A stray dog finds her home

Its been a tremendously long road. We’ve longed for a dog in our lives for many, many years. We both grew up without dogs so definitely felt we were missing out, especially for the past 6 years or so! We did a huge amount of research,  we read everything, watched everything and were also lucky enough to look after  a variety of dogs while house sitting traveling around NZ and Australia. I also grew inseparable from my sisters dog Louie when we lived together in 2016. By then I knew I had to get a dog.  We realised how enriching having a dog in our lives could be, especially if we could rescue a dog in need in the process. So when we got home to Cornwall we realised adopting a dog was what we both really wanted.

In researching, we found Spanish Stray Dogs a great website full of beautiful dogs and you could tell SSD really care about these dogs. We were looking for a relaxed, medium energy and medium sized dog but were open minded. Diva caught our eye as and her story was so sad. The fact she was a bull breed and black it seemed no-one wanted her.

Though she was settled and happy in the pound, she thought that was her life being at the pound for over 2 years…little did she know…

SSD were really helpful in answering any questions and we had watched a handful of videos of Lilly on the website (a million times).

After the home check, a lot of communication and paying SSD, we were able to track Lil’s journey to our door which was SO exciting!! She got dropped to our door, tail wagging she ran into the front room, had a big sniff around and then had a wee in the garden straight away! She has still never peed in our house! Unbelievable.

 Spanish Stray Dogs couldn’t have looked after her better, our vet said “Do they offer a scale and polish in the pound?!” her teeth are immaculate! She is an incredibly healthy, happy girl and really friendly with any one she meets! We always have lovely chats with other walkers who are always so amazed how lovely she is, she makes everyone around her happy and comes to work with me at the charity I work at, plays with the other office dogs and makes everyone’s day! She’s got a lovely little routine and sits for the postman when he arrives everyday so he can treat her!! 😉 

My husband and I are seriously amazed everyday at how lucky we got with Lil. We were preparing ourself for everything the good and the bad as everyone should I think. But she is the missing piece to our family and ticks boxes we didn’t know we had! We are so pleased we didn’t buy a puppy because for us, I’m sure that Lil knows we rescued her and she shows her appreciation everyday – such a sweet snuggler!

She does what we do, and the weekends are hers! In the weekday mornings, the sound of her snoring will stop, she’ll yawn, have a shake, stretch then nuzzle our door open with her nose… it’s the best thing in the world to wake up to! Her wagging tail is the funniest alarm clock and puts a smile on both our faces!

She runs for miles across Cornish beaches and especially loves to go off exploring in the woods and nearby rivers!

Her character is amazing – so very “chilled Lil” and the happiest funniest girl …she is always out getting zoomies in the fields after a wee every lunchtime! She absolutely loves a stick and a ropeswing! She swims in rivers and comes on South West Coast Path adventures with us, she loves camping, she even has her own sleeping bag! She’s been kayaking and loves horses and enjoys licking the local cat’s ears, if she can get close enough!! 

Lil is brilliant with kids too, extremely gentle. My 3 year old niece Tallulah loves “lilly dog” and Lil just says hello with a gentle lick!

Lil’s first Christmas included lots of treat antlers, snugly jumpers and a mis-ordered jumper which ended up to be like a brussel sprout hat for Lil!!

Lil enjoys many meet ups with our friends who have rescue dogs in Cornwall, her two rescue buddies, Jammy (Spain) and Hebe (Greece)!

We are so lucky that Lil is with us and want everyone to think twice before buying a new dog- the SSD care before, during and after the adoption process was second to none and the 3 year old (big baby) we received was the best one we could have ever dreamt off!!!

We were happy to give a dog a home and to send our appreciation to SSD for all the hard work they put in – We can’t speak more highly of them! It’s made us feel like a part of such a brilliant doggy community, if we ever need advice or just want to show off our beautiful dog, so many supportive SSD parents & volunteers are there to offer advice and support!

Blog written by Diva’s adopters, Amy and Rob North