Battersea Dogs & Cats Home

The hit ITV series Paul O’ Grady: For The Love Of Dogs, which followed the lives of animals at the world renowned rescue charity Battersea Dogs & Cats Home has been shortlisted for a prestigious Bafta Award.

The Bafta nomination for the seven part series follows National Television Award success in January for Best Factual Entertainment, and is further recognition of the show’s national appeal.

Following the highs and lows, laughter and tears at the

Animal charity Battersea Dogs & Cats Home is appealing for more foster homes for its dogs after a 31 per cent increase in animals coming into its care due to family break-ups.

Last year the world famous animal charity saw a dramatic increase in the number of animals being brought in by their owners because of divorce and separation. Because these animals come from a home environment, they can often find the adjustment to life in kennels particularly stressful, so Battersea tries to

A homeless hound at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home could be one of the loneliest dogs in the UK after spending over 260 days at the world famous animal charity and receiving little interest from potential owners.

The average stay for Battersea dogs is just 35 days, but four year old Lurcher Shadow has been at the rescue centre for over seven times that, making him the charity’s longest stay resident.

A homeless dog has a new home in Castle Cary, Somerset, thanks to television presenter Alan Titchmarsh. Ruby, a Dachshund, had spent 90 days at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home Old Windsor but after appearing on the ITV Alan Titchmarsh Show she caught the eye of Liz Ayris, who made a 250 mile round trip to rehome her.

A stray dog has been rehomed by Sally and Malcolm Crockford in Guildford, Surrey, after spending almost half her life in kennels. Maisy the Mongrel had been at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home Old Windsor in Berkshire for 431 days, making her the charity’s longest stay resident.

Maisy first arrived at the world famous charity on New Year’s Day, 2011. Like 55 per cent of dogs that come in to Battersea, two year old Maisy was brought in as a stray after she was found wandering the streets. She was at the charity 12 times longer than the average stay for a dog before finding her dream home.

Next time you are at the park don’t be surprised if you are greeted by a dog called Chicken-Fish or come across a cat named Pickywickywoowoo, as these are just some of the weird and wonderful names we bestow upon our pets.

Animal charity Battersea Dogs & Cats Home has revealed some of the nation’s craziest cat and daftest dog names in a survey of its 225,000 Facebook and Twitter fans, and it appears we are quite creative when it comes to naming our four-legged friends.

Battersea’s top 20 most bizarre dog and cats names are:

Dog
Chicken-Fish
Toe-Jam
Mr Terry Foxer

Earlier this month, the Government announced that all dogs in England must be microchipped by April 2016. Battersea Dogs & Cats Home is offering a free microchipping and name tag engraving service at Windrush Square, Brixton on Monday 4 March, and Ruskin Park, Denmark Hill on Wednesday 13 March from 11am – 4pm.

Less than one third of all dogs arriving at Battersea are microchipped and the charity believes permanent identification of dogs will help to reduce the problem of stray dogs and help reunite more pets with their owners.

After spending two Christmases at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home Old Windsor, Fenton a Staffordshire Bull Terrier has been given a new start to life thanks to Veronica and Jim McKnight from Sheerness in Kent.