Poor little boy

I hope they can nurse Bruce back to full health, he sounds in a very poor way.

I've visited Cyprus only once and saw lots of roaming cats there, many even living in the hotel grounds. Happily though, staff regularly brought out food and water for them and the cats did look healthy and well fed. Apparently Cypriots are very fond of cats. Pity someone couldn't have provided the same level of welfare for this dog!

It beggars belief that people could be that cruel. Hopefully Bruce will now have a long and healthy life with his new loving owners.

A few years ago I was in a supermarket car park before 8am waiting for the shop to open - most unusual for me - and I spotted a rather grubby looking white poodle racing around. It looked very upset, unkempt and hungry but still had that perky look that poodles have.

I tried to approach it but it kept scooting off, so I spoke to another waiting customer who had also been watching it and, between us, we managed to catch hold of it, wrapped it in my car blanket and took it to a nearby vets to look for a microchip and see if it was OK.

There was no way to identify its owners but the other shopper and I agreed to pay for it to be checked out, cleaned up and looked after for a week in case anyone came forward to collect it. The vet kindly waived all medical fees and bore the costs of a "lost and found" campaign.

No-one ever came to claim him but Marguerite, the other shopper, decided to adopt him and apparently named him Johnny, in deference to the Waitose/John Lewis store car park where we found him. I never did - and now never will - see either of them again but the vet phoned me a couple of times to let me know all was well.