My partner at the time Rob however had been brought up with a dog and he was desperate to have a canine companion again. We therefore used to venture out to rescue centres each weekend looking round where I would look for the ‘perfect dog’.

In January 2001 in one of the kennels at Birmingham Dogs Home was a beautiful fawn greyhound that just stood there, not moving, looking so sad. 

She was not barking, jumping or licking – she appealed to me.  She had been brought in as a stray.  We asked to see her and she did not set off an automatic allergic reaction I have to most dogs.   

We adopted Tara.  She was ‘perfect’ from day one.

I knew nothing about greyhounds… I then found that the letters in her ears meant something – she was Irish - we found her racing name was Daybreaks Beauty.

Through having Tara I started meeting other dog owners, in particular greyhound owners.  This is how I met Pam who is one of our home checkers, who advised me on a few aspects of greyhound ownership and invited us to organised greyhound events – my circle of friends was getting bigger! 

Within a few months, I decided to get a companion for Tara!  I felt she might be lonely and by this time I was addicted to greyhounds.

Holly was adopted 6 months later – a small black greyhound.  Boy was she different from Tara!    She was a very keen greyhound who needed a muzzle but with our time and patience she transformed to a very gentle girl who could be trusted off the lead with Tara.  They both registered as Pets as Therapy dogs and our social activities started mounting! By 2003 my greyhound family was up to 5 !  I even changed my job for the love of animals and became the Practice Manager for a veterinary practice for a few years.

The more involved I became with greyhound activities, the more I started to hear of the tragic endings that some greyhounds suffer.  I needed to do more.

In 2003 I were asked to help with the set up of a new trust at Perry Barr Stadium.  A group of us got together and I started a newsletter and sponsor schemes. Weekends and evenings were all taken up either helping at the kennels where the dogs were kept, at awareness roadshows, doing talks or supporting other greyhound charities such as GRWE, Greyhound Gap and GIN.

In 2005 the kennels holding the trust dogs decided they couldn’t take Perry Barr dogs anymore so suddenly we had no re-homing centre.  A trainer in Worcester helped us for a while and we rented a few kennels at a local boarding kennels in Solihull.  Our homing figures dropped dramatically and everyone in the Trust were becoming despondent.  We knew this couldn’t continue, as dogs were being PTS. 

I was at this time back working as a medical secretary and becoming increasing frustrated as to how I could help more and took the plunge on 1st July 2006 and started running kennels.   It is a 24/7 commitment. 

My life has changed amazingly since adopting Tara in January 2001 and I have dedicated my life to helping more greyhounds just like her.   I sadly lost Tara to bone cancer on 27th May 2007.

She changed my life and I hope that the greys rehomed from Daybreaks will change someone else’s life.  This is why Daybreaks started.

Daybreaks is successful and this is because of the dedication and help of all the volunteers in all different ways.  I could not do this without them!

In January 2020, we decided to go independant and break away from the Greyhound Trust, we will continue to work with the tracks, but can now open our doors to a wider audience.

Ruth x