Help a shelter dog be pain free

Meet Conchita. She is the sweetest and most gentle dog you will ever meet. She is loving and tender. She has lived for most of her life in a concrete cell. She has lived the last three years in constant pain, which could be prevented with a little help from you.

I started volunteering at my local animal shelter in Spain a few months ago. I have fallen in love with so many of the dogs here, but none has touched my heart more than this lady. She's an older girl, but the years without comfort and scant human contact have done nothing to diminish the sparkle in her eye. A little wary of strangers at first, she soon learned that these newcomers who would visit her cell a couple of times a week brought tasty treats and, better still, kind words and gentle hands.

What is immediately noticeable on meeting Conchita, though, is her severe limp. She struggles around on three legs, with her front left held up and twisted across her body. When I asked what was wrong, I was told that it was damaged three years ago, but it was never fixed at the time and never repaired itself.

There is little hope for any of the dogs in this underfunded and undermanned shelter to find a home, but for Conchita there is none; who would adopt a dog, knowing that there would be an immediate and hefty vet bill to pay? Yet, this lovely lady doesn't deserve to live out her days in pain. She doesn't deserve to die in this shelter. She deserves the same as everyone else; to feel secure, wanted and loved to the very end.

I have taken it upon myself to find her this loving home. I know it is out there. I would take her in myself in an instant, but I have two dogs who simply wouldn't accept her.

The first step on this journey is to stop her suffering. An x-ray of the leg, taken today at my own expense, showed her elbow is shattered. There is no repair possible and it highlighted the amount of pain this brave angel suffers every single moment of every day - and has done for the last three years. Next week, she returns to the vet for further tests, but there is no doubt that the only course of action is amputation. Having lived so long on three legs anyway, there will be minimal adjustment time for her, and it will immediately remove her suffering.

I can't afford this surgery for her. I so wish I could. So that's why I'm reaching out to you all. Please. Please. Give a little to this cause to end her pain and to light the path towards finding her a warm place she can call home.

Thank you xxx