COBB COUNTY, Ga. — It's been roughly a year and a half since Lucky the dog was found sick and starving in a condition that made many who saw his photo wonder how he lived at all.
Now, just one day after the dog sitter accused of abandoning him has been arrested, a lot has changed in his life. His journey has taken him from the brink of death to health and happiness.
Now, 11Alive is proud to announce that Lucky has also found a home.
Jennifer Siegel of the animal rescue organization Bosley's Place helped luck find a new family.
“The family was so in love with him and the children were so in love with him and he was really coming into his own and becoming his own little dog again that they decided they just couldn’t let go of him,” she told 11Alive.
Over the last 16 months, Lucky made a complete recovery.
“I mean he was left for dead. And just look at him. Look at this gorgeous, sweet, loveable face,” Siegel said.
It all started when an animal rescue organization placed Lucky with a pet sitter as a foster home until he could be adopted.
Justine Stinnett, who works with dog rescue organizations, said she handed off Lucky to Ashley Marie Davis on Nov. 11, 2016. According to Stinnett, when she dropped him off, he was a healthy 50-pound dog.
PHOTOS | ‘Lucky’ dog rescued after severe neglect
But a month later, she had to save her rescue dog, after finding out that he had missed a vet appointment. She found Lucky, inside a crate, starving.
The person who left Lucky in Davis' care, said she believed the pet sitter may have left her house and moved two weeks before the dog was found, intentionally leaving Lucky behind.
When photos of the emaciated canine first hit the web, they spread quickly with the internet asking a singular question: Who could do such a thing to an animal? 11Alive's own early coverage of the crime reached more than a quarter of a million Facebook followers who shared the story nearly 700 times.
From there, social media continued to follow the pup's recovery including the day he finally got to go home from the veterinary hospital to celebrate Christmas with his caretakers at the time.
Each story about Lucky from that day forward garnered hundreds of shares and thousands of reactions - especially those dealing with his recovery or the search for the woman who allegedly left him to die.
Davis was charged in June of 2017 with two counts of aggravated cruelty to animals and two counts of abandonment of a domesticated animal. However, she wasn't arrested until April of 2018 that she was officially arrested.
