JUDY Whicker, of the Friends of the RSPCA Gladstone, shares the story of two dogs found injured near Calliope.

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IT WAS about 11am on a Sunday when I received a call from a couple of friends who were heading out to the shooting range past Calliope, on an old dirt road.

They had come across a dog with blood all over his head, dragging along his mate who was tethered to him by wire.

Both had horrific injuries to their heads and also what appeared to be stab wounds to their bodies.

I told my friends to take the dogs immediately to the vet and I would meet them there.

What I saw when I arrived brought me to tears.

Here were these two beautiful dogs, a wolfhound and a bull arab cross, less than eight months old with the most horrific injuries.

To top it off - and this is probably what saved them - they had maggots, literally hundreds of them, crawling out of their wounds.

I was joined at the vets by another volunteer, Tammy, and we both sat on the floor with these babies and soothed them and gave them as much love as we could.

We decided to christen them Sargent (wolfie) and Major (bull arab).

The vet spent hours cleaning their wounds and put them on a drip, advising us the dogs were severely injured, malnourished and dehydrated so they would need to spend some time in hospital.

These babies received great publicity and it was from this we started receiving information that eventually led to the arrest of a "man" (and I do use that term very loosely).

An informant happened to tell me the person who did this was trying to give these two dogs and another one away at the Calliope Hotel on the Friday night.

He had seen the three dogs in the back of a ute, in the rain and the cold.

I wondered where the third dog was so decided to go for a drive out to where the others were found to see if there was another dog injured and lying in the bush.

Unfortunately there was, but this young fella hadn't made it. He had died (hopefully quickly) from the horrific injuries inflicted on him.

After a few days I was able to bring Sargent and Major home so they could be loved and their wounds tended to.

Thankfully, another lovely volunteer, Tameka, decided she would take Major off my hands and take care of him.

In the next couple of weeks, the dogs came ahead in leaps and bounds.

However, we knew that poor Major would always have trouble with his leg.

It had been too badly damaged and he kept having to go back for more surgery.

At one point the vet even suggested we look at getting his leg amputated. Thankfully, we decided not to.

I could see both Tameka and I being failed foster carers as we had fallen in love with these two.

So, too, had the two men who found them. They would pay regular visits and wanted updates on "our boys".

Then one Monday morning, I received a call from a lady who lives outside Rockhampton on big acreage.

She wanted to bring her family down to meet these two and was prepared to take them home and care and love them.

The thing was, I didn't think we were ready to part with them.

They were our babies and we had all been through so much with them. Would these people love them as much we did?

But I realised I was being selfish and this might be the chance for these boys to find a loving and stable home, so I made a time for them to come down and meet them the following day.

This family fell instantly in love with our boys - and why wouldn't they?

Even after what they had been through, they just loved everyone and had the most gentle natures.

So it was with a very heavy heart that we waved goodbye to "our boys" and sent them on their way to their new life.

Tears were flowing from a few of us volunteers that day, I can tell you that.