Meet Lucy!

She's a three year old beagle who has spent her life to date in a puppy mill and is now having a whale of a time learning about grass and home-cooked meals and curling up for a nap on a soft bed. She arrived in Chicago this afternoon with over 40 puppy mill rescues through Best Friend's "Pup my Ride" program.

Heather from One Tail wrote about her arrival here and it even made the news! Lucy is pretty worn out by all the hoopla and has been taking a leaf out of Bilbo's book and getting in some good nap time.

So far, I've been completely astonished by this little lady. Knowing what the worst case scenarios can be like I was secretly pretty nervous, wondering how Bilbo and I would manage with a puppy mill dog. Bilbo was a perfect gentleman of course and has been as gentle as can be with her all evening. He's always liked the little dogs best and when the stress of meeting them leashed up, head-on in the street is removed, his doggy manners are actually pretty great.

As for Lucy she's quite the social butterfly considering the situation she's come from. She's curious about everything and is already proving that the way to a beagle's heart is through her stomach. She had her nose pressed right up against my leg when I was cooking her dinner just in case I got distracted from the task at hand. She did a great job walking on her leash, tackled stairs with only a little hesitation, ate up all her food and checked out every nook and cranny of the apartment - making sure to get her little paws up on chairs to see what was going on above eye level! Bilbo is already taking on big brother status and she's quite happy to follow him around. When he barks she goes and stands by his side as if to back him up, she'll hide under his legs when she's feeling a little unsure, and she even worked out how to pee outside by going in the same spot.

I have to remind myself to let her take her time. The two things that I want to do the most right now are to throw her in the bath (stinky lady!) and to give her a big cuddle. However, I'm going to give her 24 hours to get acclimated before doing something as scary as a bath, though she did have to suffer through doggy wipes before coming inside. I imagine a good snuggle will come sooner than I think since she's already leaning in for a bit of a scratch behind the ears.

She's been giving a lot of eye contact already (maybe she just wants to keep an eye on the scary tall one...) so I imagine she's going to be very trainable as her confidence grows. She's one smart pup and we're excited to have her here!