Please Welcome Lucy!

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Matt and I have been looking for a companion for our cat, Feast. After about a month of careful consideration, figuring out finances, and contacting various shelters around town, we decided to adopt a rescued border collie from East Tennessee Border Collie Rescue. I like this organization because they are thorough in the profiles of their collies, which has the potential to decrease returns of dogs due to "misunderstandings." Their application is detailed and they consider references carefully--all in all, they take adoption of companion animals seriously.

When I began looking through the dogs' profiles, I was searching for one who would be likely to be gentle with our (rather ornery) cat; I decided on Lucy, who was a little smaller than the other dogs up for adoption, and who was described as friendly, with both humans and other dogs. (Of course, I was hoping she would get along with Feast, too.)
Lucy, as the site said, "came from a truly horrendous situation of abuse. [She and two other dogs] had spent almost their entire lives in rusted metal cages, and hardly knew how to stand on firm ground when [ETBCR] rescued them." As I began email correspondence with Lucy's foster

mom, I found out that Lucy had had to have a few teeth removed because they were too black and damaged from chewing on the bars of her metal prison. She also had to have a lot of her fur shaved off because of its terrible condition...

This is a picture of Lucy at the time of the rescue.

Even now, I do not quite have the words to articulate my outrage with the people who abused her so.






We arrived at the adoption site on Saturday--Lucy greeted us cheerfully, and was so sweet; we took her home for a trial run with Feast. As it became clear that the two were more interested in avoiding each other, Matt and I finalized the adoption papers and brought Lucy home with us!

In the three days that she has been in our home, she has adjusted wonderfully. She loves walking around the neighborhood; she knows her name well and comes whenever we mention it; she is curious but cautious with Feast--and the two are getting along better and better. We are very happy to share our home with Lucy. Please join us in welcoming her to a life where humans take care of her, lavish attention on her, and make sure that her needs are met.




As you can see, she is beautiful (and would hardly sit still for the camera)!