"I’ve worked here for well over a decade now and have, therefore, seen many animals - big and small - both enter our care and leave it, but one consistent factor has always been the old washer. Sitting in the corner, rumbling contentedly to itself, as much a part of the centre as either the walls or the ceilings, we rely on it immensely to keep all our residents in clean, comfortable bedding. I wonder, sometimes, whether the washer came first and the centre built up around it, like some ancient monolith, but it’s weary now. Tired. Each cycle is an effort: stages are skipped, others are half-done; it wheezes and whines like an asthmatic elephant with a fifty-a-day habit. It’s now entirely given up. Maybe it’s time that it was sent off to live on a farm somewhere…

In all seriousness, we are heavily dependent upon having a functioning washer. Every single day - often several times a day - towels, bedding, blankets, coats, jumpers and toys are thrust into it for cleaning. We pride ourselves on providing our animals with the highest possible standards of care, animals that have often come from truly wretched situations, the least we can do is give them clean blankets on which to lay their heads and to make sure that their favourite toys are free from the mud into which they are dropped, the water into which they are dunked, and the slobber in which they are covered. Can you help us raise money for a replacement?

I ask this not for me, but at the behest of Henry, a spaniel, who adores his fluffy fox toy, but is rather less enthusiastic about keeping it clean. I ask because of our elderly Jack Russell, Sianco, whose aching joints necessitate him having a big, padded bed on which to snooze, which needs regular freshening up. I ask for Ronnie’s jumper, Margaret’s blanket, Elrond’s towels. Their gratitude is boundless, theirs and the thousands more like them who this new washer can help in the coming years. For what it’s worth, you have our heartfelt thanks too."