Hi, I’m Sam and I’m one of the founding members of Finding Ipswich Dogs Organisation (FIDO). We’re a voluntary group covering part of Suffolk.

We started the group in June 2022 after being part of a bigger national group, deciding we’d like to build our own little team to focus on a specific area.

It’s worked very well so far, we’ve found and reunited many dogs. Given advice, and emotional support, to many.

Last Year, we were honoured to be awarded a “Highly Commended” at the BBC Suffolk Make a Difference Awards.

Our team started off very small, just 3 of us, over the years our Facebook group has grown to over 5.3K members, and our team has too. Over the last few months we’ve been able to expand the area we cover, for example we found and reunited a dog in Dunwich last week which is an area we hadn’t previously been able to cover before the team grew.

We have had some very kind people, who we’ve helped, make donations over the years that has been used to buy more equipment and maintain our dog traps and current equipment.

We’re now at a point where our kitty is very low, not enough to fund the equipment we need to replace let alone buy items for the team covering the new areas.

Our ring doorbell cameras we use when close monitoring dog traps once set up, are over 5 years old and no longer charging. I did look to see if we could just replace the batteries but they’re second gen and not replaceable.

We’d also like to build equipment boxes for the new areas with things such as red light head torches, thermal scope, first aid kit, and car signs to notify people why we’ve parked up in a lay-by or by the side of the road.

If you are able to spare a few pennies, we would be very grateful.