Miss Lucy update - Cross post from DRC, Inc.

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

Many thanks to Frannie, Deborah and everyone in their neighborhood for their tireless effort and success on ending Lucy's life as a fugitive. Miss Luce lost 16 pounds during her time on the run. Lucy has been convalescing with us for 2 weeks now. I am happy to say that she has gained 5 of those pounds back. Most of week 1 was spent with her hiding behind our couch. I have been trying to make time to blog about her progress but life just seemed to get in the way. I was able to send brief updates on her progress so I thought I would combine them here in diary form.

July 14th:
Lucy is still very, very shy, but she is starting to respond a bit. She still backs away from me when I put her food down but I no longer have to completely leave the room for her to eat. She is following me around from a safe distance and lies down in the same room with me. Tonight I didn’t have to leash her to go outside; I simply walked out in the backyard and gave her enough space to feel comfortable with coming outside on her own. No accidents in the house. Every now and then she even shows interest in Baxter and Harlow. I am letting her sleep loose in the house though she still hasn’t come upstairs to our bedroom yet.

July 15th:
The last 2 nights I have been sleeping on the couch downstairs. She seems to like my being there. If I am not in open site of her she comes looking for me. Though once she finds me she still won’t come close.

July 18th:
Well, I thought I was going to have to write about a bit of a setback. I brushed Lucy on Saturday and made her come upstairs with us on Saturday night. She was very stand offish on Sunday, avoiding all contact whatsoever. So I decided to leave her downstairs on Sunday night. DH and I were lying in bed reading and out of the blue Miss Lucy came upstairs, into our bedroom and made herself comfortable on the floor next to my side of the bed. I was completely amazed. We are taking teensy, weensy baby steps but we are still moving forward.

July 21th:
This morning was another forward step. Around 3:30 am Harlow woke me letting me know she needed to go outside. Well she decided she needed to take her dear, sweet time taking care of business. So I lay down on the couch with the back door open until she came in. I was semi-dozing when I felt a wet nose touch my arm. I reached out my hand thinking it was Harlow, but I only felt air. When I opened my eyes, Lucy was standing just out of reach and I realized that it had been Lucy’s nose that touched me. This afternoon Lucy checked in to the vet office to begin her treatment for adult heartworms. She was so nervous during the car ride that she poo’d on herself. I really hated to leave her but the vet wanted to keep her through Saturday to do the short protocol treatment (2 injections of Immiticide over 24 hours).

July 23rd:
I picked Lucy up from the vet. If I didn’t know better I would have sworn a look of relief came over her face when she saw me. The vet tech said that Lucy hadn’t relieved herself that day despite numerous walks. So I took her out for a brief walk; she immediately squatted and tinkled for a good minute and a half. We came back in the office to wait while her other meds were being pulled together. While we were waiting Lucy eased closer to me and laid her head on the waiting room chair next to me. Our ride home was uneventful and she came in the house and went immediately to my bedroom to settle in for a long nap. She has once again started not eating unless she is in a room by herself.

July 24th:
I can’t believe it. This morning Lucy walked over to the bed and licked my hand. It was around 6AM and I had rolled over to find a comfortable position. Harlow came over immediately to give me my morning face wash and Lucy followed right along with her to give me 4 or 5 tentative kisses. Maybe we are making progress after all.

[Jennifer and Jack]

I am crying too and I never met her!!!

[Ronna, Murphy & Wilson]

I have tears in my eyes reading this.  I fell in love with Lucy the minute I walked into the shelter to pull her....Linda fell in love with her too.  She has soulful, pleading eyes.......Nina, thank you so much for posting this and for taking such good care of Lucy.  Please keep us updated when you can.

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

I love this story...such great progress!

[Suzann, Rosey & Bandit]

Nina, this is so great what you are doing for this sweet girl!!  thank you for helping her to be ready for her forever home!!

[Joan, Louie and Mila]

I'm so glad she is doing so well! Your post made me tear up...what she must have been through to be soooo timid...it breaks my heart.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

This is such a wonderful telling of her tale....thank you so much for sharing and for being there for Lucy, it is indeed amazing to see. I now have warm fuzzies. Thank you Nina!

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

Sounds like she's doing very well. So happy for you!

[Leslie and Halas]

That's wonderful!  I'm so glad that she's making such great progress.  Once again, it's amazing to see what a little love can do.  She's really starting to trust you.  I hope she continues on this road, and that her heartworm treatments go well.  Thanks so much for the updates.  It's really neat to read the progress every couple of days - tiny steps that lead to big steps over time.

[F, Calla & Luca]

What a poor girl, I'm so glad she's making progress. Bless you for being so caring and patient.

[Mimi Linna, Lilly and Lolly]

we have a son and family in the boston area that will be looking for a older dog in a few months. they have two children (7 and 5) and have a large backyard. Laura does work outside the home so the dog will be home by her/him self for 7 hrs.