A shelter dog wasted little time in staging a daring escape from her crate only to then trash her foster carer’s home.
Sian Lucy from the U.K. took to TikTok to share footage of what happened when Ada the dog channeled her inner “Houdini” to break out and cause havoc. The resulting mess was a sight to behold.
“She was able to unlock the bottom latch and push through a tiny gap,” Lucy told Newsweek. “Once out she ripped up all her puppy pads, clothing, toys, the cat’s toys and had a few accidents.”
Ada’s escape came just six days into what was supposed to be a foster stay with Lucy. Things wouldn’t quite work out the way they were expected to for this particular rescue, though. Lucy had lost her previous dog back in February, and a friend at Angels 4 Dogs rescue asked her to foster a young pup who was on her “last chance” before being sent to kennels. That pup was Ada.
“Ada had been through quite a few different people who just couldn’t cope with her excitable puppy ways,” Lucy said. “She was picked up as a stray and taken to the pound.”
In truth, Ada could easily have been euthanized. “Once a dog is taken to the pound if they’re stray and not microchipped they have seven days for an owner to come forward,” Lucy explained. “If no one comes forward they’re put to sleep.”
Euthanizing is a practice vehemently opposed by many, but still widely practiced in the U.S. The ASPCA estimates that around 920,000 shelter animals, including approximately 390,000 dogs, are euthanized every year.
Ada could easily have suffered the same fate, but Lucy said staff at the pound “recognized she was friendly enough to be rehomed” and took action, reaching out to several rescues to see if they had space.
Angels 4 Dogs were the ones that answered the call. Even then, it was clear Ada needed the kind of close one-on-one attention a foster carer provides if she was ever to make the adjustment to domesticated life. That was where Lucy came in.
From the very start, she knew she wouldn’t end up as Ada’s foster carer: Lucy knew she would end up adopting her and she’s pretty sure her friends did too.
“Everyone knew I wouldn’t just foster her,” she said. “My friend set me up on purpose knowing full well I’d adopt her.”
That incident six days into their time together came after Lucy had just left for work. For some, returning to that kind of carnage might have been enough to put them off.
Not Lucy, though. She understood the assignment. “I just laughed it off,” she said. “What else can you do with a young puppy who’s been pushed from pillar to post and knows no different.” In fact, she ended up adopting her soon after filming the video of Ada’s trail of destruction, which was shared to TikTok under the handle Sian.Lucy25.
Her mind was made up as soon as she set eyes on Ada. “I knew the second she turned up for foster that she wasn’t going anywhere,” she said.
She’s witnessed a fantastic change in the weeks since that escape, though.
“She was so anxious because she’d been let down so many times before,” Lucy recalled. “It took a lot of hard work to build trust with her, but her behavior has changed for the better.”
Now Ada spends her days happy and content with Lucy enjoying her three favorite things: swimming, pup cups and the occasional bit of chewing.
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