The little lurcher girl  lay on the cold wet concrete and closed her eyes. She could no longer feel the cold of the bitter December night nor the open wounds on her body caused by lying on hard surfaces for so long.  Nor was she aware that she was wet and covered in mud. She was beyond the pain now and just wanted to sleep and sleep.  She was too weak to stand because she hadn’t had food for weeks.    

She was briefly woken by rough voices saying that it was time to put her on the road.  She didn’t know that they meant to pick her up and dump her in the path of thundering lorries so that the evidence of her abuse would be obliterated for ever.  If she could have understood she might have welcomed the end of her long suffering.  And she slept while the voices faded away.

Later other voices roused her and she found herself being carried and put in a van.  She just lay there on the cold floor, still unable to move.  A few minutes later her guardian angel picked her up again and put her in another van – this time a warm, comfortable van.  All she could do was lie there.  She heard a kind voice say – “don’t think she’s going to make it but I couldn’t let them put her on the road”. 

And that’s how little lurcher came to my home.   She was saved by a gypsy who hates cruelty and who brought her to me.

The first thing to do was to try to get her warm.  I wasn’t even sure that she was still alive at first because her heart beat was barely discernible.  I put her in a bed with woollen rugs and hot water bottles and covered her snugly.  Under the covers I gently massaged her limbs willing her to warm up.   She was too far gone to eat but I managed to syringe some warm soup into her.  It took a few hours before I could feel that she was responding and that her body was getting warm.   It was during those hours that I told her that, if she was going to die, she could at least do it in warmth and a state of grace.  Not sure what I meant but she was Grace from then on.

Here are 2 pictures of her taken that evening when her eyes started to open as she warmed up.

Thereafter began the drama of getting her well – how for the first day she couldn’t move at all and would pass urine and blood as she lay in her bed.   But even on that first day she managed to wag her tail, the little darling.

By day 2 she was on her feet and getting cheeky but her skeletal frame was heartbreaking to see.  For weeks she was never uncovered and wore jumpers and coats to keep her warm and to cushion her protruding bones against the world.

Just look at how thin she looks from above.

Gradually she began to put on weight – very, very slowly.  There were many setbacks as she had terrible diarrhoea, she was sick.  I was lucky that I had a wealth of advice from people on SOL who had nursed dogs in the same condition.   Mary’s Magic Mush (Mary of Dungarvan Rescue Kennels) was wonderful,  and it became a staple to which we added other things gradually.   In order to build her up she had puppy food and a multitude of supplements.   When she was well enough to go to the vet, he said that he would have put her down if I had brought her to him earlier.   Good job I didn’t then.

Little by little she improved.  By Christmas she was looking alive if gaunt.

Then she began to lose her coat but her pressure sores healed.

She grew strong and began to run and play and love life.

And, as the pictures show, she went from strength to strength.  She is now a very definite member of the Cardiff mob and she will be going nowhere.  All my other dogs love her and she has been a mother figure to puppy Griff.

Grace is now a feisty, affecionate, fast-running, hard-playing, fun-loving gem of a dog.

While I curse the man who abused and tortured her, I thank the man who saved her, the people on SOL who gave advice and moral support, who raised money to buy Grace the warm jumpers that she needed, who sent her coats that they had made.  Grace was a victim of people’s cruelty but has emerged as a symbol of people’s kindness.  She is a wonderful hound, apparently unmarked by her awful experiences, who gives her love freely.  Every night as she creeps on to my bed and curls up in the crook of my legs, I thank destiny that she is still with us.

And here is Grace today – what a beauty!!!!!