On Monday, Ralph’s guardian angel had finally had enough and had no choice but to intervene.

I was stopped in my van at a junction and a homeless man came up to my window and said “I don’t want any money, please can you take this dog and help him, I found him wandering around on Thursday night and have tried to look after him but it’s too cold at night and I’m afraid he won’t last much longer?”

My first reaction was to say “NO”, but after a few seconds thought there was no way I was gonna leave this poor little old man (Ralph) out in the cold for even one more night.

I took him through the open window of my van, put him on the passenger’s seat and drove to the closest vet to see if I could locate his owner on his microchip.

Of course all the vets were closed on a Bank Holiday Monday so I went into a shop, bought him some food and water and he wolfed it down like he hadn’t eaten for days!!

At that point I decided that [for now at least] he would be called Ralph.

I know he can’t come to ours because our dog would not accept any other dogs in our house so I took him to my parents who’s beloved German Shepherd (Peanut) had died a year ago (to the day!).

They welcomed him with open arms, they both sat up all night long to feed him boiled chicken and boiled rice in small quantities, gently every two hours because they knew that his shrunken stomach would not be able cope with a large amount of food all at once.

The next day they took him to their vet and had him checked over.

This is not an easy read so please be aware.

Ralph does not have a microchip.

The vet assumes his age to be between 13-14 years old.

His teeth have almost completely decayed away and are just little black stubs that the vet says must be extremely painful and have been like that a good few years.

He has a weeping abscess under his left eye, likely caused by his rotten teeth.

He is badly malnourished.

The muscles in both his craniums have completely wasted away which is caused by malnutrition among other things.

He is possibly partially sighted and partially def.

The vet also assumes there could be more underlying problems such as kidney disease and even cancer.

However, there is some good news, Ralph seems to have learned to deal with his painful teeth somehow and is a very happy little boy and his coat is in amazing condition and shiny.

He really does seem to be a fighter and has obviously come through some very hard times and without doubt, deserves to have a pain free, warm, happy last few years in a loving home with food and water on tap.

This where you lot come in:

Ralph’s vet bill of £200 for his first initial examinations, strong pain killers and antibiotics is so far covered by us but the vet has informed us that this little man is going to need a lot of work on his teeth, blood tests, x-rays and biopsies and quite possibly a lot of medication, and care which is going to cost thousands of pounds.

As a family we will do as much as possible to help this poor man but we really do need your help.

If you can please give him some pennies we promise that everything raised here will go directly to Ralph’s care.

We thank you in advance for just reading Ralph’s story and pray for all the other animals in this world who are not as fortunate as Ralph to be given a second chance..