After Years in Rescue: Lucy Lands Her Forever Home

Lucy found herself in a local impound as a stray in early 2017 after frolicking in the wild and weaving through traffic for miles without breaking a sweat. Once her stray hold finished and no owner reclaimed Lucy, she began her hunt for a new family. Unfortunately, the shelter setting frightened her, making it challenging to find her a home when she couldn’t be herself. Ruff Start Rescue happily took Lucy in.

Lucy’s foster mom, Steffani, is an employee at Ruff Start Rescue that specializes in all sorts of severe cases. Lucy has urinary incontinence that’s managed with medication, a high prey drive, all of the skills necessary to escape a backyard, and she doesn’t always know how to act around other dogs. One thing we knew for sure, we do not want to see Lucy running around as a stray ever again.

Lucy liked stealing food off of the countertops, among other oddities. Steffani and her partner Chuck quickly grew to love the 85-pound hound.

“We were always interested in keeping her.”

Lucy smiling
Lucy playing in the autumn leaves

We think Lucy may have partaken in sabotaging her adoption applications over the years because “The longer she stayed with us, and the more applications that we looked at that weren’t the right fit for her persuaded us to accept her quirks more easily.” Shares Steffani.

“We would always say, let’s give it one more month until we make our decision. Maybe the perfect application would come along.”

Ruff Start had Lucy in all sorts of photo shoots, shared her on social media multiple times, and even made her an Instagram account. A generous donor also paid for her adoption fee. There were lots of loving people out there wanting to give her a home, but we wanted to make sure we found a spot that was safe for Lucy and the adoptive family. This Bloodhound loves to run and has a big personality and bark to match.

Over 40 applications later, they still couldn’t find the right home.

Lucy modeling
Lucy playing in the kiddie pool

Not long after Steffani and Chuck lost their beloved pug far too soon, the foster parents decided to become Lucy’s forever parents.

Ruff Start Rescue can help dogs like Lucy, thanks to our partnerships with shelters across Minnesota and from your support. If you have the means, consider contributing to Ruff Start Rescue so we can continue this life-saving work and help more dogs like Lucy get the care they need and find their forever families.

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