Nearly a year ago, Jo from Essex wrote to us, explaining how she had recently lost her dog Ben, after having him for 17 years. She was wondering about the possibility of rescuing one of our Spanish strays.

Luckily, there were a few dogs ready to travel, one of them being Toby, who had arrived at the Tossa de Mar refuge from another refuge, which is most likely to have been the Town Hall Dog Pound, also in Tossa. Toby arrived with his brother, Willy. He was nervous and wayward, and nobody could get near him.

He went to live with Jo, her son Shaun and daughter Shannen in April, 2007.

For the first six months he did not even bark, but now he will when someone is at the door.