A BIG-HEARTED businessman has left Melbourne's Lost Dogs Home $3 million - the largest bequest in its 100-year history.

Staff at the animal shelter described the donor, Frank Samways, as a man so empathetic for abandoned pets that he wouldn't enter the animal shelter in Gracie Street, North Melbourne.

Graeme Smith from the Lost Dogs Home cannot say too much in favour of Frank Samways. Credit:Joe Armao

The home's managing director, Graeme Smith, said Mr Samways, ''a charming, charismatic person'', used to attend donor functions in the home's courtyard. ''But [he] never set foot inside the shelter because he thought it would be too disturbing for him. He didn't want to see any dog or cat incarcerated.''

A lifelong owner of Jack Russell terriers, Mr Samways ''had a wonderful love of animals''.