It’s a (waggy) tale of happy endings for four puppies who were left for dead last year.

In October 2016 many of us read with horror about the four border collie cross puppies, just a few days old, who had been tied up in a black plastic bag and dumped in the north of the island.

Fortunately a member of the public witnessed the incident and took them to Ramsey police station.

They were taken to the ManxSPCA at Ard Jerkyll in a critical condition. They were very cold and needed intensive bottle feeding, every couple of hours, for them to survive.

Twelve months later there is little sign that the fine dog, Jake, who has come to greet me with big hazel eyes and a waggy tail had such a precarious start in life. He is gentle and friendly with a thick, shiny coat and looks the picture of health.

Jake has found his forever home with Kerry Gascoigne and her family. With three young sons, Rory, Connor and Milo, she and her husband Graham, known as ’Bestie’, had already decided that the only other thing they need to make their family complete was a dog.

They had even started looking around for a suitable canine when Bestie, a police constable, came home from work one day and told Kerry about the puppies who had been dumped.

Kerry takes up the story: ’Pretty much as soon as the pictures of the puppies started going up on Facebook I put an inquiry in to the ManxSPCA but I was told that they weren’t looking for homes at that time. They needed to be certain that the puppies were going to survive first.’

Kerry kept on making inquries as to whether any of the puppies were ready to be rehomed. She recalls: ’Eventually my persistence got us through and we were invited to view the puppies. When we went up with the kids there was just the two brown and white puppies left, one a dog and one a bitch.’

Kerry’s youngest son, Milo, was only one at the time so the choice of which puppy to have went to Rory and Connor.

Kerry says: ’My boys never agreed on anything but they both agreed that they wanted the boy puppy and that he had to be called Jake.’

They were finally able to take Jake home around the end of November and then he really started to grow.

’He has multiplied in size so many times that we’re wondering how big he is going to get. He grew out of his first puppy crate in two or three weeks and he has had two different crates since then. Now he’s fully house-trained and he just wanders round the house and sleeps on the sofa,’ says Kerry.

A DNA test carried out on one of the other puppies in the litter has revealed that they also have a dash of golden retriever in their genes which probably accounts for their size and has helped to make Jake a real family dog.

Kerry says: ’He’s so good with the kids, especially Milo. He just lies on the floor beside him when Milo is playing in the playroom.’

In April Kerry was appointed fundraising manager for the ManxSPCA. Jake sometimes goes to work with her and this has reunited him with his brother, Tate, one of the two black and white puppies in the litter. Tate was adopted by Diana Watterson who also works for the Manx SPCA and he and Jake did their puppy training together.

The other two puppies, Bella and Izzy, live in Peel and Glen Vine respectively but they will all be reunited on Sunday, October 1, when they will be celebrating their first birthday at a special party in the play barn at Ard Jerkyll.

Invitations have been sent out to all the adoptive families, ManxSPCA staff and volunteers, and the police officers involved in the investigation. The public are also welcome to attend the event, on from 2pm to 4pm, and to meet the puppies. Charlotte’s Doggy Day Care will be supplying dog cupcakes and each dog who attends will also receive a party bag.

Refreshments will be available in the play barn for humans too, and the ManxSPCA’s dog-friendly tearooms will be serving their delicious home-cooked breakfasts and lunches from 10am.