Emmerdale fans heartbroken after the Dingle's dog Alfie dies

Tonight Emmerdale finally said "goodbye" to a dearly beloved member of the cast, Alfie, the Dingle's dog. After Tuesday night's episode left many thinking Alfie was already dead, it was tonight (Wednesday) that Alfie finally left the series.

Recently Alfie has been worrying his family, as last week he stopped eating food, and at the end of yesterday's episode he collapsed, leading many to think he had already died. This resulted in upset viewers taking to Twitter saying, 'Saw Alfie lying on the floor in #emmerdale and started to cry and literally jumped on my dogs and hugged them both 😭😂'.

With another saying, 'they can't kill off Alfie!!! 😭😭😭😭💔💔💔💔 #Emmerdale #Robron'.

However, tonight we sadly saw the last of Alfie in Emmerdale. The Dingle family had to make the very difficult decision to put Alfie down, when he was diagnosed with an inoperable tumour.

Alfie has been in the series for nine years, and the Dingle's fluffy friend has been at the centre of some of the Emmerdale's biggest storylines. He has played scenes where he has been poisoned, and had to dig up a dead body. Last year he was even run over by Diddy Diner at a fair and was given the kiss of life by troubled teen Lachlan.

According to Emmerdale, Alfie (played by a dog also called Alfie) has many talents including barking on command and playing dead.

Alfie is the only character to feature in the show’s opening credits and now at the age of 11 it has been decided that Alfie will leave the show.

While fans will be sad to see him go, in real life Alfie is just going to enjoy some well-deserved retirement.

Speaking about his retirement his owner Lynda Woodrow said, “We realised Alfie was getting older as his hearing is not what it was and we felt is was kinder to put Alfie into retirement before his job got too hard for him to do it well."

She continued, "But be reassured in real life Alfie is enjoying life in retirement.”

Alfie will surely be missed by viewers, the cast and crew of Emmerdale "who wish him a relaxing retirement".

Emmerdale continues on ITV.

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