Bella May's 1st Family

We had a lovely day with Bella's first adoptive family. 
Viola, Jakob and their two little boys Karol (7) and Oscar (4) are from Poland but have lived in Preston for about 12 years. 
They adopted Bella from Romania in March 2017 but little Oskar was so allergic to her that they had to ask Perrera Rescue to rehome her. We saw Bella's cute wee face on Facebook and applied to adopt her. It was awful when we went to collect her because the family were so upset to part with her. Viola hung on to me sobbing. 
However, we have kept in touch and see each other every few months. The family now foster rescue dogs until they find them a forever home. Viola is really good at dog training and I think we have her to thank for Bella's good behaviour. The family looked after Bella for us while we went away last year (Oskar is no longer allergic to her!)
It's the 2nd time they've been on the boat with us and the boys love it - especially Karol who always wants to have a go at steering.
Whenever we see them Jakob always bakes us a cake. He has some unusual recipes; we have had spinach cake, red kidney bean chocolate cake and today he brought us a vegan marble cake with chocolate glazing and walnuts. They are not vegan or veggie so it was so kind of him to go to the trouble. All his cakes are delicious.
We moored up at the park in Skipton and took a picnic with us then the boys had a great time in the play area.
When they'd had enough there we took the boat into the centre of town and took them to Skipton Castle Woods where we had a lovely walk in the shade. It was really hot today so the shade was welcome.
By the time we got back to our home mooring the boys were so tired and little Oskar had got to the crying stage. Viola told me later that they fell asleep immediately in the car.

It's funny how fate works isn't it? We got the most gorgeous dog and made some lovely friends into the bargain. :-)