EIGHT months of hard work, heartache and some serious crowdfunding have finally paid off as a half-starved Sri Lankan puppy has found a new home in Grove.

Last October a group of residents took it upon themselves to raise £4,000 to adopt Ralph, a three-month-old dog found wandering the mountains of Habarana.

After a gruelling campaign and a lengthy session in quarantine Ralph has finally been taken in by die-hard animal lover Rachel Parrott, 40, and her family.

Mrs Parrott, who works as a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) in Blackbird Leys, Oxford, said it was her 23-year-old niece, Jade Martin, who first alerted her to the puppy's plight while she was staying in Sri Lanka for charity work.

The mother-of-three recalled: "They were staying in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of Habarana when they found this tiny pup.

"He had little fur due to mange and was very skinny.

"They bathed and fed him but had to return to the UK within 10 days. I rang every sanctuary I could find on the internet but they were either full or on lockdown due to disease spreading within their kennels.

"The villagers themselves were too poor to take him on – unfortunately Sri Lanka has thousands of stray street dogs."

With the prospect of Ralph dying within days without proper care, Mrs Parrott enlisted the help of "animal travel agency" Pet Express to bring him home.

After a hefty deposit a local fundraising team, made up of Mrs Parrott, her niece, her husband Greg, Jacky and Nigel Primrose and Jo Leung, banded together to raise the extra £3,572 to pay for vet bills, rabies injections, blood tests, vaccinations, a passport, six months' quarantine and a flight to the UK.

The group held 80s-themed discos, raffles and supermarket bag packing to raise funds, and appealed in the Oxford Mail.

Ralph's six months in quarantine in Sri Lanka ended in April and he flew over to the UK three weeks ago.

Mrs Parrott, mum to teenage boys Jake and Jordan and five-year-old girl Ruby, said he was now settling in with the family well.

She added: "It has been hard for him as he hasn’t experienced a lot of things such as traffic, bikes and pushchairs, but he’s getting there slowly."

She added that Ralph, now a strong and healthy pup of about nine months, went walking in fields in Grove every day and had become "quite famous" in the area.

His progress has been documented on Facebook and recent videos show him exploring the roadside, meeting other puppies and even snoring on a pillow.

As well as praising the work of Pet Express, who brought Ralph back from "death's door" over the winter, Mrs Parrott said: "I’d like to take the opportunity to thank everyone for donating and supporting our team to save Ralph."