It’s hard to believe that the dog who now struts down the street in a pink tutu with her tail wagging was once so abused she forgot how to be a dog. She wouldn’t play, she had no idea what a treat was, and she had been kept inside locked in a cage for most of her life.
Lexy The Elderbull @lexy_the_elderbull is an adorable senior pitbull who rocks a flower crown better than any Coachella-attendee could ever hope to. She’s come a long way from the terrified, unadoptable pitbull with a distended belly.
“Her belly pretty much touched the ground,” Lexy’s mom, Jenny Mackay, stated, “she’d been so completely overbred.”
The staff at the BC SPCA, where she spent five lonely months waiting for a home, speculated that she had never been outside.
Lexy’s teeth were ground down from attempting to chew her way out of a crate. When Jenny adopted her, she was a nervous, timid creature who had to relearn how to be a dog.
“Everything was new and surprising to her. That was the biggest thing I learned, to see the world through her eyes,” Jenny explains. “To me, it’s just a car going down the street. To her, it was a big fright because she had no idea what it was.”
Lexy was scared of everything, including the fireplace behind her dog bed.
But, one day everything clicked for her. Walking through Vancouver’s Stanley Park with Jenny, Lexy decided to cautiously step out onto the grass.
“Out of nowhere, she just dropped and did that happy roll on her back. You could just see that switch going on,” says Jenny, fondly remembering the moment Lexy came out of her shell.
After that moment, Lexy truly began her life as a well-loved dog, 8-years-young. She went to the beach and followed another dog into the ocean, started playing with toys, and even tentatively sleeping on her comfy, fire-side dog bed. She chose her best friend Bruce the Shark from a pet store shelf one day, and now gently carries him around the house.
Like most pitbull owners, Jenny knows what it’s like to have her pup discriminated against. She describes other people crossing the street and angrily saying things to her based on Lexy’s looks alone. So, Jenny started making Lexy look so lovable that no one could hate her. She dresses her up in fluffy pink tutus and flower-crowns. Lexy wears her doggy-costumes to challenge the pitbull-bias every day.
“The fact that she spent eight years with really no love, with very little human interaction, without going outside, and here she is — this goofy, loving, costume wearing little girl — it’s amazing.”
For more heartwarming pitty rescue tales, check out these hard workin’ pibbles.