This is my little princess Ellie.

I rescued her from an elderly gentleman who I worked alongside when I worked for Guideposts Trust.

She was only two years of age at the time and was, for most of the day, kept in a cage in the old man's sitting room. She was crawling in fleas and desperate for attention, not having a single toy to play with.

The old guy had to go into hospital for a short while and asked me to look after his dog. I took her home to our house in Evesham and the very first thing we did was to give her a much needed bath. I had never seen so many fleas on a dog in my life. The bath looked like someone had sprinkled the water with chocolate hundreds and thousands!

She had obviously only ever been in a bungalow before. It was so funny watching her running up and down staircases in our three-storey house. I fell in love with her that day!

When the old guy came out of hospital and I had to return her to her master, my heart was nearly breaking ... and she didn't want to go!

I left her, said my goodbyes and turned for my car determined that I was not going to look back, but of course I did and she was there in the window looking back at me.

I sat in my car and I confess, I cried.

Only a few days later, I received a phone call from the district nurse to say that the old guy was not managing at home and had agreed to go into a nursing home near to his family.

When asked if I knew anyone who would have the little dog permanently, I dropped everything I was doing and drove from Great Rissington to Moreton in Marsh in 12 minutes flat (Roger Bannister had nothing on me that day!)

I arrived at the bungalow in time to discover that his son was intending, if nobody offered to home her, to take the dog across the back fields with his shotgun!

I stepped in. 

After a few choice words with the son and the offer to show him another way a shotgun barrel could be utilised, I took her in my arms and brought her back home.

Our old Jack Russell, Patch, loved her instantly and became very protective of her … she would bully him terribly!

She has been in my life and my heart now for 11 years and even though she is an old girl herself, (just like her dad, I hear you say) she still races around the house and up and down two flights of stairs as though she was just a puppy.

I truly believe in fate! I was meant to support that old gent because I was meant to meet this little girl and give Ellie a place in our hearts.

She has been my best friend and my saviour.