Peterborough teenager to enter Crufts with beloved rescue dog who was a day away from death

A Peterborough teenager, who adopted a dog who was a day away from death, will compete at Crufts this year.

Gracie Henwood, from Hampton, will show her much-loved pooch, Elton, in the ‘Scrufts’ competition for crossbreeds at Birmingham NEC between 9-12 March.

Gracie told the Peterborough Telegraph how Elton’s journey has been a true rags-to-riches tale.

“He was rescued from a kill shelter in Romania,” she said, “and got brought over here in July 2020.”

Stray dogs are so ubiquitous in Romania that the authorities round them up and put them in so-called kill shelters.

Any animals that aren’t adopted or rescued from the shelters within a set time are euthanised.

“If the charity (the Biggies League) that rescued him didn't pay the release fee that day, he would've been killed the next day,” Gracie explained.

The teenager said it was love at first sight when she first met Elton at the Biggies League shelter in Lincoln.

“We visited the charity's kennels where Elton found us. He walked over to me, mum and dad and just rolled on his belly.

“He was cuddling us within five minutes and we took him home the same day.”

However, Elton’s traumatic past meant he initially struggled to settle at Gracie’s family home.

“For the first three months he didn’t really want to come inside and was really nervous.”

In time, Elton – who is named after Elton John – became “clingy as anything”, even getting “picky with his treats because he’s such a spoiled little boy.”

Unfortunately, more adversity was in store for the eight-year-old crossbreed.

Three months after arriving in England, Elton was diagnosed with cancer.

“It was quite a rare form of cancer,” Gracie said, “so it was difficult for the vets to work out what treatment was best for him.”

Vets concluded that treating Elton with chemotherapy once a week via a drip would be best.

Happily, the poorly dog’s cancer was deemed to be in remission just six weeks later.

Regardless of how well they may do at Crufts, Elton is already a winner in Gracie’s eyes.

“You would never have known he had gone through anything bad in his life”, she said. "He is a really incredible dog.”