Karen Matthews from Almost Home Animal Rescue in Moira with puppy ‘Amber’.
Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.com
For National Puppy Day, Peter Thomas Photography are rolling out a fundraising campaign for a new Puppy Unit at Almost Home NI.
The 30 Breeds in 30 Days will be a race to see how many breeds we can get to the studio over the next 30 Days – from Labs, cross-breeds and Schnuazers, we are looking for your breed of dog!
We caught up with Karen Matthews who helps run the charity, to get a few insights into the world of homeless dogs and animals.
Almost Home was founded in October 2013 – set up by a small group of individuals who all shared the passion of loving animals and wanting to help the best we could.
We started off with one small block of kennels, able to look after 15 dogs. We spent the first summer painting, cleaning, tiling.
Since then, Almost Home has grown tremendously. We currently care for over 200 animals including resident hens, turkeys, pig, sheep (a little Pygmy goat joined our gang this week!) terrapins, reptiles, small animals, birds and of course the cats and dogs.
Feeding time – each dog has their food measured out by volunteers on a feeding schedule.
We have no paid staff – which we are proud of – all our money goes directly to our animals. With over 150 volunteers (and we still need more!) the animals get lots of attention!
Our puppy unit needs to be replaced this year. In the last 3 years, we have looked after over 70 litters of pups as well as the mums, 15+ ladies, that have “birthed” with us!
We even have our own qualified midwife on hand!
We’ve been a-z in litter names (twice!) We try to go with themes now so we will always remember who’s who! (colours, trees, characters, states…)
We’re currently on beer babies (Stella, Guinness, Becks, etc.) at the moment, though the litter that stands out for most were the “Presidential Puppies.” we had Barack, Hilary, Nancy to name but a few!!
Our fundraising campaign, 30 Breeds in 30 Days, will go towards the Almost Home puppy unit and more. For a donation of £25, you will also receive a 1Hr Pet Photoshoot along with an 8’x6′ print of your choice.
For two years in a row, Peter Thomas Photography studio has been awarded with the prestigious PPANI Pet Photographer of the Year 2017 & 2018 – we love a challenge if you have more than one dog and have plenty of experience with nervous, or high-energy dogs that need that extra bit of time for each portrait.
If you would like to find out how you can volunteer for the animal charity, get in touch with Karen at almosthomeni@gmail.com or call 07922921852.
