French Lucy
A former HSCC adoption who came back to us with both knees failing. Our supporters paid for the surgery that fixed them.
French Lucy, at the shelter
She had been here before
French Lucy was adopted from us once already. When she came back into our care we could see straight away that something was wrong with her back legs.
An orthopedic evaluation confirmed it, and it was worse than we hoped: the ligaments in both knees were torn. Walking hurt. Standing hurt. It is the kind of diagnosis that can quietly end a shelter dog's chances, because the repair is not small and neither is the bill.
So we asked
The fix was bilateral TPLO surgery — both knees rebuilt — at roughly $6,600. A private donor offered to match every dollar given toward it, up to the full amount.
Our community answered. Ten dollars became twenty. Twenty-five became fifty. Between the people who gave, the people who shared, and one donor willing to double all of it, Lucy got her surgery.
Both knees, one day
On 27 August 2026 French Lucy had both knees operated on at Jacksonville Veterinary Surgery and Orthopedics. Through all of it — the pain beforehand, the handling, the hospital — she stayed exactly what everyone here calls her: sweet, calm and affectionate.
Now comes the healing
Lucy is in the care of an experienced medical foster for a twelve-week recovery: rest, rehabilitation, and slowly rebuilding the strength in legs that have not worked properly in a long time.
Surgery is behind her. The work in front of her is measured in months, not days. For now she is exactly where she needs to be — safe, comfortable, cared for, and surrounded by people rooting for her.
Her journey took a village.
To our foster, to our matching donor, to every person who gave or shared, and to the veterinary team who got her back on all four paws — thank you.
Photographs
The next one is already on the way
French Lucy’s care is paid for. There is always another animal behind her — a surgery, a course of treatment, a litter that needs feeding. Giving to the Humane Society is not an abstraction: it is a specific animal, on a specific day, getting what it needs.
French Lucy is not available for adoption — she is in foster care while she recovers.