A champion festival tale with rescue dog Lottie

Last week we got a wonderful story about rescue dog Lottie who took a chance entering a dog show and ended up coming out on top!

Enjoy Emma's story below...

"We came along for the day as the whole family are dog crazy. We bought two of our dogs with us, Lottie and Inca. We were just about to leave when we heard someone calling for the entries for the rescue dog class"

"We persuaded our 11yr old daughter to take her rescue dog Lottie in to the class without knowing where that class was going to lead us. There was stiff competition but she won her class! Megan was absolutely buzzing. They excepted their rosette and prize and we were going to head off, as we live near Dumfries so it was a bit of a run. However we were told they’d be entered into best in show, in which they came reserve best in show!

Again we were told not to head off as they were now being entered in the end of the show show!! Well as you know they went on to win that too. I was so proud of them I cried!!! We were all totally gobsmacked. It was totally by chance that they entered that first class. If we’d walked past 5 minutes earlier or 5 minutes later it’s possible they wouldn’t have entered. As you can see from the photo they are both beaming, and the prizes they won were amazing. We didn’t stop talking about that wonderful day for weeks!

Lottie came to us as a rescue dog from the charity I'm manager at, Dumfries and Galloway Canine Rescue. She came in with two other dogs after their owner sadly passed away. My daughter fell in love with Lottie while she volunteered at the weekends. When we realised there were no next of kin that could take the dogs we set to finding them new homes; that’s when Lottie came to live with us. Sadly after having her for only three months she was diagnosed with kidney failure and the vet told us to expect the worse in a matter of months.

Lottie became Megan's sidekick, going everywhere with her. She came on motorhome holidays, stays in tents, pods, holiday cottages and hotels! She went surfing, swimming and we even got her a trailer for behind the bike. She loved getting dressed up and had more matching collars, leads and harnesses than any one dog needed!

Wherever Megan was Lottie was close by. I have worked in rescue for over 30yrs and Lottie really was one in a million. Sadly we lost Lottie in February this year, but that was over two years after we were told she only had a few months to live"

This story was wonderful, and we are so happy to get things like this in our inbox. This is what the festival is all about, providing opportunities to create lifelong memories. Dogs aren't with us nearly long enough, and knowing that one of the fondest memories for this pair will be winning festival champion, is truly great.