Alfie

A trip to the vets with his new owner discovered that Alfie had a heart condition and he was referred to the University of Liverpool's Cardiology Department. It was found that Alfie had a complicated condition, one that required extensive investigation.

The estimated cost to treat Alfie was around £3000, which his owners could not afford. His owner decided to advertise Alfie on the Internet and that's where I came in. I first saw Alfie on a free ads website. I contacted his owner and the cardiologist at Liverpool and found out full details of his condition. There was no other option for Alfie - without the further intervention he would die.

I decided to offer Alfie a foster home, and to try and raise the money needed to save him. I immediately set up a blog - www.alfiesheart.co.uk - and started promoting it everywhere I could.

He was four months old when he made his journey from Lancashire to Newcastle. He was exhausted and sick. He had a very bloated abdomen full of fluid caused by heart failure and was on four different medications.

On speaking further to the University, we had no choice but to book Alfie in with them as soon as possible, he was booked in for surgery in just a week later.

The task of raising the money seemed impossible and enormous. The response to his website was amazing. Companies came forward to donate and sponsor Alfie, he featured in the local press, dog lovers worldwide donated what they could and spread the word via the Internet. In less than two weeks, we had the full £3000 needed.

On July 22, Alfie went for his investigations. He was diagnosed with a very rare defect. The only option for Alfie now was to operate - surgery that had never been performed on a dog before.

There was no way of knowing whether he would survive or whether it would be successful. It was a scary day for all of us - me, the vets performing the new procedure, and Alfies’ many supporters watching his website for any news - but I went ahead with it and consented to the surgery.

A few hours later, I received a call to say that Alfie was ok and his heart seemed to be functioning more normally already. The surgery had so far been successful, but they would need to monitor Alfie closely for complications.

Just two days later, I went to bring Alfie home. We couldn’t believe how quickly he had recovered and bounced back, this little boy was a fighter!

Of course after everything we'd been through together, he became a permanent member of the family.

He is now nine months old and doing really well, thanks to the many people who were touched by his appeal.

Emma Foxall and Alfie.