Eaton Bray dog rescue centre holds auction to raise funds – with lots including portraits of XL Bully Kylo

A dog rescue centre in Eaton Bray is holding an auction to fundraise for its furry residents.

Appledown Rescue and Rehoming Kennels is hosting a Facebook fundraising auction, with multiple items including three ‘artist masterpieces’ to help raise funds for Kylo.

Kylo the XL Bully arrived at Appledown after being found as a stray in Luton. After a successful exemption appeal, Kylo is now a permanent resident at Appledown Rescue Centre – which means that the team now needs to provide for Kylo’s food, care, medical bills, and other expenses.

Artist Kathy Glenister found out about Appledown Rescue just before the loss of her black labrador Poppy.

She said: “I joined their Facebook page and saw an article about Kylo. I was frustrated that such a lovely dog was going to live the remainder of his life in kennels I wanted to help. I offered to paint a picture of Kylo for them to auction and raise funds.

“I went to meet Kylo with my husband. He took some photographs for me to work from. Having seen the lovely blue-ish grey of Kylo's coat I decided to paint him in a loose style using acrylic paint on canvas. This painting took about 3 hours to complete."

Kathy added: "Then I decided to experiment with a technique not used since my junior school days! I painted patches of acrylic paint colours onto canvas, covered it with black oil pastel, and scratched his image out to reveal the colour.

“I was quite pleased with the result. This also took around three hours. Finally, I painted him on Pastelmat paper using PanPastels and pastel pencils. The final picture took around eight hours to complete. I genuinely hope each picture will raise a good amount for Kylo's care.”

Manager Julie Shelton said: "Kylo is doing brilliantly and is very happy with his life. He has received amazing support since we announced that we had exempted him and that he had a home for life here at the Rescue. He has received a genuine outpouring of love, he is very lucky."

All proceeds from the auction go to Appledown Rescue. The auction closes at 9pm on Saturday, March 2. Visit Appledown’s auction Facebook page to get involved.