Sunday 29th January 2012  1.30pm - 4.30pm

The First Bark in the Park for all breeds hosted by the Miniature Schnauzer Information Site www.facebook.com/groups/148634851826133 in aid of Tante, the Black Blur is taking place in a few weeks time. Our last mini schnauzer turn out was a great success and we hope that ...all our mini schnauzer buddies will turn up on the day to go for a walk in the park with doggy friends of all breeds, shapes and sizes willing to take part in our fundraiser!

We are suggesting a 5 euro donation and/or Tesco club card points if you have any to spare. You'll need to redeem the vouchers online with Tesco asking them to exchange them for travel tokens (min €2.50 vouchers = €10 travel tokens) these will be posted to you and then can be donated to Tante's travel fund. All you need to do is write a note saying you're donating them to Jenny Hale, sign it and maybe include your phone number and they can then be used to book ferry crossings. The note is important as the coupons
will have your name printed on them so they need your permission. It will take 5 days for them to be posted out.

John Higgins from Black Blur Photography www.blackblurphotography.com (AKA Tante's Dad) will be there on the day to capture some memorable moments and if you take a fancy to any of his photos you'll be able to buy them, with all funds raised going to Tante. High res jpg suitable for prints up to 8x10 €5 and a 5x7 print including p& p €10

Date: Sunday 29th January 2012
Time: 1pm
Place: Castletown House & Garden
Starting Point: Gravel area in front of Castletown House by the main doors.

Just park in the main car park & on foot follow the main road for 2-3 mins, which will bring you to the gravel area in front of the house, so bring pooh bags! There is enough space to wander around if you arrive early. We’ll allow 15-20min for everyone to arrive, and we can then head into the paddocks for the walk.

HOW TO GET TO CASTLETOWN:
The house is located 20km from Dublin off the M4 Sligo Road, from the M4 take the R449 Celbridge West/Leixlip West Exit 6, stay in the left hand lane and before the top of this sliproad there is a third lane on the left, go into this lane and then after approximately 100 meters you will see the Castletown Estate gates on the right.

Please note that cars/ buses access is from the above entrance as the avenue from Celbridge is for pedestrian/bicycle access only.

GPS/SAT NAV Location: Latitude 53.355 and Longitude 6.53

MAP
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=53.355039383165966%7E-6.529999999999994&lvl=14&dir=0&sty=r&where1=53.355%2C+-6.53&form=LMLTEW

Tante's Story:

The current chapter in Tante Zoe's life began on 8th November 2011.
I was awoken to a strange noise in the kitchen. on going down to investigate and found my little wooley girl in full seizure. To say i aged 10 years on the spot was an understatment. Tante is a very healthy & fit little dog and has had no prior episodes of fitting. Epilepsy is fairly common especially in poodles but normally starts earlier. Tante turned 8 last august an normal epilepsy rears its head 1-5 years.
To cut a long story short my wooley world came crashing down on wed 28th December when an MRI showed a considerable mass in her head surrounded by large area of inflammation. Up til that point we were getting an MRI just to rule out last couple of reasons for seizures before she was to be diagnosed with primary epilepsy.
Lovely Xmas pressie :-( Vet college in UCD where in contact with Neurologist in UK to get his opinion and he came back the following day giving a diagnosis of meningioma - brain tumour in the lining of the tissue between brain & skull. Next step was to get an idea of prognosis and poss treatments - for this he needed to see further mri images.
At this stage Tante had only had a total of 4 fits & we were just reaching 4 weeks since a fit on New Years Day when we hit a bad patch 10 fits in 36hrs.
3rd Jan when things seemed the darkest they had been especially after very little sleep for 2 nights we got a bit of good news.
The neurologist came back early with news that he felt the tumour was able to be removed by surgury & together with radiotherapy would giving her a chance at 18-24 months but always the chance it may not regrow . Without surgury prognosis was very poor and she would deteriorate quickly.
Our little wooly girl has given us some much we knew with this postive prognosis we had to give her a chance at everything available to her.
So we have now a date for surgury .
On 17th January she is being admitted to Davies Veterinery Specialists in Bedfordshire in UK for surgury the following day . Looking after her will be Laurent Garosi.
Prior to this we are very grateful for all the help given to us my our regular vet Mark Heffernan, our homeopathic vet Tom Farrington & the staff at UCD Vet College Dublin esp Alice, Alex & Sabela
Myself and Tante have many friends and aquaintences though our agility involvement, my grooming business, teaching & competitions, and many general dog related friends so i wondered how best to keep track of our upcoming battle.
People have been very kind with many good luck & thinking of you best wishes so I have decided to do this page so that people interested in her story can keep up todate. Thank you very much for reading our story .See more Castletown House & Parklands View map · Get directions