A married couple mourning the death of their dog of 15 years has been told they cannot keep their new puppy.
Gail Witchell and her husband Reece, from Evesham, in Worcestershire, were still grieving their beloved Ollie when fate happened right on their doorstep.
A week after their pet died, they had left his bed outside for the bin collectors to pick up.
Hours later, the pair heard a whimpering noise coming from outside their front door.
There, they found a ‘shivering’ Dachshund puppy ‘in a dreadful state’ curled up in the bed.
Gail and Reece took in the animal and named her Dobby, after the character from Harry Potter, and alerted their dog warden in case someone had lost her.
But when no one came forward, they took it as a sign, and offered to give her a forever home.
Gail said: ‘She was so cute, she was undernourished, she had no fur, just tuffs and her skin was scabby. She was unwell. My daughter has a cat pen and we put her in that.
‘I phoned our vets and they advised phoning the RSPCA who told me to call the dog warden.’
The couple had only put down Ollie two days before, so they said ‘it was like she was meant to be’.
But they were left devastated when the dog wardens had to take Dobby to get her the extensive treatment she needed before she was moved to a foster family in Kent.
Due to their rehoming policy rescued dogs are not released back into the area they were found as there is a risk of breeders stealing her back.
Gail said: ‘The warden said they would not rehome her from where she has been abandoned in case the people who dumped her see her and try to steal her back knowing she has had veterinary treatment.
‘It’s hard to imagine how anyone could be that low that they would sneak into people’s houses and steal a dog back.’
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