Tracy Lowther, 56, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland

I’ve been a stay at home mum for the past 20 years and my son moved out to Australia 2 years ago and that’s why I decided on a dog. One night a story of a little disabled, rescue dog was shared on Facebook. That’s how I came across Wolfie’s Legacy. I clicked on the site, and saw the most beautiful little chappy called Charlie, a disabled dog from Romania who was looking for his forever home.

I telephoned Gillian and we spoke at length about poor Charlie and the difficulty she was having trying to rehome him. He was known fondly as Little Ninja, her “problem child” nobody wanted to take him as he had issues of trust and could be aggressive and would need lots of patience and understanding to try and rehabilitate him. I was definitely up for the challenge to try and give this poor wee soul a chance at a happy life.

So on 28th May 2020 Charlie arrived in Dumfries and Galloway Scotland to begin his rehabilitation journey. We believe Charlie to be approx 5 years old now, he has a fused spine, scoliosis and his back legs are paralysed.

Charlie was a very frightened little boy when he arrived and having never lived in a house before, he preferred to stay in the outbuildings on the farm. He felt safe there. Gradually and at Charlie’s pace , we earned his trust and within 2 weeks he was living and sleeping in the house. He slowly began to come out of his shell and step by step he allowed us to put a collar on him and lead him gently around the garden, this was a huge step for Charlie. The next step was getting him to walk up his ramp and into the car as we can’t lift him due to his deformity, it hurts him to be lifted (chicken helped on this one) within a month he was house trained, walking on a lead, travelling in the car and when his pushchair arrived from America, the sky was the limit for him.

He loves nothing better than to be pushed around the town and get attention from the locals. A year on Charlie is now a confident, cheeky, happy little fellow, who loves to play with his toys. He is loyal , friendly and a joy to be around. He has overcome his fear of people, his fear of other dogs, his fear of traffick, bikes, in fact, he was afraid of just about everything .It’s been a worthwhile journey because of the absolute joy he brings to our lives and his willingness to learn, I couldn’t imagine being without him, he definitely is my best buddy and to anyone thinking of getting a rescue dog, think about a disabled rescue dog. I can’t thank Gill enough for the wonderful work she does and for bringing Charlie into our lives.