It started with one dog.
In 2013, Gill Daghistani agreed to look after a rescue dog from Hungary for a couple of days while transport was arranged to take him to his new home in Scotland. When the animal team transporter took the dog – Wolfie - out of her car she told Gill he wasn’t going to last long. Ms. Daghistani was immediately smitten with Wolfie, and in that instant knew that he would change her life.
Wolfie suffered years of neglect, and when he was finally rescued, he was riddled with severe mobility issues. When his Degenerative Myelopathy came to light, his intended home was no longer an option, so Gill who’d fallen head over heels for Wolfie gave him a loving home until he passed away aged 14.
Gill realised that whilst there were so many people willing to rehome able-bodied dogs, no one was doing the same for dogs with special needs. They were rejected at ‘rescues’, or almost always put to sleep by vets, because they were considered hard work or perceived unlikely to enjoy a good quality of life.
Wolfie’s Legacy was born, later becoming a registered charity in 2017. Since then, Gill and her team have rehabilitated and rehomed over 500 dogs of all ages, from all over the world, with varying degrees of disability. There are now Wolfie's dogs spanning the UK, with students, policemen, Supreme Court lawyers, Paralympians and pensioners stepping up to give a Wolfie's dog a home.