Happy endings for thousands of re-homes dogs as Halfway Home rescue, Collingham, closes doors after two decades

After two decades helping animals in need, a dog rescue is to close — having helped find new homes for thousands of dogs.

It was two Rottweilers which inspired Valerie Hosegood to open Halfway Home Dog Rescue, Collingham, in 2005, and now, as she plans to retire at 72, it is another two Rottweilers who are the last two searching for homes.

She said: “It’s the end of an era. It’s sad, but I’m 72… I went away for a few days and for the first time ever thought I don’t want to do it anymore.

“It’s all too much. I’ve got a bad knee, I struggle to walk too much — and because it’s our home its difficult for someone else to come and take over. It’s 24/7.

“You get to an age where who knows how long you’ve got left, you want to enjoy it.”

It was the story of Harvey, a failed police dog with a bite record, and Elliot, her own pet, who started it all for Val.

“When Elliot was four he was diagnosed with bone cancer,” Val said.

“At the same time South Yorkshire Police had re-homed a Rottweiler to the house on the hill, he didn’t know whether to bite the burglar or handler.

“He bit a workman at the house. He was a 18 months old so the police were going to put him to sleep — I’d got to know him and I thought it was sacrilege that he was going to be put down and my Elliot was going to die. I begged, said I had kennels and he need not see another human, and the police let me take him on.”

It was then that Val discovered that, at that time, around 250 dogs a week were put to sleep at kill pens in the UK, and decided to do something about it.

She began taking on dogs from over-full pounds to buy them time time to find new homes, taking on those with infections such as kennel cough to give them time to recover so they could be allowed into shelters run by larger organisations, and also began re-homing on behalf of another rescue.

Her first dogs came on April 8, 2005, which included Staffordshire bull terrier Bovril, Labrador cross Wendy, and border terrier Hetty.

When her services were no longer needed by the other rescues, Val found she could not give it up, and in 2006 decided to re-home dogs directly from her own kennels.

“It was a case of beg, borrow, steal,” she added.

“I worked and did car boots to cover vet bills, it just snowballed from there really. We moved into the barn and more volunteers came — we’ve had a good lot of volunteers really — and we’ve been very successful for a small kennels which relies on our own fundraising.”

Each year Halfway Home has found new homes for hundreds of dogs, predominantly from Eastern European countries or pounds, as well as from homes in the UK when owners can no longer keep their dogs.

It has been supported by businesses including Gusto Group and Pets at Home, as well as running its own dog shows and fundraising events.

The rescue has one employee, Jo Plummer, who started volunteering at the rescue centre five years ago as she wanted to be close to dogs after her own pet died.

A year later, she started working full-time, and has continued to do so, although has since had to cut down her hours due to her health.

Now, in the final weeks of the rescue, two remaining dogs continue to search for their forever homes — Rottweilers Doug, a former family pet saved from a kill shelter in Bosnia, and Rina.

“It was Rottweilers that got me into rescuing, and funnily enough there’s just two Rottweilers left,” Val added.

Four dogs unsuitable for re-homing will continue on with Val in the next chapter of her life — which she plans to spend riding horses ‘while she still can’.

On Sunday, March 2, a barn sale and coffee morning will be held at the kennels, to sell off the remaining stock of dog equipment and accessories.

Val added: “At the end of the month we will put the whole property on the market. Whether someone wants to take over the kennels or not, who knows. We’ve been told it would be more of an equestrian property with the land.”