We really can’t believe its that time of year again! It’s our second Christmas here at the Brands Hatch Branch of the RGT and we’ve had such an amazing year! We’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge heartfelt thank you to every single family, volunteer and supporter that has crossed our threshold this year! We really can’t put into words what a difference your support and kindness has made to the everyday lives of the beautiful hounds that we’ve been lucky enough to help this year. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year, and look forward to working with you all in 2015!
… and for those of you that still haven’t quite finished (or started!) your Christmas shopping yet, why not buy a loved one, one of the RGT’s fabulous 2015 Greyhound Calendars?! Pop into our branch or visit our “Greyhound Giftshop” for this and other Greyhound Goodies!
Happy Halloween to all of our DunRunnin Greyhound Friends, Families & Supporters! When we stumbled across this gorgeous little pair in all their fancy-dress finery, we couldn’t resist sharing!
Hip Hip Hooray!!! Today we celebrated our very first Birthday at DunRunnin Rehoming Kennels, Brands Hatch! It’s been an absolutely amazing first year, and we couldn’t be more thrilled by how things are going. Thanks to the dedication and hard work of Karen and her team of volunteers, we managed to find forever homes for thirty gorgeous greyhounds, and look forward to doubling those numbers next year! If you would like to be part of our rehoming success story over the next 12 months, why not consider giving a loving home to one of our residents profiled on our “Meet Our Hounds” page, or maybe you’d like to join our workforce of volunteers profiled on our “Meet Our Volunteers” page. Either way we’d love you to become part of the community of DunRunnin Friends and Families!
Our very own Dunrunnin Royals, Prince Caspian and his kennel mate Peggy’s Princess, were mixing it up with the hoi palloi of Blackheath this afternoon, as they were guests of honour at Blackheath’s Annual Dog Show! Our Royal couple were impeccably behaved and made Dunrunnin proud by demonstrating just how calm and kind-natured this amazing breed is! A fab afternoon was had by all and Caspian and Princess’s favorite part of the day was helping Jo to judge the Obedience Competition (Caspian and Princess were particularly keen on ‘tidying-up’ the leftover sausages, after the prize giving had taken place!) Princess also enjoyed helping to run our ‘Greyhound Giftshop’ as she got to meet lots of friendly supporters whenever they came over to view our Greyhound Goodies! Caspian was less enthusiastic, and later had a snooze under DunRunnin’s stall, while Princess carried on with her ‘meet & greets’!
This week the DunRunnin Volunteers ventured into deepest darkest Kent, accompanied by several of our RGT hounds, to visit the annual Kent County Show! For those that haven’t visited the show before, it’s a really great family day out, and well worth a visit. The three day event brings together the very best of Kent with an abundance of animals, exhibitions, food, fun and excitement! We’re pleased to report that our hounds behaved impeccably, and enjoyed the fuss and admiration they received as they strolled around the Show Ground, wearing their green and red RGT jackets!
We’re thrilled to report that our tea hut transformation is really taking shape, and it won’t be long before we’re able to invite you all around for a nice cuppa! Since opening in September 2013, our main focus has been on improving the state of repair and condition of our kennels for the benefit of our beloved Greyhound Residents 🙂 This is of course how things should be, but it has meant that our poor old volunteers have been stuck with a damp old garden shed in which to congregate, which is fine in the summer months, but very cold, wet and windy in the winter! However, those days of sitting shivering in a smelly old shed, after long wet doggy walks, will soon be behind us – hurrah!
Since opening in September 2013, we’ve been prioritising works to improve the state of repair and condition of our premises, in ways that can best improve the dailylives of our resident Greyhounds. Our first priority was to carryout all necessary repairs to our kennels and paddocks, and now that those basic works have been done, we’ve turned our attention to our Greyhound Kitchen and Greyhound Medical Room. As you can imagine, funds for works of this nature are extremely limited, but thanks to the support and generosity of the Swanley branch of Howdens Joinery, who have very kindly donated a set of kitchen units, workstops and sinks, we have been able to replace our old rickety garden tables(!) to create a much safer and user-friendly area in which to prepare meals at feeding times.
The extremely dashing Dunrunnin Brindle, know to close friends as Copper-Bopper! made his modelling debut this week, as a photographic model for a forthcoming television advert. Copper was chauffeur driven by his minders (Karen and Jo, in the DunRunnin Wagon) to a top secret location (the London Soccer Dome) where he posed for photos (some of the time!!) and generally had a great day out!
We can’t believe that Christmas is upon us already! It really feels as though the Brands Hatch Branch has only been open for a few days! Our wonderful Greyhounds have all settled in really well, and would like to say a huge thank you to all of the support we’ve had since opening our doors on 1st September 2013. We wish all of our friends and supporters a wonderful Christmas and a very happy 2014, and we look forward to hearing from all of those wonderful forever homes over the next 12 months!
Just a quick reminder to all our Greyhound Friends and Families out there that there may be lots of whizz-pops and bangs this week, so do remember that our furries can find this time particularly distressing if they are not good with loud noises. Our best advice is to make sure your pooches have a nice long walk and extra toilet breaks before dusk falls so that you can keep them in for the evening. We’d advise against leaving nervous hounds home alone in the evenings this week, and have other tips to help if you need to get in touch. One thing than some people have mentioned success with is “ThunderShirt”, which can be worn by your hound like a t-shirt, which has velcro fastners that give a “hugging” sensation, similar to that experienced by a puppy snuggling up to its mum! ThunderShirts are available from Pets at Home, and remember, if you do shop at Pets at Home, make sure you pick up a loyalty card, and nominate the RGT as your chosen charity for Pets at Home to support! We wish you all a safe and happy Bonfire Night 🙂