Somebody had been driving through a small town about 90 minutes from me, and spotted a very thin, female dog running backwards and forwards across a busy road, screaming. They learned from locals that the dog had become ‘луда’ that is  frantically crazy, because a local man had stamped on her puppies and killed them in front of her and she had bitten him as a result. After this incident, she had been shunned by everyone and wasn’t being fed as the other street dogs were, was being chased away all the time, hence her drastically low bodyweight.  

The traveller sent me a photo of her and when I arrived I spotted her easily as she was indeed running around barking and squealing, in 40 degrees heat. As soon as she came to me, though, all the noise stopped and she was actually desperate for contact, for affection, not just water and food.  The video is from that day – you can see she was a really lovely, sweet little thing, full of energy and cheekiness. (A warning if you’ve kids watching – there’s nothing gory in the video – it’s pretty joyful actually, but I do drop the F bomb a couple of times). 

Luckily for her, ‘Street Hearts BG’, the most amazing non for profit NGO dog shelter (sadly not in my locality), was about to take on that particular town as part of a new contract with the local Municipality and they agreed to take the dog if I could get her to them the next day.

A friend’s kid named her Coco and the next day I went back for her (if you’ve watched the video clip – those people did indeed remove the water bowls by the time I’d returned the next morning) and I  took her to Street Hearts BG where a lot of TLC and rehabilitation happened until they were satisfied that Coco was fit and suitable for adoption. They reported back to me that she remained the sweetest little girl, quick to learn and super affectionate with people and other dogs and was never aggressive or a biter. 

A friend in the UK was looking to take a rescue dog, fell in love with Coco from afar and applied to Street Hearts BG to adopt her; passed their stringent adopters’ screening and eventually Coco went to her.  Her new owner adores her, taking Coco with her when she relocated to New Zealand and then back again to the UK.

❤️