Bourne-based Three Counties Dog Rescue gets boost from ITV's This Morning

A recent appearance on ITV’s This Morning programme has significantly raised the profile of a Bourne-based dog rescue charity.

Three Counties Dog Rescue was last week contacted by a researcher from the popular show.

“They were running a feature on finding homes for dogs and wanted to know if we had any puppies that we might want featured,” said Gyll Mauchline.

“We had four quite large puppies and sent photos of them to the researcher.”

The programme was keen to feature the dogs and arrangements had to be made to get them to the ITV studios.

“The pups are being fostered at the moment and so Three Counties volunteers, Claire and her father Teryl, who is the fosterer, packed them into the car on Tuesday for travel.

“They headed for a dog friendly hotel in Shepherds Bush where arrangements had been made for them to stay by the programme makers.

“Next morning they were collected at 9am and taken to the studio to prepare.”

Anyone who viewed the resulting interview will know just how much presenters Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield enjoyed the experience.

“Claire performed wonderfully and the dogs were well behaved,” said Gyll.

“If you missed it, a version is on the Three Counties Facebook page.”

Not long after the show aired, enquiries about the animals began pouring in to the Three Counties offices by phone and email.

“It had not been possible to explain on the programme that we would only rehome within a fifty mile drive of our base so amongst others they came from France, Glasgow, Shetland and Torquay,” said Gyll.

“Holly Willoughby posted a photo of her cuddling one of the pups [Missy] on her Instagram account which has a massive following and our followers doubled.

“Our Facebook membership rose in a few days by over a hundred and now tops 5,000; the website had so much traffic it crashed on and off.

“It is taking a time to sift through all the contacts but we are confident that suitable homes will be found.

“Although it has meant a lot of work our profile has been raised and has led to other enquiries and a few donations as well.”

Three Counties Dog Rescue has successfully re-homed more 6,000 dogs and cats since its formation in 1971 and all the animals are neutered, vaccinated and micro-chipped.