About Phoenix French Bulldog Rescue

A word from our Founder, how we came to be and how we do what we do......

Hello, my name is Teresa Cargill and I am the very proud Founder of Phoenix French Bulldog Rescue, registered charity no. 1171943. I live with my husband, Steve and our son, Harry. I have been around dogs all of my life; I grew up with GSDs and then spent almost 30 years of my adult life living with rescued Rottweilers, before becoming involved with showing and breeding French Bulldogs for several years. I now spend all my time managing their rescue and promoting the health of the breed.

Phoenix FBR was established at the end of 2016 and set loose on the unsuspecting general public on January 8th 2017 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It was a nerve-racking time as we hit the button and prayed we would fly – build it and they will come they said, and they did. Our Team had been rapidly assembled after having acquired much experience within other dog organisations and rescue groups. There had been no plans to start a new rescue group after a departure from another, but it was very obvious that our beloved breed needed us and we were not about to put our combined years of experience to waste when we could continue to use it for the good of Frenchies. Many of us had worked together previously and we knew that the team dynamics were perfect to get our Phoenix rising.

We applied for charity status and were delighted to achieve this on 8th March 2017. I am a Trustee (Chair) along with my husband, Steve Cargill and my daughter, Kimberleigh Dhillon. We all bring something different to the table, and we hope this sets a good balance. Phoenix has a real family feel, and we promote this within the Team too, because although enthusiasm runs very high, a work-life balance is vital too.

I am a full-time employee of Phoenix FBR and a small part of a vast Team of volunteers from across the UK, who work tirelessly and endlessly to ensure that a French Bulldog in need can always have a safe home to go to. We operate using various social media platforms and have no ‘base’ – apart from the office in my home. All dogs are assessed before arrival and then placed into pre-assessed, appropriately matched, loving and knowledgeable foster homes. This allows us to assess the dog further – no dog behaves ‘normally’ in a kennel, and many are already traumatised and behaving out of character due to the change of home and circumstance.

We have a resident Behaviourist, Heather Gilbert, who supports our dogs and their foster-carers to overcome any issues the dogs may have. Dogs typically stay in foster-care for a minimum of 2 weeks, maybe much longer if they need to be mended physically. After the foster period, the dog is usually adopted by the fosterer, but if not we invite foster-to-adoption applications, when the Team select the very best-matched home. All dogs leave Phoenix FBR with 5 weeks free insurance from Agria and a life-time contract for support. We like to stay in touch with all our adopted dogs, and we will always do our very best to help rehome a dog should their circumstances change.** Sometimes, people just need advice and support to be able to manage and keep their pet, but at other times they need our non-judgemental, professional help in rehoming their dog. As much as we can often be heard to say that it is ‘all about the dog’ we never lose sight of the fact that there is often a broken-hearted human at the end of a surrendered dog’s lead. We will never judge and all our volunteers are mindful of this. Other dogs come to us as genuine ‘rescues’ and we have seen a huge increase in the number of dogs being found as strays and ending up in council pounds. Our Team is well-versed in assessing and collecting these, making sure they are safely and appropriately matched before they even reach their specialist foster-homes, where the real mending can begin. All of our dogs receive the very best care, medically and psychologically, during foster and afterwards in adoption.

I am very proud of Phoenix French Bulldog Rescue and not just for myself but for the Team and our volunteers and followers; yes, always a capital ‘T’ for Team because they make this charity what it is and they deserve that special status. Without a great Team we could not offer the Frenchies the help that we do, we could not support you when you need us, we would simply fail to be effective. Without our volunteers we could not do home-visits, collect dogs, deliver dogs, hold fundraising events, we could not pay our vet fees from the generous donations. And without the AMAZING followers we have we would not be here at all, we could not help the dogs, form great friendships and change lives, human and canine, we would cease to exist.

Yes, I am proud to be a part of this Team, and this Phoenix is truly flying higher by the day, and raising French Bulldogs from the Ashes. We are delighted that you have found us, welcome!.

March 2026 **except in cases of severe aggression