Thanks to all you wonderful people that made Tuppy's operation possible. With your help we raised enough money to fund Tuppence's operation and help towards her aftercare. Without your generous donations the operation would not have been possible.

Its now two months since she had it done, and she is walking on it but not all the time. I am sure in time she will, we are still continuing with her daily swimming, which she hates! When we take her in the sea we have to watch her, as, if she can, she swims to shore and then runs like mad.

The main thing is she is no longer in pain!

On Wednesday 21st May, Tuppence had her long awaited operation on her leg. She was taken to Bari by our own vet, Dottore Verrienti , who was to assist in her operation.

We phoned on that evening to be told the operation had lasted for 3 1/2 hours and she was now fully awake. Dottore Tedesco, the vet that preformed the op,said it had been very difficult, due to her size. Where she had not used the leg for probably two years the bones had got very thin, on top of which she is a very small dog. So everything he used was micro, micro plate, micro screws etc. He must have an incredibly steady hand.

We were able to pick her up the following evening. She was so pleased to see us. My poor little girl, was all shaved one side, as he need to be prepared in case he needed to graft bone, which he didn't.

Its now a week since the op and she seems to be doing Ok, although she has not yet got her appetite back, which is usually enormous, and is making it very difficult to get her antibiotics and pain relief down her. She has her stitches out tomorrow.

Tuppence is a little dog with a big problem. When we found her, she had a very badly broken front leg. We found out that she had fallen from a roof terrace and broken it. The man of the family she lived with, then brought her to our village and abandoned her. What a nice chap!! She was alone and very very frightened and had apparently been this way for nearly a year when we found her.

She is so tiny; we think she is a Yorkie crossed with a Chihuahua. We had her leg operated on last August, the vet put in several pins and she was left like that for three months. Unfortunately the operation was not successful. We were so careful with her, not to let her get bumped by the others etc. but it was not to be. It didn't work!