Armoured convoy for this tiny ball of fluff

sARA Manning, 49, and husband Philip, 46, adopted their dog, also called Pegasus (after the Paratrooper emblem), in 2011, following Philip befriending the orphaned puppy while on deployment in Afghanistan.

sara said: ‘Pegasus was born in my husband’s camp in Nad-e-Ali in october 2010. Her mum gave birth to nine puppies, but she and five of the others were killed, leaving four of them who were unofficially adopted by the camp – they were fed on pieces of steak and i think Pegasus was quite naughty!

‘The minute Philip sent me and our four children a photograph of this tiny ball of fluff, i knew we had to have him. i also knew that if someone didn’t adopt him he would probably be shot. Whenever health and safety officers came into camp, Philip would hide Pegasus to keep him safe.

‘Philip contacted Nowzad, who ended up helping rescuing all four dogs, although we didn’t end up adopting all four.

‘[They] travelled in some style home, taking part of the journey in an armoured convoy – it was quite unbelievable to see pictures. They had to stay in Kabul at the Nowzad sanctuary for a while before Pegasus was flown to the uK. Home for us is now in Australia, where we moved in 2017, when Philip [pictured with Pegasus] joined the Australian Defence Force. ‘Pegasus loves it. He has a hip problem but we moved this year to a house by the beach. it’s given him a new lease of life. Then, seven weeks ago we got a new puppy Freyja, who wasn’t adopted through Nowzad, which has made Pegasus even more joyful. i can never thank Pen and his team enough.’