MONMOUTH’s Dog Trust Charity shop celebrated eight years on the high street with a cake sale, music, and an opportunity for residents to learn more about the charity’s work.

Since the shop opened, generous donations from the community have helped raise over £800,000 to support dogs in need.

Kim Dixon, volunteer at the Dogs Trust Charity, said: A big thank you to Monmouth town, our customers and our donors for supporting us over the last eight years.

“You're all incredible, we’ve got amazing raffle prizes donated by local businesses.

“We did re home over nine thousand dogs last year as a charity, which is absolutely incredible these dogs have gone to their happy place.”

Residents were also able to meet one of the original volunteers Kay Potts from when the charity shop first opened on May 4, 2018. She brought along Percy the dachshund who was the first ever dog and shared an insight into what it is like to be a volunteer at Dogs Trust.

“It is fantastic, such a nice friendly crew and such a worthy cause,” she added.

Colleagues from the Freedom and fostering teams at the rehoming centre in Cardiff also spoke to residents about what they do in the charity and how they can help.

Storm Osborne, one of the foster volunteers from the Cardiff rehoming centre spoke to residents about how they can help temporarily re home dogs until they find their forever home.

“When a dog goes into foster it doesn’t cost anything but time and energy. We provide everything they need: vet care, food, bedding, toys, enrichment, for as long as the dog is in foster.

“It needs someone prepared to face the challenges. It’s not always easy because we are helping dogs which have inherently had a hard time. But the people who are able to step up when things are a little bit difficult and just address it with empathy, they really make a massive difference for the dogs.”

Cassie Summers, Freedom Team Leader at Dogs Trust, said: “Freedom is a specialist fostering service for people who are experiencing domestic abuse.

“Dogs Trust figured out that there was a need for foster carers to step in where families are looking to flee a domestic abuse situation. If they need to go into a refuge or temporary accommodation, somewhere where the dog isn’t going to be welcome we found that those people will either not seek that support because they know their dog won’t be catered for or they will delay that fleeing which is a safety concern for them.”

“It’s a really amazing service that we can provide to people when they are in desperate need.”

An educational and enlightening experience enabled residents walking along the high street to hear just how important this charity is, highlighting the great efforts they do and continue to make.

More information on the charity’s work can be found on their website at Dogs Trust.