Double your donation to National Animal Welfare Trust’s Bedfordshire Christmas appeal and help dogs like Foxy

And the great news is - thanks to a generous group of backers - any donation given between now and 13th December will be doubled at no extra cost thanks to their promise to match any amounts donated.

National Animal Welfare Trust’s Bedfordshire centre manager Carley Farr said: “That means if you donate £5 during this period it will be worth £10 at no extra cost to you.

“Christmas is the time for giving and if you’re able to support us now, then every penny will be stretched even further to help thousands of homeless dogs, cats and small animals who would have otherwise faced an uncertain future, frightened, vulnerable, and alone.”

Sick pup Foxy is just one of the animals helped by the Aspley Guise centre. She was found abandoned with her siblings and without their mum in a cardboard box by the side of the road.

Staff feared the worst for the animals and quickly took the poorly litter to the vets where it was discovered they had the deadly disease parvovirus. They were told it was unlikely all four pups were going to survive another day.

But despite the diagnosis, the team battled on to save as many of the little fighters as they possibly could. Carley and her team worked around the clock to care for the dogs who were still only babies and shouldn’t have been separated from their mum.

A few days later, just after midnight, the weakest of the four pups, Basil, faded away in the arms of one of the animal carers, leaving the team devastated. His three littermates, however, managed to pull through their ordeal.

Now Foxy and her brothers, Robin and Todd, are thriving in loving homes.

Carley Farr added: “We’ll never forget Basil and everything we did to try to save his life. It’s so sad that the disease was too big for the smallest of the four pups to defeat, but it’s important that he didn’t die in that box discarded like a piece of rubbish; instead, he got to experience a safe place to stay and some of the love and care he deserved before his short life came to an end.

“And because of our local community, people like you, who enable us to care for animals like Foxy and poor Basil at a time when they need us most. So, on behalf of all the animals we care for now and in the future, I’m asking you to please dig deep this Christmas and give what you can. Thank you.”

As well as local people, NAWT has benefited from support from local businesses and any donations made by companies in the next couple of weeks will also be doubled.

Local animal lover or local business, here’s how you can support NAWT’s Bedfordshire Double Donations Christmas appeal - visit donate.nawt.org.uk/save-our-safe-place/

To find out more about the rehoming centre’s work and the Save Our Safe Place appeal, watch this video with Carley above.