Most of our dogs are imported from Ireland – they are usually the ones who have failed to sell to the UK market to race, although they were probably bred with the UK racing industry in mind. This is often the reason why we have so many younger greyhounds and none racers. Or much older dogs who have been used for breeding.
On a Thursday our levels of excitement go through the roof, as we wait for the 8AM arrival of the Greyhound Express our very own happy bus – all the way from the beautiful West Coast of Ireland.
We always say welcome to Kent and to your new life and we can honestly say this is one of the best parts of volunteering. It is better than seeing the dogs go off to their new homes because when they arrive, they are finally SAFE and this is the moment their lives change forever. As they step off that transport van everything changes for them as they strat their journey to being a pet not a commodity. We try to unload them as quickly as possible – so a quick chip check and then we pop the dog into a kennel until all the dogs have been unloaded. We say goodbye to the transport guys who still have a lot of driving to do – then we go back and start to check them, weight them, make sure they are wormed and fleaed, pop on a collar and ID disc and then it’s breakfast and then finally time for a much needed nap after that very long road trip.
Sometimes the dogs are very confident, so later in the day we will take them out for a walk – others we will just leave alone, to let them settle. We usually take a video of all the new dogs to post on our social media so everyone can join us in welcoming them to the KGR family. You can then follow their journey from new dog to rehomed dog.