Celia Cross Greyhound Rescue
Fieldguard have supported the Celia Cross Greyhound Trust for many years. The Charity’s complex is on clay/flint as well as being on a hillside, so our honeycomb hollow mud mats were the perfect choice, laid throughout. No more cut paws or nasty bald patches anywhere and NO MUD either. The last being most important because the kennels and runs are spotless.
The dog pictured, is lying on a carpet of lush grass after the recent very heavy rains. The honeycomb mats prevented any depredation of what is a heavily trafficked area and allowed the grass to take root and grow through.
Normally, a Greyhound racing around does a very good ploughing job of even the most hardy lawn or grass area. No longer the case at Celia Cross. (The brindle pictured was picked up having been chained to a fence and left. It was starving, terrified of humans and cowered and snarled when anyone tried to approach. It has now found a wonderful home and is, as the picture illustrates, extremely well adjusted and happy).
Celia Cross is a small, independent charity that is totally funded by a vast army of friends who work tirelessly to raise funds to enable it to continue its work. It has no recourse to any ‘big brother’ such as the Government or even the Retired Greyhound Trust because it takes in any sight hound that is in need, not just Greyhounds.
There is a miniscule paid staff comprising a Manageress and kennel maids; but also, of course, the many helpers. Some tend the dogs, others just do site and estate work – it has 8 1/2 acres of exercise fields, while others raise money by raffles, street collections, fairs and sales; vetting adoptive homes, ferrying in dogs in danger – often at a moment’s notice from as far afield as the north east, Ireland and Bulgaria.
One helper just cleans the dog’s teeth, while another takes dogs home for a weekend to acclimatise them to a domestic setting, something most of them have never previously encountered. They have a small, volunteer manned, shop that caters for the needs of sight hounds called ‘The Dog House’.
The Charity takes in any sight hound in danger or distress, nurtures it and prepares it for a domestic life. Would be adoptees are vetted, as are their homes and the Charity tries to match the right dog to the right circumstances. They purposely have limited accommodation so each dog gets the maximum care, but still manage to re-home an average of 240 dogs a year.
To visit is an uplifting experience, for the place is well maintained and immaculate, the dogs universally in wonderful physical and mental condition and, because it is in both their nature and the current environment, enormously welcoming to visitors.
Our honeycomb hollow ring mats come in a ‘light’, ‘regular’ and ‘heavy duty’ range of sizes and in a choice of colours to suit all circumstances and preferences. They can be laid on slippery brick, wood or stone pathways, to make a grass path, cover poached lawn to allow re-growth, reduce the mud in muddy gateways, solidify gravel paths and drives, eliminate dirt coming into public buildings, stop poaching on golf greens, allow vehicles to park on or drive over grass. They just make the impossible possible.
