On the 17th of January 2024 I was chatting to a mate I work with who is a fellow dog lover and I was telling him all about Poppy.

He asked me to get her up on the camera (I work from home) so he could see her so I picker her up, and as is the case with everyone who seems Poppy he made her smile.

I told him Poppy’s story and how she’d stolen my heart and the Poppy Effect made me think differently about rescues.

I said I was on the hunt for a younger dog too but said now I was only take a rescue. And preferably another Springer.

I don’t think that mattered too much I just wanted something with a similar temperament to Poppy and figured that would maybe help with that.

Well, sure enough, the very next day he got a text message from a dog trainer friend in Telford. They’d arrived at the Shelter at 6:30am and found a six month old Springer Spaniel tied to the gate in shivering in fear. Someone had dumped the poor girl.

That was a Thursday, on the following Saturday we headed down.

Jack, Amy’s 13yo Son, and Poppy. They wanted to see Poppy as well. I also had to take a video of my house as it was two hours away and they couldn’t do a home visit.

We got there and went into the office and had a quick chat. I introduced them to Jack and Poppy and quickly explained my situation. I asked if they wanted to see the video they took one look at us and said… no you’re fine. Which was nice.

We chatted for a few minutes while one of the Shelter staff went and got Mabel. That’s what they’d named her. But they said she was dumped so they didn’t have a name, and she wasn’t really answering to Mabel so I could rename her.

I was talking to one of he handlers and said I wanted to name he Issy, short for Isabel and she laughed and said hey I’ve been calling her Bella!

It was all meant to be.

Finally Issy was bought into the room and she instantly stole the show she was a bundle of energy!

They told us they had a field two doors down we could go down with her and play for a couple of hours and if we hit it off we could come down and make arrangements.

Jack and I headed down. We were in the field playing with Issy for about ten minutes.

I turned to Jack and said, “Do we need 2 hours”.

I wish I took photo of his face. It was an incredulous ‘no!’

Decision was made. Issy was coming home with us.