Having dogs all our lives we learned so much from this boy: determination, resilience, understanding and an outstanding ability to love, this from only two years as we took Ben at 18 years old from a shelter. He had been thrown on the street with an inability to walk from a disease in his hind quarters and a bullet through him.

We believed he deserved more than this after surviving God knows what indignities and so we took him. He could only walk three or four steps but with daily short walks and mountains of love and care within months he was walking for half an hour at his pace when nobody said it could be done. Love can do anything.

We have now taken another dog from the same shelter and on our way out we spotted Maki. I know you will say there are thousands of dogs that need a home. I know that but I am speaking up for one of them. Why not try, I asked myself.

Maki is about 6/7 years old and has been forsaken twice. He is outstandingly beautiful and gentle. His sin is that he has disabled back legs. Unlike Ben he is just disabled not ill. The shelter is the most committed team we have ever witnessed. The dogs are feed, watered and sheltered and they know the name of every dog but that is as far as their limited resources and time can do. Maki, with daily little walks will gain muscle on his legs and get stronger. There is nobody to do that.

Is there a huge heart out there who can offer this gentle, noble creature a home? I will have him undertake an intensive medical check and pay for all his annual injections for this year and the following three years. I will supply a 10 kg bag of food to start him off, along with his bed, bowl etc. He needs to be on a diet and lose his thick coat. I will have him groomed and pay all adoption fees.

He would be perfect for someone retired who has a garden of sorts and a lovely bar a ten minute walk away. The perfect exercise for Maki. He walks like a ballet dancer. He is divine.

Please visit www.dogsofportugal.com and type in Maki to see him. He is very shy of course he is. Poor boy.