Alfie’s start in life was sadly typical of many Greek hunting dogs. In 2014, once the hunting season was over, he was found tied up one morning outside the shelter in Lemnos. He was about a year old a beautiful Setter/Retriever cross and resembled a bag of bones.

So that morning he was taken in, along with another white Setter called Irina, by Fotini and the handful of volunteers who bravely run the Lemnos shelter – the home to over 80 dogs of all ages and sizes. There were Setters, Spaniels, Retrievers, Pointers and Labrador look-a-likes and lots of cute fluffy mixes. They all had one thing in common – they were gorgeous – but stuck in a remote shelter, miles from anywhere, so no-one knew about them!

For two years Alfie would watch some of the cute fluffy puppies get adopted, but along with all the other big breeds he was destined to be another long term resident. Fotini decided these big boys needed a bit of much needed PR to show what gorgeous guys they all were, so with a group of friends planned the shelter’s very first dog walk and that’s when we first met Alfie.

Alfie was just one of those dogs you can’t ever forget; kind and respectful of all his shelter mates, not always the centre of attention but always where the attention was!

Several visits later we asked Fotini how Starlight Barking could help the shelter and she immediately said: “Please find Alfie a home!”

We were clueless how to do this but we put his photo on Facebook and were totally shocked that within an hour of his photo appearing he’d been offered a home. Within days he had homes to choose from all over the UK.

Fate then played an amazing hand and led Alfie and Starlight Barking to Tony Golden and family in Manchester. Tony and his wife Tania ran Manchester Dog Care, a model doggie day care where dog owners could leave their well-mannered dogs to run free and have the time of their lives.

Tony’s family had always had Retrievers and had been looking to offer a rescue a home. Tony saw Alfie’s picture on Facebook and contacted Starlight Barking in August 2016 and by November 2016 lucky Alfie was on his way to England. We loved everything about Tony and his family and knew Alfie had fallen on his paws. But we had no idea, at that time, what Alfie’s Golden Opportunity would mean for rescue dogs everywhere.