An early Christmas miracle: Lucy finds a good scout

The now-named Lucy relaxing at home with her best friend, Scout. (Courtesy photo)

DOVER - In three short months a pit bull mix has suffered a broken leg and neglect from its former Rochester owners, faced amputation or intense orthopedic surgery on the leg before miraculously recovering with neither surgery needed and found a new forever home with a Cocheco Valley Humane Society vet assistant who also owns a rabbit with whom the dog is now best friends.

This is the story of Lucy, whom Rochester Police rescued on Aug. 29 after responding to Hanson Pines to investigate a littering complaint. While speaking to Jaime Deyoung L., 28, and Christopher P. Murphy, 31, the officer noticed they had a pit bull mix who had a hard time walking and appeared to have a deformation to the right front leg. The subjects advised the dog had the injury for about a week and that they had a veterinarian appointment for the injury, which turned out not to be true.

The next day the city's Animal Control Officer took custody of the dog and brought it to a veterinarian who determined the dog had a broken leg.

The then-called Brandi then went to Cocheco Valley Humane Society for further treatment.

When Brandi arrived at CVHS in early September they renamed the friendly pooch Poppy and realized the broken leg had several fractures.

According to a post on the CVHS Facebook page, they were so severe that surgery was looking like the only option.

"We basically had two options: intense orthopedic surgery that would result in a very long and painful recovery (with no guarantee of surgical success due to the severity of the fractures) or amputation -which would result in a much shorter and less painful recovery. We splinted her leg, and scheduled her for surgery while we continued to weigh the gravity of each of our options," CVHS officials said.

However, when her surgery day came and her splint was removed for a presurgical exam, it was found she was bearing weight on the leg.

"We knew that logically, this type of fracture would 'never' heal without surgical intervention. But we also knew, that 'logically', she wouldn't be able to use this leg to walk in the condition that it was in....but she was - and it was amazing!" CVHS officials wrote.

After monitoring Poppy's progress it was determined the fracture was miraculously healing and that Poppy would keep her leg without major surgery.

Jaime Deyoung L., left, and Christopher P. Murphy (Rochester Police photos)

X-rays continued to reveal the results hoped for and Poppy - renamed Lucy - was soon released to her foster home which became her forever home with CVHS vet assistant Olivia Heghmann, who also takes care of a rabbit named Scout.

The treatment costs at CVHS were paid for with the Champions fund, a fund that helps pay for medical treatment.

Anyone who would like to contribute can click: https://www.cvhsonline.org/champions-fund/

Meanwhile, Deyoung and Murphy, both Rochester transients, face a January arraignment on misdemeanor animal cruelty charges.