A KIND-hearted Abergavenny man is fighting a battle against time to rescue a litter of abandoned puppies from a Sri Lankan holding pen and bring them home to Wales.

Amos Hall, a former pupil of Crickhowell High School - and once a sales representative for Keith Price Garages, has been touring Asia with girlfriend, Helena Hanson from Rhos on Sea.

Amos and Helena were travelling in the island nation when they encountered the abandoned pups, just a few days old; hungry, exhausted and terrified on the side of the road.

Amos told the Chronicle, ‘While riding our moped to dinner one evening, I noticed some tiny black shapes moving by the roadside. On investigation we were surprised to discover they were puppies - four of them.’

The couple took the pups to their hotel, fed them and warmed them up. Helena stated, ‘They were three females and one male, we decided to name them after the Teletubbies.’

Amos added, ‘The advice given to us by the vets was to return the puppies to where we found them. In Sri Lanka street dogs are common and often stray mother dogs will leave puppies alone while they go out for the day to feed.’

With some misgivings Amos and Helena returned the pups to the spot where they had been found after agreeing to take turns to check on the puppies every few hours throughout the night.

Helena says, ‘Early the following morning, I woke to find Amos had not returned from his check and when he came back the news was devastating.

‘He had gone to do a night check and had heard the puppies wailing from far away. Upon reaching them, they were with a local man who told Amos they had just been attacked by a mongoose - and had it not been for him stopping to investigate the noise, they would have all been killed.’

Amos spoke to the man for a while and discovered the puppies had been abandoned by their owners by the roadside, without food or water, they were only a few days old.

The local man knew the people that abandoned the dogs, and later provided information to the authorities, as dumping puppies or dogs is illegal in Sri Lanka.

The mongoose attack left the puppies terrified and bloodied and the couple feared they would all die. Amos added, ‘LaLa in particular looked exhausted; the whole ordeal was too much for her tiny body to handle, and we knew we didn’t have much time left with her.

‘We raced to the nearest dog rescue, Animal SOS Sri Lanka, who took our Teletubbies in, despite being full to bursting with 1,200 resident dogs. The following day, LaLa passed away, the ordeal proving too much for her.

Knowing the future was equally bleak for the three surviving puppies if they remained in Sri Lanka, Amos and Helena launched a campaign to bring the tiny dogs home to Wales.

Helena explained, ‘They deserve homes where they can run, play and be loved. Somewhere they can forget and recover from the horrors of their first few days.

The pair appreciated the difficulties - not least the financial barriers - to their ambitions.

However, social media has played a huge part in fundraising with hundreds of shares of the couple’s campaign bringing a flood of donations. They are now just £900 short of their £4,500 target.

The couple’s Go fund Me page, at www.gofundme.com/help-us-bring-the-teletubbies-home, is welcoming donations aimed at bringing Tinky Winky, Dipsy and Po home to Wales and writing a happy final episode to the Teletubbies’ ordeal.