From rescued to rehomed: Gracie’s story

They said that good things take time – that must be why Gracie has now found the most amazing forever home, as she spent a whole year waiting to be chosen from our Whanganui Centre!

Catherine, Senior Animal Attendant, says that Gracie (previously named Ruth) didn’t have the easiest start in life

“She came to us via our Inspectorate, and she was understandably scared when she came into the kennel environment,” Catherine says. “But it didn’t take long for her beautiful personality to shine through.

“While she was initially wary of men, we did a lot of slow introductions on her terms. Gracie learned that she was safe, and she quickly showed everyone how special she was.”

Initially limping with a minor leg injury, our vet team recommended a lot of crate rest to help it heal.

“She would spend a lot of time resting in a crate in our office, and loved having us as company,” Catherine says. “Through it all, she remained a happy-go-lucky girl, always greeting us with her gentle eyes and wagging tail.”

Once her leg improved and the limp disappeared, Gracie headed to one of our wonderful foster homes with her lovely foster parents, Jackie and Josh. This gave her the chance to experience a loving home environment outside of the Centre, and get important socialisation. There, she truly thrived, and was absolutely adored.

Gracie went on a couple of trial adoptions, but as they were more male-orientated households, she never felt fully comfortable – and ended up back in her foster home where she felt safe again.

“We knew her perfect match was out there somewhere, so we widened the search, and shared her on our national SPCA Facebook page,” Catherine says.

It didn’t take long before the amazing Olivia and Jade came along.

“From the very first meeting, Gracie was completely at ease,” Catherine says. “It was as if she knew she had finally found her people.”

Jade and Olivia said that Gracie was exactly who they had been searching for.

“After losing both our dogs last year, one very unexpectedly, we decided we needed a dog to help us heal from the losses,” they say.

“As soon as we saw Gracie, we knew she was coming home with us. She jumped straight into our car, with absolutely no intention of moving! And she hasn’t left our side since.

"She is the sweetest, most gentle little love bug. She adores attention and lets us know when more pats are required with the softest (but persistent) little nose nudge. She has the most expressive face and ears and knows exactly how to charm us.

“She absolutely loves going in the car and has somehow worked her way in from the boot to the passenger seat - because she just loves being beside her humans. When not out exploring the world, she loves playing with all her toys and has become very vocal about it, letting all the neighbourhood dogs know much fun she’s having,” Jade and Olivia say.

“Gracie is just the coolest wee mate, and we are so lucky she chose us.”

We hope all of our current long-stay animals find joyful, loving forever homes like Gracie has. This is the outcome every animal deserves.

Meet all our animals waiting to be adopted on our site.