Meet Sebastian - he is a two-and-a-half year old alpaca, and lives with his two alpaca buddies, Finnegan and Paddington, (both also two-and-a-half years old), on a small farm outside Cessnock.

Last week, Sebastian was in his paddock one morning when he was attacked by two roaming stray dogs. These dogs (which were seized by council rangers after the attack) caused not only horrific injuries to the beautiful Sebastian (who has undergone extensive surgery), but significant physical injuries and psychological trauma for Sebastian's owner, Katie, who rescued Sebastian from the dogs with the help of some amazing tradesmen who came running to assist her.

So far, the vet bills for Seb's care have been substantial, as I am sure you can appreciate. He lost an eye, has a fractured skull, and had to have his rectum completely reconstructed.

Sebastian has pulled through the surgery so far, but he has a long road to recovery.

I know that times are tough for a lot of us at the moment, but it's stories like this one that break our hearts - especially those of us who not only love our own fur babies, but who also put so much time and effort into animals, whether that is through rescue organisations, care groups, or even just our local lost and found pet Facebook pages.

Please help out if you can - any amount will be greatly appreciated. Sebastian's owners, Katie and Andrew, are both lovely ex-students of mine, and their family (three boys - aged nineteen, seventeen and nine) has been utterly devastated by this.