Taking on one of our welfare dogs is a commitment which, hopefully you have given a lot of thought and careful consideration to. This commitment could be as long as 10 - 12 years. However, your new Cavalier King Charles Spaniel will be your wonderful, trusting, loyal companion and a member of your family.

The majority of Cavaliers that we find suitable homes for are usually between 4-8 years old. We do sometimes take charge of younger ones and sometimes ones which are as old as 13 years. It is the older ones that we desperately need new homes for.

You may feel that you are unable or reluctant to give an older Cavalier the chance of a new life. Sometimes it could be because you feel you could not bear the pain of losing an older dog soon once you have become attached to it. Yes, it can be very painful, even when they have only been with you a short time, and they leave a gaping wound when they go.

However, think how much joy you could bring to an older dog in its twilight years with your love that it might otherwise not have a chance of, lots of cuddles and attention from you. They are trusting, needy and totally dependent on you.
Older dogs can be just as rewarding as younger ones; they can give so much and ask for so little, the rare and special bond, the joy, along with the companionship they bring.

We also sometimes find that it is best to keep a pair of dogs together, so if you could help in this way, it would be greatly appreciated.

We do our best to match our dogs with prospective new owners and provide new owners with as much information on the background of the dog(s) as possible.

The way it works Our procedure for applying for a dog from us is straightforward. We ask you to fill in an application form with some simple questions about you and your family, which you then send back to our welfare coordinator. When the next rescue dog comes into our charge, it may be placed in a temporary foster home and we will try to match the dog with any applications that we have.

If we feel you are most suited, we will contact you for a pre-adoption visit at a mutually convenient time. We would also like to meet the other members of the family. If you feel the dog offered to you for adoption does not fit your needs, you are under no obligation to have it. Similarly, we may feel that the dog is not suitable for you or vice versa.
We are passionate about placing the dog in a suitable home, as after all it has already had at least one traumatic change in its life. Therefore, please be patient with us if that first dog is not the right one, we advise you to wait until the right one comes along.

All being well and your new found friend and companion arrives, you will be asked to sign some adoption papers, one copy to be retained by you and one by us. The papers will state the conditions that you agree to abide by.
We request that any dogs or bitches re-homed through the welfare service must not be used for breeding or at stud.
Any registration papers etc. remain the property of the welfare service as does the Cavalier, so if at any time you are not able to continue to look after the dog, you should contact the Cavalier welfare service.

When we place a dog, we do request a donation towards our Rescue and Welfare service which is run by a team of dedicated volunteers but we need the funds to help with veterinary treatment, transport and boarding costs. Sometimes we rescue dogs which have been neglected by previous owners and left in a bad condition and require extensive veterinary treatment before it can be re-homed.
We also are sometimes asked to help contribute towards expensive veterinary costs for existing Cavaliers with foster homes.

We have a No Destruction Policy, unless the dog is aggressive and could not be possibly passed on to anyone else or is so ill that it is cruel to keep the dog alive. This is obviously done with veterinary advice.

If you haven't heard from us immediately, we haven't forgotten you. It may just be that we do not have many dogs coming into our charge, which is good news for us or that we feel the dogs that do come in may be unsuitable to what you have put on your application form.

We will always be happy to hear from you, but please keep phone calls to a minimum if you are just enquiring as to whether any dogs are available.

Please also let us know if your circumstances have changed or that you have already found a new friend through another rescue service. This would help us to keep our records up to date, save us ringing you unnecessarily and saving money for the Cavaliers that really need it.

We also welcome other offers of help with our other fund raising events.
Finally, our heartfelt message to you is that we believe that there is a loving new home for each and every one of our less fortunate Cavaliers out there and we sincerely hope that it may be you.