Tessa

At 5 years old, Princess-Tessa-Lucy was relinquished to Brookline from her breeding regimen on the farm because she had a mammary tumor. Thankfully, the tumor was benign and removed when she was spayed. Lucy’s infected ears were also treated at the same time.

Rescued from the life of a breeder, Lucy was emotionally drained – shut down from life. She was fostered by Lesley, a Brookline volunteer, who eventually matched her with us. Lesley gave her baths, helped Lucy learn to eat from a bowl, and got her well on her way with housebreaking. While in foster care, Lucy also began her long journey of socialization to humans and a whole new world.

Lesley said Lucy was the first dog she ever had that she had to entice to go for a walk. One day, while coaxing Lucy along, they ran into a family with another dog. Lucy’s tail started going crazy. During those few moments, Lucy was a completely different dog and Lesley knew, then, that a successful adoption meant that Lucy had to have another dog in her forever home.

At the time we adopted Lucy, we already had two, senior chocolate labs. Lucy was shy and a bit fearful of noisy children, but she immediately took to our two resident labs as well as every other dog she met. We like to believe our senior lab, Bailey (who loves and trusts everyone) has been most helpful with easing Lucy’s transition.

Fast forward seven months from adoption and Lucy has continued to make progress in trusting us and everyone who visits us. We are working on treat enforced “clicker” training and helping her gain confidence and progress to taking walks on local public trails. She accepts the leash with less hesitation and is very gentle with her plush toys.

If your heart is open to give these wonderful former farm dogs a chance, please consider it. It’s heartwarming to watch a shy, low confidence dog ease out of her shell and have absolute joyful dog “zoomies” a few minutes each evening, then snuggle deeply into a warm, comfy bed.

Be patient, be kind, be consistent and a farm dog can be a wonderful addition to your family, for you and for her. We LOVE our Lucy. Thank you to everyone at Brookline for all you do to help these dogs.