Scotland’s loneliest dog finds home with family who fell in love at first sight

Five-year-old Roxy has spent nearly half of her life living in kennels at the Scottish SPCA’s Lanarkshire Animal Rescue and Rehoming Centre in Hamilton.

The Staffordshire bull terrier spent a total of 767 days, around two years and a month, being cared for by the charity.

Her previous owners had a change in circumstances which meant they could not look after her any longer.

Roxy initially did not like living at the centre, but after the hard work and support of staff, she improved and found her love for life again.

However despite appeals from the charity, Roxy was overlooked by potential owners.

Her lonely spell finally came to an end when Gerrard Brown and his daughter Dawn visited the centre and saw Roxy’s picture on the wall.

Mr Brown said: “We instantly fell in love with her face. The team managed to arrange a meeting that same day. She came out bouncing about and was an instant bundle of joy.

“The whole family went down again to meet her and we all took her for a walk.

“We arranged another couple of visits and then fostered her for two weeks.

“It all went well and we completed the paperwork for her to come home with us and be officially part of our family.

“She’s settled in well to our family environment.

“She’s very relaxed, and we’re focusing on training and getting her used to family life.

“She’s been loving getting spoiled with new toys.”

The charity is now changing the way it works to ensure no animal has to spend that length of time in a kennel environment again.

Rehabilitation operations lead Rachael Maclean said: “Thankfully Roxy’s case is rare as we want to find animals their forever home as quickly as possible.

“Last year we saw a 25% increase in arrivals to our animal rescue and rehoming centres across Scotland, with 6,944 animals taken into our care in 2023.

“We also rehomed 3,881 animals to loving new homes, fostered 459 animals, and treated 5,163 wild animals.

“Our aims for 2024 are to enhance our adoption and fostering services with an expanded team.

“This means getting animals into the right homes faster and improving the experience for animals, fosterers and adopters.”