A few Sundays ago (three to be exact), when out walking in the olive groves with my dogs, they dragged me to a tree with a hollow that contained a puppy. Now my two girls are rescue Galgos Españoles (greyhounds), and they have been bred to hunt prey. And that's precisely what they saw in the puppy. I dragged them away and wrestled with the idea of rescuing the puppy as we made our way home. And rescued the puppy I did.

She, because it turned out she was a she, had been placed in the hollow only a few hours earlier either by her mother or 'owner' – she was far too small to climb into the hollow herself.

Armed with two dogs on their leashes and a Lidl bag for life, we set off in search of the tree hollow. I live in the middle of a sea of olive trees, zillions of them, and they all look the same; hence, taking my girl detectives to track down the tree with the hollow. Once we were in the general area, it took less than a minute to sniff out the hollow.

Now the next step was the tricky part, as I had to keep my very inquisitive dogs away from the puppy at the same time as lifting the abandoned soul into my bag for life. So, using my left leg as a barrier, I, one-legged, lifted the pup up with my right hand and promptly lowered the pup into the bag for life. Now, seeing as I am officially old, it is a testament to my balance that I didn't fall over, and I was thankful that there was nobody around to watch my performance.

The pup didn't like the Lidl bag and cried in between growls all the way home, with my girls showing different degrees of interest in the contents. Poppy was agitated because she didn't like the pup crying (she acts the same way when there is a crying child on TV) and Issy just wanted to get her nose inside the bag.

After a good scrub, I was aware that she was in good condition, about 6-8 weeks old, but now what?

My girls were showing her far too much attention and the wrong kind of attention too.

My neighbour gave me a bottle of lactose-free milk, and I cooked up some basmati rice to go with it. She could eat for Spain.

I found a cardboard box that would be her temporary casa in my laundry room, where there's a walk-in shower and a large shower 'tray' – the easy access to water and having a drain came in very handy.

It was obvious that I couldn't keep her, but the local shelters and a woman who takes in stray pups couldn't help, so I turned to social media, posting in Facebook groups and on Twitter.

Being rather cute, she soon went viral, and it wasn't long before a family in Córdoba wanted to adopt her. The lucky pup is now the plaything of 3 and 5 year olds who will no doubt spoil her rotten.

Cute Puppy