Vanity Fur Santa Paws

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On a snowy December afternoon, Castledon attended the Vanity Fur Santa Paws event, in Leigh on sea.
Despite the freezing conditions, there was a good turn out of festive hounds.
We took along Pauly, who is looking for a home and he enjoyed himself very much - especially trying out the biscuits from Vanity Fur's Canine Cookie Company!
He managed to take time out from his biscuit taste-testing to make friends with a Tibetan Spaniel, who kept licking his face!
Santa Paws himself was also in attendance, and Pauly managed to collar him and give him his Christmas list, the top of which was his greatest wish to find a home of his own - here's hoping Santa delivers for you, Pauly!

Many thanks to Stephanie and all at Vanity Fur for once again inviting Castledon and also for the lovely big bag of their treats that they gave us for all of the hounds back at the kennels.
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Vanity Fur 2009

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Castledon were contacted by Stephanie at Vanity Fur in Leigh on sea, to see if we would once again like to attend their Howl-o-ween dog fancy dress party.
We were delighted to say ‘yes’, as last year the event was so enjoyable and such a success.
We took along our awareness stall and tombola and were accompanied by Dixie from the kennels, who behaved impeccably and also made a lot of new friends.



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It was great to see so many greyhounds there, including several ex-Casteldon residents, including Reene, Lucy and Fleur. All of the greyhounds in attendance were great ambassadors for their breed and to top it all Storm, who is owned by Samantha and Paul, won first prize in the fancy dress!

We all had a lovely afternoon and as a bonus also raised £150 in much needed funds for the kennels.
Many thanks to Stephanie and all her staff at Vanity Fur, who worked so hard to put on the party and also donated the proceeds of the raffle to Castledon.


Braintree Dog Show

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Castledon were invited by the new owners of Ben (previously called 'Turbo') and Sophie to have a stall at the dog show that their dog training club was holding in aid of the Dogs' Trust in August.
The event was held at the rugby club in Braintree and we were pleased to attend along with our awareness stall and tombola.



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We took Holly from the kennels along with us and she was an absolute star, making lots of new friends and melting a lot of hearts!
She was an excellent 'PR' dog for Castledon and greyhounds in general, showing what gentle, affectionate natures greyhounds have.
It was also lovely to see Ben and Sophie looking so happy and relaxed with their new owners.
All in all, a great day was had by all.
Thank you Derek & maureen for inviting Castledon



Royal Veterinary College Fun Day


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In August, Castledon were invited to have a stall at an open day held by The Royal Veterinary College in Hertfordshire.
As you may know, this is the place that helped put Trigger on the road to recovery when others would have given up, so we were honoured to attend.

We took Corey and Lacey along, who both enjoyed themselves immensely.
There was a companion dog show, which was very well attended.
Even though the weather was a bit blustery a great deal of money was raised towards the college’s hydrotherapy tread-mill appeal.



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We had a special guest appearance from the one and only ‘Trigger’ and his owner Ellie.

It was great to see Trigger looking so well and happy.
He was so pleased to see everyone and insisted on giving us a hand on our stall, checking out our merchandise!

Thank you to everyone who came along and supported us and a special thank you to Nicole who worked so hard making us all the lovely house collars and beds for our stall.




Greyhound Walks Show

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Castledon were invited to have a stall at the second
Greyhound Walks Show held in April.
The weather was fantastic, there was a huge turnout and a great day was had by all.

It was great to see so many Castledon hounds there - Bully and Dolly, Missy, Benny and Gemma, Reggie, Buddy and Isis, Ruby, Lacey, to name but a few!


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This year we offered a nail-clipping service, which proved to be very popular, with queues actually forming!
All of the dogs that came for their paw-dicure left not only with lovely
short nails but also with a smile on their face! We must thank Carly for volunteering to do the Nail-clipping for the day, she did a great job!

Thanks to the generosity of the greyhound-lovers who visited our stall, we raised in excess of £300 for our rescue - fantastic!
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BIG ‘Thank you’ to you all.

And once again, thank you to Janet & Dave and all the Greyhound Walks team for all of their hard work in organising such a great show.




Essex Working Dog Trial Show

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The Essex Working Trials Committee contacted us earlier in the year to let us know that they would be holding their first all breed dog show in May and asked us if we would like to attend, as Castledon had been nominated as the beneficiaries of any profits from the event.
The event was held at the police headquarters in Chelmsford, on a blustery Saturday.
Luckily the rain held off but we had to hang on to our gazebo for dear life, before deciding to take it down and save it (and us!) from taking off across the field!
Although the weather wasn’t great, there was a good turn out of dogs of all different shapes and sizes.

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It was great to have some ex-Castledon residents come along to support us and also to have Jan and Rob come along with their ‘tribe’, who incidentally added to their red rosette collection! (well done Buffy and Teign!)
We took Dixie along with us from the kennels and he did a fantastic PR job and even got a 5th place rosette in the ‘Best Rescue’ class!
The dogs were all impeccably behaved and did us proud, as always. They were a credit to their breed and hopefully made more people realise just what terrific pets greyhounds make.
Finally, many thanks to everyone at Essex Working Trials for their hard work in arranging the show and for donating the profits to Castledon – it really is much appreciated.





Vanity Fur

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Vanity Fur, a pet bakery and dog spa in Leigh-on-sea, kindly invited us along to their ‘Howl-o-ween’ dog fancy dress event on Saturday 25th October.

The event was very well attended, with dogs of all shapes and sizes dressed in their best howl-o-ween costumes!
Obi, one of our Castledon hounds looking for a home came along to do his PR bit and enjoyed all the attention that he got, especially the homemade treats that Vanity Fur gave to every dog!
We had a tombola on our awareness stall, and there was a lot of interest in greyhounds as pets.
At the end of the day, Stephanie from Vanity Fur very kindly donated all the takings from their raffle to us, and in total we raised just over £180, which is fantastic!

Vanity Fur have invited us to their next event on Saturday 13th December, which is ‘Santa Paws’ – more details to follow.
If you’re ever in the Leigh-on-sea area, do pop in to Vanity Fur – apart from loads of lovely homemade dog treats and the doggie spa, there’s a café where you can have a coffee and a bite to eat with your furry friends!

www.vanityfur.co.uk