"When we entered, it was a case of fighting the tears straight away."
As you may recall from an earlier post, during the lead up to Christmas I began a collection of Christmas goodies to hand over to the Birmingham dogs home. On the December 23rd, I took a trip over there with my boyfriend, to hand over all the amazing donations I had collected consisting of beds, toys, blankets, food and treats!
When we arrived, we were greeted by lovely members of staff who helped us bring in all the donations, before we went to take a look around the kennels for ourselves. As we approached the first kennel block, we noticed a sign on the door asking visitors to take a present from under the tree to put in the dog’s stockings. When we entered, it was a case of fighting the tears straight away. The first thing I saw was an emaciated new arrival, and when I say emaciated I mean skin and bone. In the kennel next to him, was another new arrival shaking with nerves in his bed. It was heart-breaking.
Each kennel had a stocking hanging outside, and at the end of a block was a little Christmas tree standing over a box of goodies. These were donations made by the public, dispersed to each block for visitors to hand out to a dog of their choice. I later found out that on Christmas morning the dogs would receive everything that was given in their stocking. If you take a look at their Instagram, Facebook, or twitter page, you can watch videos of them receiving their presents, and my god is it cute. I thought it was such a lovely idea to get visitors involved, and of course we got involved and handed out a gift each too.
All the dogs we saw in each block were absolutely beautiful and had heart tugging personalities, but there was one dog in particular that caught our eye, and had us completely baffled as to how she was still there. Let’s just say, had our circumstances been appropriate she would have been reserved there and then.
After looking around we had the pleasure of chatting some of the members off staff, and having cuddles with two beautiful fur balls, one of which was the one we wanted to take home with us. Before we left I received a certificate of donation, which I accepted on behalf of everyone who donated.
I would like to say another HUGE thank you to everyone who got involved, as it means so much to me and the team at the dog’s home. If you are able to expand your family, please take a trip over there and see for yourselves some of the wonderful dogs they have ready and waiting for their new homes. The establishment itself is great, and the dogs are looked after amazingly by a truly lovely, hard working team. Adopting is definitely something that is in my plans for the future once I am able to. Until then I will continue with my Christmas collections to make their day a little bit brighter!
If you would like to get involved next year I would love to have more people on board!
A big thank you again from me and Birmingham dogs home,
Meg x
https://www.birminghamdogshome.org.uk
