Recently my family and I rescued a beautiful dog we named Lily.

I’m pretty sure she’s a Lurcher crossed with a magician, mainly because she has a habit of escaping, but also because she’s magical.  We found her at Viking Oaks, a rescue centre in Wrotham.  They had found her wandering the streets of Tunbridge Wells, emaciated and mangy.  After two months of love, feeding and mange treatment, she was well enough to be re-homed; and we were lucky enough to give her that home.  As Lurchers tend to have sensitive stomachs we took the advice of the rescue centre and kept her on dry food (Lily’s Kithcen, 2.5kg, £16.49, and the name is definitely just a coincidence) because it’s grain free.

In the evening we mix in a little bit of raw meat with it (Natures Menu Frozen Dog Food, 95p) and some oil for her skin.

The day before we picked her up, we bought a load of dog things in preparation, like a bed, food, all the toys, lead, harness etc.  She promptly chewed through her lead, and then her harness.  First lesson, buy a sturdy lead.  We ended up getting two new leads, a rope and an extendable one (Flexi 8m cord, £22.99)  and she’s loved it ever since.  Thankfully, the bed is washable because one of Lily’s new found joys in life is rolling in fox poo.

Lily is pretty food (specifically treats) orientated, so we managedto teach her to sit and lie down on command fairly quickly.  She’ll eat any treat going, but she loves the beef and cheese Fusions and chicken necks (Anco, from £1.99), which are great if you can stand the smell.  She also likes to chew on shoes, mobile phones, tables, sunglasses and rugs.  these items aren’t paricularly good for dogs, not all that nutricious, so we have attemped to replace said items with chews, such as a rawhide bone (FarmFood Impressed Medium, £2,49) and a chewy green bone that has a flavour (Petface Easy Up Bone with Hide Flavour, £4.99).  She likes the rawhide, but the toy bone wasn’t paricularly popluar.  Unfortunately, toys in general don’t seem all that popular with her, she doesn’t seem to know what to do with them.

We’re getting there though, just the other day she chased a stick and some butterflies.