SOME special guests were invited to the opening of Clevedon’s new Pets at Home store on Friday.

North Somerset Times: Our Pets at Home competition winner Christine Whittle with store manager Shelly LongOur Pets at Home competition winner Christine Whittle with store manager Shelly Long (Image: supplied)

Vice-chairman of Clevedon Town Council, Cllr Linda Knott officially opened the new shop at Hither Green Industrial estate before going on a guided tour of the building.

Christine Whittle and her beloved 13-month-old jack-a-doodle dog, Jack, also attended after entering a competition featured in the North Somerset Times.

As well as being special guests at the opening, Christine and Jack also received £100 worth of Pets at Home gift vouchers plus a full grooming session worth up to £50 courtesy of the Groom Room located inside the new shop.

Shelly Long, store manager, said: “What a fantastic start.

“Our opening weekend went even better than we had hoped and it was great to welcome the vice-chairman of Clevedon Town Council. We also had a lot of fun meeting our star pet, Jack, and his owner, Christine.”

Pets at Home in Clevedon is home to an adoption centre, where pets such as rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters and other small animals are cared for until a new loving home can be found. Other features include an aquatics centre and reptile centre.

The store has been created as part of a joint development with supermarket giant Aldi. The new Aldi store is due to open in May.

Shoppers going along to the store on Saturday may well have also bumped into Debbie Catling (pictured above), a member of the North Somerset Times team, who was handing out copies of our newspaper to shoppers.