Sick dog Monty takes final walk in wheelbarrow

A dog owner took his pet on one final trip up a Welsh mountain before he died, with the help of a wheelbarrow.

Carlos Fresco's labradoodle Monty had leukaemia for 18 months.

After his health started to decline for the last time, Mr Fresco made sure they had one last journey together up Pen Y Fan in the Brecon Beacons.

"He was so at peace in Wales. He absolutely loved that wheelbarrow and all the attention he got when we were walking," Mr Fresco, from London, said.

Ten-year-old Monty initially responded well to chemotherapy but eight weeks ago the cancer returned.

"I knew he was declining fast. He looked fine from the outside but the cancer meant he wasn't getting enough oxygen to his muscles - he could walk a bit but not far," Mr Fresco said.

He lives in the Bayswater area of London but decided to make Monty's last days ones to remember with a road trip to Wales.

Mr Fresco and Monty stayed with friends in Brecon for a week, taking Monty into the town and for walks in the wheelbarrow before heading up Pen y Fan for one final time together.

On their way to the top strangers stopped to fuss over Monty, with some even "shedding a tear" and offering to help push him.

"That dog loved nothing more than interacting with other people. He loved attention - if you stopped he'd put a paw on you, or rest his chin on your thigh, looking at you as if to say 'stroke me again'," Mr Fresco said.

Monty's health declined over the week and he died on 21 June.

Mr Fresco said: "He hung on for Father's Day. We were sleeping in my friend's conservatory and I saw Monty in the garden in the early hours of the next morning.

"He came in and curled up at the foot of my bed - and when I woke next he'd passed away. I think his little heart must have given out."

Mr Fresco drove Monty back to London for a burial in the family garden.

"He was a very special boy and has been by my side for a decade. God bless and goodnight little fella."