This is the story of Millie the beach bum.

Her story starts in a pretty sad way really – some friends found her at the local souk (market) in Anza, a town about 5km south of Aourir. She was on her own, hiding behind some railings, desperately dehydrated and filthy – she had been removed from her mum and dumped, probably by the local kids but who knows. A further puppy was also found a bit later – a bit bigger than this one, but it was assumed they were of the same litter – but still no mum anywhere to be seen.

Our friends, Ulli and Lena, Marris and Marita put them both behind the taxi rank and called the Animal Aid guys who were going to collect them later that night, however the next morning, one had gone but she was still there, looking very worse for wear – so the only option left was to bring her home until a suitable arrangement could be found.

Ulli and Lena are such dog people and soon had her bathed, fed and made her comfortable, fresh water and food were given and already she started to perk up. We estimated she is only 5 – 6 weeks old and far too young to be away from her mum. The plan was to get her healthy, foster her for a few weeks and then release her on the beach to join the other beach dogs – the guys are planning to leave Morocco in 8 weeks time so could not keep her.

The puppy had to have a name, so she was called Anza after the place she was found.

The guys had a house full of family arriving so we offered to help out and take her for a few nights …. thats when all our lives changed forever!

I am sure this was the plan hatched by Ulli and Lena – they know we are so soft with dogs and despite my protestations and insistence we would not have any more dogs – guess what – we had one!