Our Experience Adopting a Dog with Dali Dog Rescue

This post was written by Polly and Laura, Dali Dog Rescue UK adopters, from South London.

Mabel arrived at her forever home in early April 2025, having travelled over to the UK in August 2024 with her 8 puppies. When she arrived in the UK, she was about 4 years old, and so soon after landing with her (very excited) new mums, she will turn 5 and will be treated to the R&R a sweet girl like her deserves! All 8 of her pups have already found their forever homes and celebrate their first birthdays with their families this month too. 

We don’t know a huge amount about her early years (as is the case with many rescue pups), we can only assume based on her manners and demeanour that she has always lived with a family, but unfortunately upon the arrival of her puppies, was abandoned. She then spent the first few months of her time in the UK living with a lovely lady and another Dali Dog Rescue, before finding her way to us in South London.

After a long journey home she burst through the front door, had a good old sniff, and immediately found her new toy box! Since then, true to her spaniel nature, she has exploded with character with every day that has passed. As first-time rescuers, but long-time dog owners, we were expecting a few weeks of quiet and time spent getting to grips with her surroundings and her new family. That is NOT what we got!!

Instead, we got an incredibly resilient dog, who from the day she arrived has behaved as though she knew she would end up with us all along. She cuddles up next to us in bed demanding belly rubs, bats us with her paw if we stop giving her attention, zoomies from one end of the hallway to another (using the sofa as a crash pad!), and gets every. last. one. of her toys out of her basket at once. 

We know we have been incredibly lucky to find a rescue dog who has been through so much and yet remains so full of optimism, love and playful energy, and recognise this is not the case for so many. Of course, much of this is down to Mabel’s nature, but so much of it must be attributed to the care she received from everyone at Dali Dog Rescue from the moment she and her pups were found abandoned. To have had her trust broken, and regained so soon afterwards, is a testament to those who were there for her in the immediate aftermath, and upon her arrival in the UK. We are so incredibly grateful for everyone who has shown her love and security along the way, and our commitment to Dali Dog Rescue as thanks for matching us with our girl, is to give her unwavering love and security for the rest of her life. 

As Mabel is busy spending each day blossoming, we are constantly reminded of all the people who helped us on the way to get here. Not long after we decided we wanted to adopt, we started to look at adoption websites and found Mabel on the Dali Dog Rescue page. She stood out from other dogs, and other rescues, due to the description of her that had clearly come from a person who had taken the time to get to know her. This meant we could instantly see whether she’d be a good fit for our family. We put an application in and heard back initially within a few days with a request to provide some additional details and home check photos.

Our co-ordinator put us in contact with the lady currently looking after her so we could start to get to know her a bit better, and within the week, we’d had our home check completed and were given the green light to travel a few hours to pick her up. We were then provided with an adoption pack, advice for settling her in when she got home, and an open channel of communication with 2 members of the charity, where all our questions were answered. Upon her arrival home, they both checked in with us over the first few days to make sure we were settling in and provided all the documents required to get her registered at the vets and with us. 

Alongside the fact that Mabel has stolen our hearts already, we could not be more grateful for the whole experience we’ve had in finding her. Dali Dog Rescue so clearly knows and cares about each one of the animals they rescue and are passionate and successful in matching them to the best possible home. This was clear to us with each step of the process and with the eventual arrival of our gorgeous girl. She is the best decision we have ever made as a couple, and it has only made us question why we didn’t do it sooner! Although, that wouldn’t have brought us to her.

Click here if you’re interested in adopting a dog like Mabel from the trusted team at Dali Dog Rescue.