A HOMELESS mum and her dogs have been housed by a Hampshire council – after sleeping rough in protest outside its offices.

Amanda Denton and her teenage daughter lived for a week in their Hyundai Coupe in Eastleigh Borough Council’s car park, vowing they would only consider offers of a pet-friendly home.

The pair had nowhere to go and had ruled out any housing offer if it meant kennelling their Jack Russell Ruby and mongrel Missy.

Amanda, 38, even placed a notice in her car windscreen saying: “Homeless because we love our dogs.”

The pair kept their clothes and duvets in the back seat of the cramped vehicle in Leigh Road.

Council bosses had earlier told them it would be hard to help unless their animals were put in kennels, offering them help to do so. But yesterday they were given places at a dog-friendly B&B, while a long-term solution is secured.

Amanda told the Daily Echo: “Our main priority is our dogs. Sending them away would be like sentencing them to death.

“It was horrible living in a car. It gets really cold.”

The self-employed lorry driver moved out of her privately rented property in Botley when the landlord gave her notice to leave.

After struggling to find somewhere that would accept tenants on housing benefit, they asked pals to look after the dogs while housing chiefs found them emergency B&B rooms in Totton.

But after taking Ruby and Missy back, Amanda and her daughter, who the Daily Echo is not naming, had to move on again. A spokesman said the council was continuing to review Mrs Denton’s situation.