text: A grandmother nicknamed the 'Fairy Dogmother' spends more than £28,000 a year looking after the stray or abandoned dogs she has welcomed into her home. For more than 30 years, Pat Senior, 66,  has shared her five-bedroom home in Bolton, Greater Manchester, with the animals, taking in dogs from as far afield as Romania and Hungary. She estimates that she spends £240 a week on food and treats for the dogs, with veterinary bills adding another £17,000 to the yearly cost of caring for the pets. Pat Senior, 66,  (pictured) who is nicknamed the 'Fairy Dogmother', spends more than £28,000 a year looking after as many as 26 stray or abandoned dogs she has welcomed into her home . Grandmother-of-four Mrs Senior and her businessman husband, Charles, currently have 19 dogs in their care, including lurchers, German Shepherds and Chinese Cresteds who all sleep and live at her home. She has made makeshift beds for the animals in the couple's garage, with some dogs sleeping in the living room, although three Chinese Cresteds are allowed to sleep in her bed. She takes in neglected greyhounds as well as adopting dogs from pounds, and at one stage had 26 dogs living under her roof. Mrs Senior spends £240 a week on food and treats for the dogs, with veterinary bills adding another £17,000 to the yearly cost of caring for the pets . As well as taking in neglected greyhounds, Mrs Senior also adopts dogs from her local dog pounds and at one stage had 26 dogs living under her roof. She describes meal times as 'chaotic', with her shopping list consisting of 40 small chickens a week for the smaller and medium sized dogs, and two large packs of minced chicken and pasta a day for the larger animals. 'I wake at 6.30am and it's nonstop from then on,' said Mrs Senior. 'We feed the dogs at dinner time and then they get a big dinner in the evening. It's a mad rush and chaotic with dog bowls all over the place and we make sure every dog gets its dinner. They are here there and everywhere. I also take the only four fit enough to walk out. I also clean.' Mrs Senior, who is also a painter, left behind her career as a singer to look after the animals after a chance encounter with a woman trying to rehome a stray lurcher, Lexus, in 1981. Within a few weeks she became inundated with calls from greyhound owners wanting her to take the dogs off their hands and so set up the Angels With Furry Coats dog rescue, which is run entirely from her home. She says was then asked to work undercover for a BBC documentary to 'expose the dark side of grey hound racing,' and was horrified to see greyhounds drugged with heroine and living in squalor. She then made it her mission to open her home to as many neglected dogs as she could, and last year had eight stray hounds brought over from Romania and Hungary at a cost of £350 per animal. Due to the poor condition of many of her dogs her veterinary bill amounts to around £17,000 a year. 'I have been told I am completely mad and I could have brought many properties with all that money but I would rather be me than someone doing nothing,' she said. 'Somebody has got to look after these dogs and not everyone can. They like holidays and an easy life. Mrs Senior and one of her Angels With Furry Coats volunteers, Lorraine, walk some of the rescued dogs . As well as taking in neglected greyhounds, the grandmother-of-four also adopts dogs from her local dog pounds and at one stage had 26 dogs living under her roof . 'People were calling and saying if you don't take the dog I will kill it. I decided this is what I am going to do for the rest of my life. 'I had no idea what was happening before. I had to deal with owners who would regularly give the dogs heroine. They would have all these dogs hopped up on drugs and off their heads. I was really disgusted. I saw a picture of some hanging by their necks from trees.' 'If I think about it I could have had a pretty good lifestyle if I hadn't spent all this money on the dogs. But I do it because you see these sad cases and when you manage to turn it around it is so worth it.' Mrs Senior, who is also a painter, left behind her career as a singer to look after the animals after a chance encounter with a woman trying to rehome a stray lurcher, Lexus, in 1981 . The mother-of-two says she is rushed off her feet all day, especially as she likes 'to live in a nice house and not a kennel.' She added: 'I have a lovely home and everything has to be spotless. People are gobsmacked that we have a beautiful house. We do not live in a dog kennel.' Many of the dogs that come into Mrs Senior's care are in bad condition and she says she loves getting them back in shape. 'Many of them are flea bitten or emaciated,' she said. 'But some have been garrotted, had fat poured all over them, burnt with cigarettes and some have even be sexually abused. But it is an amazing feeling with you get them better and their eyes light up.'
target: Pat Senior runs rescue centre from her home in Bolton, Great Manchester .
  Grandmother, 66, adopts pets from as far away as Romania and Hungary .
  She spends £240 a week on food, and £17,000 a year on vet's bills .
  Mrs Senior started taking in dogs in 1981 and currently has 19 animals .