Lucky’s Happy Ending

I can remember the day I went and picked her up from the local shelter, it was June 24, 2008, my wedding anniversary.

I received the call from Liz Newton as I was driving to the grocery store to pick-up a few things. I was asked if I could go to the shelter and pick up and foster an injured Basenji named Lucky. I called my husband and told him what was going on and headed to the shelter.

When I arrived at the shelter is was a mess, but Liz and my vet handled everything for me. I took Lucky to my vet; she had a six-inch gash on her left side (had staples already) and a broken left hind leg. The rescue paid to have it fixed, and Lucky was soon outfitted with a metal plate, 5 screws, and a pin, which was later removed once the bone and plate were strong enough (18 weeks after surgery). After 18 weeks healing with my husband and I, Lucky was finally ready to be adopted.

At first she was adopted by a nice couple not too far from us, who already had a basenji for Lucky to play with. Unfortunately it was not a perfect match. My husband and I received Lucky back and we decided to adopt her ourselves. It was fine for a while, but when Lucky and our other female had a disagreement and it went down hill fast, we decided that she needed to be re-homed again (poor little girl).

Liz called me and said that she had the perfect match for her in Derry, NH. So the journey was going to begin again, and we wondered how we would get her from TN to NH? Liz contacted ARF (Animal Rescue Flights), we set a tentative date, but they were unable to get pilots to fly some of the legs of the trip. So we tried again for Mothers day weekend, and set up a small BUR run to get her from TN to Anderson, SC, where here flight was leaving for New Hampshire. Finally, around 1am on Mothers Day (due to bad weather), Lucky arrived at her forever home in NH.

In her new home Lucky is spoiled, being the only furbaby. She has made friends with a cat that lives near her; she gets walked a few times a day and petted by everyone who lives around her. When it is not snowing and near zero, she goes to the dog park and meets up with her friends to play. She came a long way from the frightened and injured little dog she was in the shelter, and we're so happy that Lucky has found happiness in her forever home!

-The Atkinsons