TWO loveable lurchers face spending Christmas in kennels unless new homes can be found for them.

Tip and Jake were taken in more than a month ago - both underweight and in poor health.

But staff at Amirene Kennels, Royal Oak, West Auckland, have nursed the neglected pets back to health and hope they find owners soon.

Kennels' supervisor Susan Meale said: "Tip and Jake are two wonderful dogs and we've become quite attached to them.

"They both have such soft natures and deserve good homes. They are both lively characters that crave to be loved and wanted."

One-year-old Tip, a longhaired, tan-coloured lurcher was found five weeks ago in a shed.

Jake, an eight-year-old white and grey dog, was taken in by the RSPCA a few days later.

The pair would have gone straight to the society's sanctuary at Great Ayton, North Yorkshire, but all the kennels were filled with some of the 244 dogs recovered from an address in Carnforth, Lancashire, last month.

Anyone interested in giving Tip or Jake a home is asked to contact RSPCA rehoming officer for Darlington and Newton Aycliffe, Margaret Chance, on (07970) 600631.