Meet Echo, he joined our little family in May 2015; I had been living with my boyfriend for about four months when we decided we wanted to consider getting a puppy. I am the most inpatient person known to man and so as soon as we had that conversation I was trawling all of the pet sale sites, visiting the Dogs Trust at Sadberge and following hundreds of Stray Aid and RSPCA Facebook Pages.

We discussed the various breeds we would be happy having; it was a unanimous decision that we wanted a larger dog rather than someone small, someone who would be able to go on lots of family walks and not get tired or need carrying too quickly - that's my role!!

I remember the day I came across the advert for Echo (or Delta as he was then) he was listed on Gumtree as being 6 months old, his face in the photographs was the saddest thing I had ever seen, we had just been to the Dogs Trust and spent a few hours discussing different options with them when I got the notification for this little man. We had the night before extended our search alerts to include the Leeds area and so when his little face crossed my screen I was instantly in love.

There was hardly any information listed about him except that "He had to go that day" I begged and pleaded with Matthew to drive straight there and let me take him away to a happier life. The background to the photographs were horrendous, I hate to think of him living in those conditions. When we turned up to the house they refused to let us inside and led a tiny timid underweight thing out to us. He was terrified and shyed away from his owners if they took a step near him.

Matty and I looked at each other and I knew there was no way I could leave this little boy behind, We asked all the usual questions and could tell they didnt have a clue and were just fobbing us off, they gave us enough food for "three days" this was 2 cans of wet food, food which for his size and weight he should of been having 2 a day :(

We took him away there and then and we got to know each other on the car journey home, he tucked himself into the furthest side of the back seat that he could away from all contact. We gave him a jumper from each of us so he could get used to the smell and let him settle. Once we got home he curled up on the sofa and went to sleep. It wasnt until then that reality hit home, we had bought him on the basis that if things didnt work out we would have to take him to Sadberege, it wasn't what we wanted but anything was worth getting him out of that so called home. It was a Sunday night and there were no pet stores open, he had water out of a soup bowl that night and we begrudging-ly gave him the crappy quality dog food they had given us.

It was three long days before we could get him into our Vets for a full check up and microchip, I spent most of those days stressing about whether he would be flagged up as stolen, whether they would think that we had let him get into the state that he was in and whether any permanent damage was caused by the malnutrition.

We quickly learnt that his start in life hadnt been all rainbows and butterflies. He was terrified of people, he wouldnt go anywhere near us, he didnt understand toys and wouldnt take treats incase you changed your mind and took them away from him. It broke my heart that he didnt know how to trust humans and that someone had caused his total loss of faith.

Within days and following a thankful trip to the Vets (he hadn't been chipped and was only 15 kg in weight at 6 months) we bonded. He became my shadow (always being wary of men) and we must of walked miles. Over the next couple of months we spent hours learning how to play and building up our confidence meeting new people. He is now one of the most loving animals I've ever had the pleasure of knowing and the progress hes made is one of my proudest achievements. He is a mummy's boy and spoilt rotten but I wouldnt have it any other day.

In essence, I suppose what my waffling is really all about is to say please please please dont be put off re homing a rescue dog, for us it was one of the best decisions we ever made.