Lucy's Story

The first time I clapped eyes on Lucy was the 19th May 2014. I had organised a meet and greet for GRACE the rescue that she comes from at Pets At Home in our town. I'd agreed to meet Tracy who runs the rescue down there with whichever dogs she was fetching. It was a lovely day and I walked down with my Greyhound Roman, who is also a GRACE dog. When I walked round the corner there was Tracy sitting on the grass with two Greyhounds, Lucy White and Lucy Black. I walked over and Lucy (Black) walked straight over to me wagging her tail and looked me straight in the face. I fell under her charm immediately! She was wearing a jacket saying I need a home, but you could clearly see she was in a state underneath that jacket. She was so thin and although she had a really thick kennel coat you could see she was painfully thin. Every person that came over to ask about the dogs that day, Lucy headed straight to them. She greeted every dog and every child with a tail wag and a lick. I couldn't believe how loving she was when it was more than apparent from her condition that she had lived a life of misery. She kept coming to me all day and I just knew . I had told Tracy that I would foster again but that it would have to wait until my kids had finished their exams, and they were busy doing them at that time. However as the day went on I was in such turmoil as I just knew I had to take Lucy home with me. Tracy packed everything away and I held onto the two Lucy's. She came over to take the leads but I held on to Lucy Black and brought her home. We walked home and my two terriers ran out to greet her and she was accepted straight away.  when we got in the house I took her jacket off. I felt sickened when I looked at her, she was skinny and had really thick flaky skin all over her body, it was so thick in places that it was yellow. She had bald patches and sores and overgrown nails. I decided to bath her to try and soothe that dry itchy skin. She looked so depressed standing in the bath, and I stood crying washing her. The amount of dry skin that came off was unbelievable, her back looked white with it. I got her out, dried her off and brushed her, you could have stuffed a mattress with the hair that came off her that day. She settled straight down to home life and everyone who met her loved her. My son and daughter were horrified at her condition and my son immediately wanted her to stay forever. Over the next week or so her coat started to fall out quickly until she was almost bald everywhere. The places that she did have hair you could still see her skin. She would fall asleep and wake up screaming and I'd have to dash over and comfort her. If anyone walked past her too quickly or accidentally nudged her she would scream her head off. She was a wreck, physically and mentally. She soon started to put on weight and her new coat started to come in. Cinderella was blossoming into a real little princess. With love and kindness Lucy has transformed completely both physically and mentally. Whatever made her scream out in her sleep no longer haunts her. She is happy, content and completely adored by everyone. My greatest joy is taking her and Roman to the beach and letting them off. To watch them run flat out and so happy makes me so happy. I finally gave in and adopted Lucy after her being here for twenty weeks. How could I let her go when to her she was already home. 
Tricia Turnbull