A COUPLE from Kingsbridge are looking for volunteers to help fundraise for The Greyhound Sanctuary.

Mike and Ceri Jayes will be setting up a stall at the Tesco supermarket in Kingsbridge on Monday, 21 December, along with their dog Enya.

Last year, along with seven other animal lovers, they raised £471.79.

Ceri wrote to the Gazette last December to thank Christmas shoppers for their support, and a few days later a cheque for £50 arrived and another woman contacted them to ask if she could home two lurchers.

At the moment there are three dogs, Buzz, Lottie and Beauty, waiting for a new home. Monies raised will ensure that they get the best care and treatment from the Exeter-based charity, founded in 2007.

Ceri Jayes said: ‘On the whole, donations have dwindled as has the number of offers of foster homes, yet the number of abandoned and neglected dogs is rising - so it is wonderful that Tesco has kindly given us the opportunity for Enya to be an ambassador for the charity.

‘Enya was rescued three years ago, when a member of the public phoned her local veterinary surgery in County Cork to say that travellers had moved on from a site, leaving three dogs behind - one of which was Enya.

‘She is thought to be a cross between a saluki and a whippet, was pitifully thin and had obviously been beaten and was battle-scarred. The vet who tended her reckoned that she was three to four years old by the state of her teeth.

‘It’s hard to believe that this beautiful and gentle bitch that now weighs 19.5 kilos has put on a quarter of her body weight since she was fostered.

‘She looks terrific and is a wonderful ambassador for The Greyhound Sanctuary.’