After losing her first dog, Molly, in 2023, Rachelle Vincent was convinced she wasn’t ready for another dog when she first met Elly-May last year.
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Her husband, Nathan, had been gently encouraging her to reconsider after seeing their second dog, a German shepherd named Doug, struggling to recover from losing his playmate.
“He was also devastated; he was just so sad and seemed so lost,” Rachelle said.
“He went from being this energetic, playful dog, to a quiet, sleepy sad dog who could not be less interested in playing.”
Nathan had been looking on a local pet rescue page and made an application for Elly-May before telling Rachelle.
“We were told that she was very nervous and timid and will need plenty of time, patience and, most importantly, love,” Rachelle said.
“We were prepared for that and so the meet was set.
“Honestly, even on the day we were due to meet her, I still wasn’t sure I was ready to get another dog.”
Rachelle said the timid bull-Arab ran straight to the dog house when she saw them, curled up in a ball and started shaking all over.
“I saw how broken this dog was and I said to Nathan, ‘She is coming home with us’,” she said.
“I knew then and there that I had and do have plenty more love left to give — and that’s what she needed.”
The rescue service made no mistake when it warned Elly-May would need patience.
For the first two days at the Vincents’ Shepparton home, which they share with Rachelle’s mum, Julie, and their niece Avery — as well as Doug the dog and a cat named Jangles — Elly-May didn’t move from her chair.
“The only way we could get her to go outside to the toilet was to put the leash on her, and even then it would take about 15 minutes to coax her outside and then another 15 to coax her back in,” Rachelle said.
“I had to hand-feed her for the first week, because she wouldn’t eat or drink from anywhere other than her chair.”
Some three weeks later, Elly-May started cautiously emerging from her cloak of anxiety.
“She was playing outside with Doug and eating out of her bowl, but only if no-one was around or watching her, so we started feeding her in the laundry,” Rachelle said.
After four months with her new family and celebrating her first birthday on Boxing Day, Elly-May is showing more love and is comfortable enough to engage in basic training exercises.
The more the Vincents get to know the youthful pooch, the more they see her “beautiful temperament”.
“She is the sweetest little girl,” Rachelle said.
“She is very timid and gentle with us and the cat.
“She is absolutely fascinated with Jangles, which is strange because her foster family had cats, but she loves to give Jangles kisses and she just stares at her.”
Jangles, in turn, bops her on the nose in an act many would expect from a cat.
Another telling sign that Elly-May is finding her confidence is the sneaky cheekiness she has begun to display.
“When we have food — cheese and peanut butter are her favourites so far — she will sit as close as she possibly can to you and stare at you with beautiful, big brown eyes as if to say, ‘Please, I am a starving doggo’,” Rachelle said with a laugh.
“We are still teaching her manners.”
While Doug, who’d been longing for a new friend, might not have been thrilled with the intruder casually walking by and stealing his toys when his back was turned to add to her own pile in the laundry, he’s started retrieving them and the pair of pooches are now making a game out of it.
“Sometimes they will spend the day going back and forth stealing the same toy back from each other,” Rachelle said.
“She also enjoys stealing socks. If you drop a sock or even put it down for a second, she just comes out of nowhere and swipes it, and it’s off to the laundry to rip to pieces and leave its tattered remains for us to find.”
The dogs now adore each other and spend hours running in the yard.
Rachelle said Elly-May would just all of a sudden drop and do a “massive army roll”, which amuses everyone who’s watching.
Rachelle is enjoying getting to know her intelligent new pet, whose snout she lovingly lathers with sunscreen where the skin shows through the fur.
Because Elly-May’s coat is thin, Rachelle suspects she will also need a little extra warmth in winter, meaning she might have to work to keep Elly-May out of the mud and puddles that she loves so much.
Once scared of ceiling fans and air-conditioners, retreating hastily to the laundry as soon as one was turned on, she will now sit in the lounge room with her family and the coolers activated free of fear.
“She is still unsure of so much and that fear is very much ingrained in her now, but with each passing day she becomes a little more relaxed, a little more confident and is becoming more and more willing to be loved,” Rachelle said.
“With a little patience, a little kindness and a lot of love, any animal can flourish. All they need is a chance.
“Elly-May needed a family to show her that she can be safe and loved, and honestly we needed her to show us that showing love to another dog doesn’t mean we love Molly any less.
“She’s a special dog and she has helped us all heal, including Doug.”
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Senior journalist