A woman who feared she might have to get rid of all but two of the seven husky dogs she has staying with her following complaints from a neighbour has won a legal fight to keep her beloved animals.

Suzi Carpenter, who has five rescue dogs of her own plus two which are her partner's who is undergoing radiotherapy, has been told she needed to lose five of her furry brood within just 28 days.

The 52-year-old from Bowthorpe had received a court summons from her home provider, Flagship, following a 'history' of complaints from a neighbour about the dogs.

Flagship had sought an injunction following complaints they had received, but the application was dismissed following a county court hearing at Norwich Crown Court.

Deputy District Judge Claudine Airey said the level of evidence supplied by the housing group in respect of the application 'falls way short of what I would expect for an application of this kind'.

She said although reference had been made to issues, there were no specific dates or details and no logs from neighbours outlining problems.

She added: 'If Flagship are making applications of this kind they need to get their act together and make sure that appropriate evidence is filed in support. I'm dismissing the application.'

Speaking after Thursday's hearing, a delighted Ms Carpenter, who insisted she would 'live in a tent' before she let anyone take her dogs away, said she would 'go home and hug every single one of my babies'.

She said: 'I'm really pleased. I feel pretty good. It's totally justified.

'The dogs aren't up at midnight howling; they're very well trained. My kids are training the dogs how to pull a dry sledge.'

Ms Carpenter, co-founder of Lex's Legacy dog rescue charity. said Flagship had previously agreed she could have in excess of six dogs, although that recently came down to five.

Ms Carpenter has five dogs; Kai, Bandit, Lily, Shilohand Tatty, all of which are rescue huskies.

But the mother of four said she had been left with no choice but to take in Crystal and Smokey, dogs belonging to her partner Keith Voyce, after he was diagnosed with lung cancer.

She said Flagship 'haven't been sympathetic to my situation at all' and would fight any further legal action from them.

Marie-Claire Delbrouque, director for housing and customer insight at Flagship, said: 'We take the concerns of our customers very seriously. We have worked closely with both parties for some time to find an amicable solution, and our application for an injunction was submitted after other methods failed.'