Brian Sewell, the famous art critic and dog lover, has died aged 84.  He was diagnosed with cancer last year. The Evening Standard critic was well known for his wit and humour.

Brian adopted four dogs from The Mayhew including Staffie Cross Lottie, who was with him in his final moments, and a whippet Jack, who was dumped on the brink of starvation in a churchyard.

In 2009, Brian wrote movingly in the Evening Standard: “Jack, my little whippet bitch, is dead.  She was a foundling: taken to the Mayhew Animal Home in a state of starvation so close to death that they thought she’d not survive, more than a month passed before she was released, still skeletal, still transparent, into my care.

“She was so damaged by the experience that she had forgotten how to be a dog and did not run. Lord knows what cruelties she had endured in her first five years or so.’’

Mayhew Chief Executive, Caroline Yates said: We are deeply saddened to hear of Brian’s death. He was a big supporter of The Mayhew Animal Home, and a former president of our rescue centre. We are in touch with his agent to see if there’s any help we can offer with Lottie but she is being looked after by a carer.

“Brian will be sadly missed by all his friends at The Mayhew. ”

In 2013, Brian wrote touchingly about Lottie in the Daily Mail and how he hoped she would be with him when he died.

“I am an old fool on crutches with a crumbling spine and a heart that is as disorderly as a single-cylinder diesel engine of much the same age.

“Lottie and Gretel will surely see me out. And when that time comes I fancy that, waking one morning to find all my old dogs sleeping on my bed or nuzzling my face and demanding to be let into the garden — then I shall know that I am dead and in Heaven.”