An adorable dog with a wonky face has found a forever home – and is now set to become the hero of a children’s book with a sweet message about being loved for who you are.
Alan is a boxer-saluki mix and suffers from a facial deformity known as “wry mouth”, which causes his upper jaw to deviate to one side, giving him a wonky face.
The two year old pooch began life as a stray living on a building site in Doha, Qatar with his parents and five siblings.
Looked after and fed by a security guard, the family of pups were then left abandoned when the guard was told they were no longer able to stay on site.
Johanna Handley, 43, was living in Doha at the time and found out about the unlucky canines and, as the owner of five other rescue dogs, decided to take them in and care for them, not wanting them to be left to die.
Originally from Godalming, Surrey, Johanna decided to make Alan a permanent member of her family, worried that he may not get adopted due to his facial deformity.
Johanna’s sister decided to adopt one of Alan’s siblings and the rest of the family were taken to America via the National Greyhound Adoption Program (NGAP) charity.
Now, Alan lives comfortably in his forever home in Île de Ré, an island off the west coast of France, with Johanna, her husband, Dan Strutt, 43, their daughter Darcy, 10, and five other rescue pups.
Despite Johanna’s initial worries, Alan is healthy and lives a completely normal and happy life.
She said: “He’s a completely lovely dog, really sweet, very calm and chill. He loves to run on the beach and he’s a total thief. He’d steal food out of your mouth.
“I actually think of him a bit like a therapy dog. He’s so sweet, just being around him makes you a bit happier.
“He gets on with the other dogs mostly as well. The two male dogs can get annoyed, but they love him too.”
Now, author Johanna is writing a brand new children’s novel inspired by Alan’s wonky nose and charming personality, called ‘Alan the Wonky Dog’.
Johanna said: “The book is about a little girl who finds some stray dogs in the desert, she instantly bonds with Alan who is very wonky but very sweet.
“I want the story to show that you don’t have to be perfect to be loved.”
Johanna has finished writing the book and is currently looking for a publisher.
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