Donation Diaries - BARK Animal Rescue Kennels 🐾
Today is a special day in the journey of Good For Pets. Today we made our first donation.
I started the company with the goal of proving you can grow a company whose purpose is to do good, just as effectively as one that puts profits above everything. After 8 months of tireless work, thousands of my personal money invested, and many setbacks we have finally made it. In March we had our first profitable month, with the help of every person who purchased, shared or even viewed our content, we were able to generate enough profit to make our first charitable donation.
You might expect this would now be the easy part - just message any local rescue centre with the triumphant news that you have £1000 that you would like to bestow upon them - it turns out this wasn't entirely the case.
We actually spent multiple weeks chasing some of the bigger charities that operate in our area, with the request that we would donate £1000 and would love to come to a centre and film a quick video showing the work they do in an attempt to give them a bigger platform and maybe help them receive more donations or have boosted interest in adoptions. Unfortunately, for a mixture of reasons all the bigger names weren't able to do this.
So after a little re-think and some more in depth research we found Babworth Animal Rescue Kennels (BARK)- a local independent rescue centre who have been rescuing dogs for over 20 years. With a warm reception awaiting we headed off to BARK to meet up with Elaine (the founder and driving force).
On arrival the lovely Elaine (above) greeted us and took us through to meet some of their recent rescues. It was amazing to hear her story of setting up the kennels initially as a traditional boarding kennels back in 2002 under the strict instruction (from her husband) not to keep any of the dogs that came to stay. After about 12 months she caved in and rescued her first dog that had nowhere else to go and that was it. Fast forward to now and BARK has become an established rescue centre rescuing and re-homing thousands of dogs across the UK.
It was actually my first time visiting a rescue centre and if I'm honest I was a little overwhelmed when I stepped into a courtyard that had 4 sides of kennels full of happy (barking) dogs. The noise was quite intense but after a moment of frenzy the dogs calmed down a little and my senses came back to me.
Elaine introduced us to some of her team and we headed out to their big new play field where there was more space to talk and meet some of her rescues. I won't go into all the dogs we met as there were too many to name but let me introduce you to a couple of our favourites.
(Above) Ronnie the Great Dane - The best natured great dane I have ever come across. I am typically nervous around great danes as there was one in the village I grew up in that used to be off the lead and would chase me down the street on my bike. But Ronnie completely changed that, he was gentle, slightly timid but once he got to know you a bit he was so affectionate and wanted to play.
(Above) Yet to be named Puppies - Rescued just a few days before we visited having been dumped at the side of the A1 motorway. They had been reported to the police and after a (i can only imagine chaotic) 'doghunt' they were taken in by BARK and getting checked out and vaccinated at the vets. They were some of the most beautiful puppies I have seen, and despite being so sadly mistreated they were so friendly and happy to see us.
It was also really interesting talking supplements with the team and getting some insights and feedback from such experienced dog parents. We could have stayed all day (and week) with the dogs at BARK, seeing the care and attention they get, but eventually we had to say our goodbyes and hit the road.
We can't thank the team at BARK enough for letting us come and visit, answering our infinite questions and also for being such fantastic caregivers to their family of happy hounds.
Thank you also to anyone reading, I hope you enjoyed it and that you like what we are doing here :)
Will Rushmere
Founder @goodforpets.co
