’t particularly surprised that no one had picked it up- as I have already mentioned, I had been more surprised that people actually responded, but I did find it sad that so many people were so cynical about everything in life. I certainly wasn’t very rich yet and I have better things to do with my time than spend hours making small dogs with the sole intent of sending SPAM. I’m sure all the SPAMmers out there would have far more efficient methods of harvesting email addresses too. If they don’t then I’d like to meet a few so I can sell them my idea and get rich, quick.
It was also that day that Simon bought news that number 60 had now been decapitated, he then went off to sulk.
If you could spare a moment to think of number 60, the second of our small spotty friends to be killed in action in the space of a week, I’m sure you’ll feel the sadness that Simon did that day. In her death I will name her Elspeth (a suitably Scottish name) and hope that she has gone to a better place. I’m sure Elspeth would like us to spare a thought for all of her brothers and sisters who are missing action too. May they one day be found safe and well.
It struck me that day that Simon seemed more involved in the spirit of the project than I was at the moment. It didn’t bother me all that much that Elspeth had been killed (sorry Elspeth) and the cynicism of what seemed like the whole world, matched my recent mood.
People I had met and told over previous weeks had loved the idea of Operation Dalmation and I was having trouble keeping the remaining few dalmations to release myself- everyone wanted to take part or to keep one. The majority of the people who responded did so with humour and enthusiasm, but I was losing all mine.
I had found, over the past 7 months that I was having a fantastic time as a result of my new years resolution. I had made a promise to myself to do something random, spontaneous and quirky every month, and I had been compelled to carry that promise out. It had worked so well that my original boredom had completely disappeared and with it, the main motivation for the resolution, and any project which occurred as a result of it. This was probably why I had lost interest. The problem was that, without me, Operation Dalmation going to die a death without any kind of scientific report ever being written or any of the dalmations ever meeting their brothers and sisters again. Which is why I knew I would see it through.
Saturday 14 August 2004 - Fortunately, not lost in translation
Today I received my 21st reply which delighted me. Not only was it from my youngest findee yet, but it was also written in Dutch. Luckily, the 10 year old girl that found it was using her mum as a translator and had provided me with a perfect English translation. I felt disappointed that I was unable to reply in Dutch.
This was the second dalmation that had ended up in Holland- the first taken back there from my home town of York and the second, from Paris where Elsemeike was enjoying part of her school holidays. I decided that I liked Dutch people!!
Tuesday 24 August 2004 - A Present
The knock on my bedroom door surprised me a bit because noone ever came and visited me in my room in this house. Still, I acted normally and let Paul in (because that’s who it was.) He was carrying a small red gift bag.
“Erm, I don’t know why, but my mum bought you a present.” He said offering the red bag to me.
This was slightly surprising if only because I’d never actually met Paul’s mum properly. There may have once been a tired ‘hello' and a vague wave in her direction when Paul pointed me out as I sat on the sofa watching Hollyoaks one Sunday morning but nothing to warrant the random buying of presents. It wasn’t even my birthday.
“I like your mum,” I said with a huge grin on my face as I opened it. Inside was a mug with a spotty dog on it and an accompanying note which said:
I didn’t even know her name until now. Still, I was delighted that someone who didn’t even know me decided to buy me a present just because of Operation Dalmation. It made me fell all warm inside.
Thursday 9 September 2004 - Email from Kate
I might not have been especially active in dalmation land of late but someone certainly was and here is the email to prove it:
"Numbers 80 and 83 made me take them on holiday because they said they were bored of sitting around in my bedroom and getting quite frustrated with the two singing mice and the red creature who laughs a lot and says things are funny even when they are not.
I took them both to Denmark. It seemed a good a place as any. We went on boat trips and played at the Hans Christian Anderson where Ginger Rodgers told us a story about a princess and a pea. It was all so great, just the three of us (and Doug and Bert, (the travelling zebra). But it all went slightly wrong when I went to Lego land. Number 80 insisted on watching a football match in a very small stadium and while it was fun for a while number 83 and myself got slightly bored after realising that they were on a break (not moving around. Eventually number 83 ran off in a strop towards the pirate city where he suspected there were some cheeky looking lego monkeys hanging around looking for treasure, I made number 80 promise not to wander off while I followed to the pirate kingdom. Number 83 made me go on some very silly rides, including a mine train and jungle safari and by the time we went back to collect number 80 he was gone. I'm sorry. I know the last thing you expected me to do with the little creatures was leave them lying around.
And I'm afraid it gets worse. On the last day of the holiday we went to Copenhagen, (which incidentally is a really nice city). We went on a boat trip to visit the little mermaid, (very famous and rather dull statue) and we went up a very tall tower with a weird sloping path, there was an art exhibition of monkeys which number 83 particularily liked. Infact he liked them so much that he asked me to buy him one to make up for my loosing number 80. These monkeys were very expensive, so I couldn't afford one, and more to the point as I said to number 83 at the time if he hadn't run of to the pirate land we wouldn't have lost number 80. However there was no arguing with him and he went into another one of his strops. He followed myself, doug and bert back to the railway station very slowly, and made us almost late for our train to the airport. I had to tell him off. He decided that he would meet us at the airport and went off to get a much smaller train. (no, I don't know what he's talking about either). Well, I guess the end of the story is that number 83 ended up staying at the train station in Copenhagen because he certainly never made it to the airport.
The good news is I still have number 66. He's a much more stay at home and be well behaved kind of dog. The others that were left in my charge have not yet been reported as missing, though some of their owners are getting a little anxious that they may too end up being left behind somewhere soon, if they don't start behaving..."
Saturday 25 September 2004 - Thursday 19th October 2004- Bon voyage me
After two entire weeks of planning I set off on an impromptu interrail trip in Western Europe taking the remaining dalmations with me. Together we toured Holland, Belgium, France and Spain. Unfortunately I still had many of them left to ‘lose’ by the time I got to Spain where I quickly discovered that not many Spanish people speak much English. Not only did this prove to be a problem for me, as my Spanish is limited to ‘Hola, dos cerveza por favor’ (Hello, two beers please), but also showed little potential for the fate of my dalmations. It was for this reason that I still had three of them in the bottom of my bag when I returned to York.
Sunday 24 October 2004 - The final leg
I had spent the weekend in my home town of Lichfield, boring everyone with my holiday photos and allowing my mum the enjoyment of making me breakfast in bed. On the train home, I stopped off in Sheffield for lunch with Catherine who I hadn’t seen for almost a year. Inevitably the holiday photos came out and amongst them were a few pictures of dalmation releases. Naturally this prompted Catherine to enquire about the progress of the project which in turn led to me showing her the remaining three dogs who still lived at the bottom of my bag.
Catherine immediately took a liking to number 94 and because, at this point I just wanted to get them out of my bag and to a good home I said that she could keep it. It always amused me when friends who knew about the project finally saw one of the dalmations in real life. Their initial reaction was inevitably great surprise: “Wow they look really good!” I think people must imagine deformed, barely recognisable lumps of black and white clay. Admittedly, not all of them could stand up on their own, but to my credit, they did all look like dogs, albeit cartoon dogs.
The outcome of my visit to Sheffield was that Catherine came on board as another of my assistants with the responsibility for the final three dalmations.
Sunday 14 November 2004 - Another response
Catherine had obviously set about her task with great speed because, for the first time in a long while, Operation Dalmation HQ had an email in its inbox. I sent a reply, again promising the elusive website which never seemed to appear.
Tuesday 30 November 2004 - Fulfilling a promise
After having a word with Paul, he finally set about putting the website online while I tried to track down various bits of paper and information about where all the dalmations actually went. I very sensibly had some locations saved in text messages, some in emails, some on computer discs that I couldn’t find, some just scribbled on random bits of paper, and as it turns out, some in an email that I’d managed to delete. Still, it was all coming together really well. I also updated this very diary as it turned out I hadn’t written anything in it since July.
Saturday 4 December 2004 - Nothing much
It was 2pm. I was still sitting around in my pyjamas wondering what to do with my day. This was the first Saturday in several months that I had nothing planned and, though I’d been looking forward to it, now I was kind of bored. Wish I had some fimo to play with…
Monday 13 December 2004 - Appreciation and Concern
After sending out many emails on Friday afternoon, publicising the website to anyone I could think of, I was pleased to receive a huge mountain of (seven) replies which all said nice things about everything.
There were also a few concerns expressed about the location of all the dalmations who hadn't yet found a new home. Where would they be spending Christmas? Had they fallen into the wrong hands? Unfortunately there was no way of finding out.
Susanna now thinks she’s famous.
Thursday 16 December 2004 - Merry Christmas
Steve the Dalmation would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and an even merrier new year!
We're both off to Rome soon to spend Christmas with the Pope (well, sort of!)
Wednesday 29 December 2004 - A dog is for life...
During a frantic search for my passport the day before we were due to take off for Rome, I found Dalmation Number 92 hiding underneath a pile of bank statements in my wardrobe. This was a relief as it was the only unreleased dog I had been unable to locate up until now. Apart from the ones Simon and Kate still had, it was the only one left.
I considered taking it to be released in Rome but rejected the idea on the basis that the ones left in none-english speaking countries had not met with much success. It was Christmas and I wanted 92 to go to a good home where it could be happy. Furthermore, I felt that my last release should be different and special in some way. I decided that the best way to find a good home was to advertise for one, so, after waiting for Chistmas to be over (A dog is for life, not just for christmas), I released Number 92 on ebay
Monday 17 January 2005 - Going...going...gone!
Number 92 spent a nail-biting 10 days at auction. The price shot up to £10 in its first weekend and stayed there until the end of the auction when I said my farewells and posted the dog to its new home in Eastbourne.
In the meantime, Steve and I went home to Lichfield for Christmas, where my mum cooked us christmas dinner and the locals kindly put a christmas tune on the jukebox just before we walked into one particular pub, even though it was 14th January.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! by the way.
Wednesday 2 February 2005 - Publicity
After a quiet few weeks on the dalmation front, I was contacted by Sarah at Stone Soup who had seen the website and wanted to include it in a feature for the March edition of Flock, a magazine which goes out across North Yorkshire. Naturally, I agreed to be interviewed.
I was interested to see if this publicity would encourage any more dalmation findees to contact me with news of their whereabouts...only time can tell so watch this space for more news of the article.
Monday 28 February 2005 - Happy Belated Birthday Operation Dalmation!
It was the last day of February and I had a nagging feeling that I had forgotten something... It turns out that 'something' was the birthday of the conception of Operation Dalmation (18th February). Forgetting birthdays is not something I'm good at. Admittedy all of my friends so far this year have received their birthday cards an average of 3 days later than they should have done, but more because I was being lazy than because I had forgotten.
It was true that I had been neglecting my army of lost puppies of late and the launch of lostglove.co.uk, a project created by Annie which I had been involved in for the past two months, inspired me to do something about it. I have therefore made a new months resolution to write a report of my findings for 'the science bit' which still looks very empty, so watch this space!
Oh, and check out lostglove.co.uk... its grrreat (as Tony the Tiger would say).
Thursday 21 April 2005 - Lunch with Steve
OK, I admit it: I still haven't written the report that I promised would be ready for the beginning of April which means that there hasn't been much news of late. I do however have a fantastic excuse- I'd forgotten that there was still one dalmation to be released. Simon has promised to do so on his trip to Germany next month so I'll get myself into gear after that.
With the weather getting warmer, Steve has been wanting to go for 'walkies' a lot more so Paul and I took him out for lunch. You can view the photos here.
Saturday 23 April 2005 - St Georges Day
Susanna, Catherine and I got together with another friend from our university days to celebrate St Georges Day with a mini dalmation reunion.
Unfortunately, Catherine forgot to bring Bill with her so we had to make do with Steeve the leprechaun as a stand-in.
Steeve the leprechaun was purchased in Dublin last year when, as part of my resolution to do one spontaneous, random or quirky thing a month, I dragged Susanna to Dublin to celebrate St Georges Day, so it was only right that he join in the St Georges festivities this year. In honour of the occasion, all of the dalmations were temporarily renamed 'George'.
Sunday 24 April 2005 - Published!
After hearing a rumour that the new edition of Flock magazine had now been printed and distributed throughout North Yorkshire, I set out in search of a copy. It wasn't long before I found one in a bar in York.
Steve, Silent Bob and Sven seemed pleased with it!
Thursday 19 May 2005 - 3 out of 4 people....
3 out of 4 people voted for Operation Dalmaton's official birthday to be today. And who am I to argue with 3 people?!
Happy birthday to all of the dalmations, lost and found. Have a great day!
Wednesday 25 May 2005 - Another year older, probably not much wiser
My birthday this year confirmed my suspicions that I have now become inextricably linked with all things dalmatian. Apart from the three dalmatian themed cards I received (one featuring a cartoon me!), I also got a dalmatian keyring from Paul's mum and, best of all, during a weekend spent with my Y2K5 buddies, Simon presented me with a (very professionally) handmade Operation Dalmation T-shirt.
A year and a half ago I made a paradoxical new years resolution to be more spontaneous. What followed was probably one of the best years of the 25 I’ve managed to survive so far: I found new friends through York Comedy Festival ; I celebrated St Georges Day in Ireland; I travelled to new and not-very-far off places and, most bizarrely, I sat in my room on my own making clay models of dalmatians. Oh, and I learned how to spell ‘dalmatian’!
It just so happens that my birthday falls a few days after that of Operation Dalmation, so it feels like a good time for a bit of reflection:
There are probably a lot of people who would wonder what would happen if they left 100 clay dalmations lying around with a message asking strangers to get in touch, but not half as many who would actually spend over £40 on clay and spend large proportions of their time making them and scattering them about: it’s not a sensible thing to do; it makes people think that you are a bit loopy and if I didn’t have a new years resolution to fulfil, I probably wouldn’t have done it either. But I’m glad I did.
I was never a person who was happy with all the ‘what ifs’ which crop up in day to day living and have been a firm believer in the old adage that you only regret the things you don’t do. I can’t say that, if I had never seen the project through, I would spend my dying days plagued with regrets at never having learned how to model dogs out of fimo, but I have learned that, if you do do these things, your life can become a richer and a happier place. After all, who wouldn’t like to hear that their boss has used their project as a bedtime story for his son, or that they have cheered someone up while they frantically searched the internet for signs of their own lost dog?
Now I have seen what I can achieve by actually doing things instead of just thinking about doing them, I can apply it to all aspects of life, and maybe one day I can achieve even greater things by following the same philosophy.
Saturday 28 May 2005 - The end of the road
The last dalmation (No# 63) was released today in a harbour in Hamburg by Simon:
"It was a lovely view and he could watch the ships and cranes until he was found."
Wednesday 1 June 2005 - Guten Tag
Number 63, or Bruce as he has now been christened was claimed today by Tony from Germany. As this is probably the last response I'll get from the findees, I thought it was worth a mention.
Right, best get on with writing that extremely scientific report then...
Tuesday 21 June 2005 - York TV
Today I received an email from York TV asking if they could do a feature on Operation Dalmation. As my TV ariel points the wrong way to be able to pick up York TV, and therefore there is no chance of me seeing the item, I agreed!
More info to follow when I know stuff.
Wednesday 6 July 2005 - Just to let you know
The interview with York TV happened just a few days after my last post. Can't tell you when (or even if) it will be on though as their transmitter is currently down and they have no idea when it will return to York's TV screens.
Friday 26 August 2005 - Almost finally...
Finally, well almost, there is an actual report about my findings from Operation Dalmation. By that I mean that I've written it and its been passed to my web monkey to make it look pretty and put it on the website. So if it takes another few months before you get to see it, its Paul's fault, not mine!
I'll keep you posted.
Sunday 23 October 2005 - Walkies
Paul and I took the dogs (47 and 101) on a 7 hour walk in the mountains of Tongariro National Park in New Zealand today. Unfortunately we were too busy trying not to fall off the side of snowy mountains to remember to take any photos, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
Saturday 5 November 2005 - Where art thou?
My travels in New Zealand took me to Christchurch where Simon left Dalmation Number 56 in the New Excelsior Hostel around about this time last year.
Naturally we stayed at the very same hostel in the hope of reuniting a few dalmations and I was delighted to find that it was on the corner of Lichfield Street as Lichfield is my very own birth place!
Alas, it was not meant to be and Number 56 was nowhere to be found, though there were a few china dalmatians in a shop just down the road. They looked a bit big to be related to Number 56 though.
Tuesday 20 December 2005 - The moment you've all been waiting for...
Well, its finally happened. After a lot of encouragement from me, Paul has put my 'extremely scientific report', detailing the results of the project in the science bit.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I know you'll enjoy all the Christmas celebrations over the next week. Which is my way of saying 'Have a lovely Christmas'.
Thursday 9 March 2006 - The End?
Those of you who regularly check the site will notice that there hasn't been any news for a while. The fact of the matter is that all of the dogs have now been released, and while some have been in contact to let me know about their new homes, others are, I think its safe to assume, gone forever. Its a sad thought but all good things have to come to an end.
I often get people who know about the project asking how it's going. The truth of the matter is that it's not really going anywhere anymore. There won't be any more responses to the remaining lost dog's pleas for help, nor will there be any more releases. 101 is a good number. My favourite in fact.
I will still occasionaly pop up with news of what some members of our dalmation family have been up to, and of any other projects I might one day have up my sleeve as soon as I know myself. Thank you to everyone who has been involved with the project and for all the lovely comments I've received for the duration.
See you around
Leanne
x
Friday 17 March 2006 - Reincarnation
Just days after I put Operation Dalmation to bed, I received an email from across the pond from Debbie, who is starting up her own branch of Operation Dalmation in the USA.
Looks like there's still life in the old dog yet! I'll keep you posted...
Monday 1 May 2006 - Disaster Strikes
Its been a while since I spent any time with Steve (No 101) so I took the opportunity this bank holiday to take him out with Comedy Jo and Ninja Deer, the travelling reindeer to do some sightseeing in York.
Having lived in York for 6 years, I decided it was about time I visited the National Railway Museum. Even though I have no interest in trains (apart from them getting me to work on time every morning), its free to get in and now has the added attraction of the 'Yorkshire Eye'. That's a big wheel to you and me.
To be honest Steve was a bit over-excited and I perhaps should have been keeping an eye on him as he jumped around on a wall with Ninja Deer, trying to get a better look at the wheel. But who could have known that Steve would, in his excitement, plummet from the wall into the road where his head would become detatched from his body? Nobody.
Even though he'd been decapitated, Steve seemed anxious that we didn't let it ruin the day and insisted that we continue with the sight seeing. (Apparently decapitation isn't that serious when you're a plasticine dog.) So we looked at some trains, and rode on a big wheel. Then we took Steve to the vets to have his head superglued back on.
He's OK now.