Help PetPlan give us a dog's dinner!

Our fantastic partners at PetPlan are asking pet-loving Facebook fans to vote for a charity to receive up to a whopping 50,000 free pouches of food, and it's dogs vs cats as our pals at Cats Protection are the other organisation to benefit. All you have to do is click; it takes seconds and costs nothing at all.

We'd love to see the food split 50-50, but right now there are still over 45,000 pouches going unclaimed by anyone, and only five more days (including today) to vote!

Here, Sian from Dogs Trust Harefield urges you to get involved:



Please vote and share the Facebook link and video among your friends to help these doggies get a yummy dinner. We care for over 16,000 dogs are year in our centres, and each meal costs us around 23p. Every pouch of food we receive will help our resources go that bit further - and you don't have to spend a single penny.

Thank you so much for your support; now please get clicking!

Vote Now

Meet Dogs Trust: Vicky Kelly

Name: Vicky Kelly

Location: Dogs Trust Glasgow Rehoming Centre

Job: Supporter Relations Officer

You what...? I talk constantly about Dogs Trust, at least I’m sure that’s how it must seem!
I attend events, speak at community groups and organise events at the centre to promote the work of Dogs Trust.

Best thing about my job: Listening to people’s stories of the canine companions they have shared their lives with and seeing long term residents leave the rehoming centre with their new families.

Pets & Family: I have my rescue dog Toffee who hides her age very well. She has lived with my husband, Martin and I for over 12 years. Goodness knows what she thought when my two daughters arrived however she has always been a superb four-legged play friend.

Favourite websites: Without doubt Facebook! I have friends and family all over the world and it’s a great way to share photos and keep in touch.

What I'm reading now: Other than my friends status updates on Facebook and Oxford Reading Tree stage 5 (my daughters school book) I don’t make enough time to read. I do however enjoy books by Bear Grylls and Dame Ellen MacArthur as I am an adventurer at heart!

Weekend plans: Absolutely none what so ever! This is most unusual. Perhaps I’ll get chance to pick up a book?

Previous Meet Dogs Trust: (Pirate) Brian Child | Alexandra Roumbas

Image credit: Stuart Dreghorn

Dogs Trust fundraising: can you lend your support to our fans?

Recently I've been reading our social networking sites and forum with a big smile on my face. Why? Because many supporters have come forward with a range of creative ways that they've decided to support Dogs Trust (and for a variety of reasons). Here are just some of the events going on over the next few months to give you some inspiration if you were stuck for ideas:

Adele's eBay Pet Portrait Auctions (end 09 June 08): Adele contacted us about publicising her auction on our Facebook page, and we're very glad she did. Guaranteed by Mission Fish, 10% of the proceeds from the auction for these portraits goes straight to Dogs Trust, so the more you bid, the more you raise. It's much appreciated, Adele.

Auction 1: 10" x 14" portrait from photo
Auction 2: 12" x 16" portrait from photo

David's Northern Rock Cyclone Event (14 June 08): DoggySnaps regular David McGarry must be in the last stages of training now as there are just eight days to go before he straps on his trainers and cycles 31 miles in aid of Dogs Trust. Phew! You can sponsor him here. Thanks, David.

Stacy's Great Scottish Run (07 Sept 08): On our bebo page, Stacy told us about the 10km run she is fervently training for in memory of her best friend who was a committed supporter of Dogs Trust. You can sponsor her here. Good luck Stacy!

Keep Bilbo on the Beach Facebook Group: A group set up for a very different doggy cause has been urging its members to make donations to Dogs Trust in order to show their support for dogs in general. This is very generous and we're most grateful.

We're incredibly grateful to every single supporter who has made a donation, carried out a fundraising event, sponsored or adopted a dog or just spread the word. It all counts and the dogs in our care are very glad you did what you could to help them.

Dogs Trust goes blogging...

Hello, and welcome to the first Dogs Trust blog post at Blogger!

We've been busy little social bees of late, networking furiously on behalf of our wonderful dogs and Centre staff on Facebook, MySpace, bebo, Twitter and Flickr. In fact, you can see our Flickr feed in the Slideshow right here.

We'd love you to come and visit us on any of those sites or add this blog to your RSS feeds. We'll be discussing the latest doggy news as well as Dogs Trust updates and appeals, information about particular breeds and more.

If you've just found us while looking to sponsor a dog or make a donation, follow those links to do so. Now you can even give the gift of Dogs Trust support to a friend through our Facebook application, which gives them a virtual badge for their profile for a whole month.

As editor of our social networking world, I look forward to hearing from you.