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First up is a beautiful and inspiring story about Lucy.
By Paul Handover
Learning from Dogs 
In mid January of this year my gardener Lorenzo and I were taking my latest rescue Mora to the vet for her puppy shots here in San Carlos. As we left the vet’s, we drove the back way to the main hiway when a very skinny, furless small animal crossed in front of my dog car. It was so sad looking and it was obviously feral. I immediately jumped out the door to offer help to this frightened and homeless little dog.
We filled water and food bowls and put them down for the dog, then backed away just to see the dog give it a brief sniff before running off down the road. This little pup was scared.
I drove further down the road and put the food down again, and got back in the car and drove a half block farther, when The pup sniffed the food again, took a quick bite or two, then spied some people and took off again. This went on for 15 or 20 minutes longer when we pulled up in the parking lot of the water company and parked…waiting for the dog to come our way.
The dog darted inside the water co. and I ran to block the other exit while Lorenzo stayed at the entrance. The dog turned and ran back toware Lorenzo, who was able to capture the dog. Unfortunately, the dog was so frightened that it bit Lorenzo several times and proceeded to deficate on his foot! He wrapped a towel around the dog that I had passed to him, and we plopped the dog into the back of my car into a box. We proceeded back to the vet’s office and had the vet come out to the car to check the dog.
It was severely dehydrated, starved, and had a double case of mange. She had bleeding, hole ridden ears, very little fur on her body and was just one giant scratching machine! We were able to wrestle an Ivamectin shot into her (by now we discovered she was female) and off to my casa we went.
Lorenzo built a brick enclosure for her behind the garden shed and made a very comfortable home for her where she would end up living for 4 months in a safe and comfy sleeping kennel, a front yard in which to sun, and a side yard to do her business. From the very beginning, she was house trained and very maticulous about burying the evidence!
Her first night there was filled with glorious stars and the milky way so we named her Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds….Shortcut; Lucy. She rarely uttered a sound.
We gave her wonderful food 2 times every day with added chicken, veggies, rice and coconut oil, as I do not care for Ivamectin to cure mange. We also gave her gel filled vitamins. Poor Lucy scratched so much that we began to put Aloe Vera gel on her sore spots, which were many. She actually had holes all the way throughher ears where the mange had eaten through the skin. We applied this at least 5 times a day.
For the first month she was too sick to move….she would barely come out to eat, and would go right back in to her kennel to sleep.
After she began to heal we took her out on a leash to walk her around several times a day and spent lots of time with her, talking to her and telling her she would be well soon.
After several months she finally graduated to a large sleeping kennel next to the other dogs kennels and played outdoors with them and played with them all day to her heart’s content.
She was taken to Tucson and then on to Central California to a wonderful foster home in mid April, where she still resides today.
I had the pleasure of being reunited with her several weeks ago in July at their home. My heart was pounding As I entered their yard and called her name….Would she remember me? I was overjoyed to see that not only did she remember me, but flung herself into my arms and did not leave me for 25 minutes! She kiss and hugged me, talked to me and told me how grateful she was that I had saved her precious life!
This is one special pup who went from a scared & dying dog to a healthy, intelligent and loving dog who I will never forget.
In the months she has been separated from me, her memories of her rescue and her time of recuperation at our place in San Carlos have done nothing but strengthen and develop into a strong love for all of us who participated in her new change at life.
It is so rewarding to bring these little animals back to health and a happy life than I can ever say. Their ability to come back from near death and disease is nothing short of a miracle.
Here are some photos to show the amazing physical change in this beloved little animal’s life.
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Suzann Reeve
MagicMutts@gmail.com
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