Flintshire based North Clwyd Animal Rescue celebrate share of a £150,000 windfall left in dog lovers will

Two North Wales pet charities are celebrating after sharing almost £150,000 from a dog-lover’s will.

North Clwyd Animal Rescue, based at Trelogan in Flintshire, and the Abandoned Animals Association, from Prestatyn, were contacted by leading North Wales law firm Swayne Johnson who are the executors of the will of the late Audrey Jones, from Kinmel Bay.

The bequests came out of the blue for the two delighted charities who have been looking after unwanted pets for many years and are planning to make good use of the windfalls.

North Clwyd Animal rescue was founded by Anne Owen in 1978 when a tiny lurcher dog was abandoned on her doorstep in Trelogan and now the charity cares for over 1800 animals a year, mainly dogs, cats and rabbits.

At any one time they have 150 cats, 120 dogs and 20 rabbits being looked after at a cost of £1,000 a day with five dedicated charity shops in Denbigh, Prestatyn, Abergele, Mold and Colwyn Bay helping meet the bills.

Anne knew Audrey Jones and said:

Audrey was a lovely person and she had had a little Jack Russell cross called Sonny from us which her neighbour has agreed to look after while we take care of any vet’s bills.

She had a number of dogs from us and had been saying for years that she would leave us a bequest but we never dreamed it would be for so much.

Anne’s daughter Nicky is involved as well now and she said:

We do get legacies and they help us so much and we like to use them for specific projects.

This was a very generous bequest and we’re very grateful and we do like to name the projects after the people who have left us the money.

For example we have a café which is called Doris’s Bunker because the lady who left us a legacy used to serve food in a bomb bunker during the Second World War.

We do have projects in mind for this money and are looking at a new kennels for our smaller dogs.

Celebrity astrologer Russell Grant is the Patron of Prestatyn’s Abandoned Animal Association which hopes to use the money to fence in the sensory garden it has created for animals at its Little Pydew home.

The charity was founded in 1986 by Olwen Edwards and has 15 dog kennels and 8 cat pens though it also occasionally looks after homeless rabbits and guinea pigs.

For more information, including how to adopt an animal, on North Clwyd Animal Rescue go to http://ncar.org.uk/ and on the Abandoned Animals Association to http://www.abandonedanimals.org.uk/ while Swayne Johnson are on http://www.swaynejohnson.com/