SPARKY, a young Jack Russell Terrier cross has found happiness in a family home despite his mischievous past.

Sparky arrived at Worcestershire Animal Rescue Shelter (WARS) after becoming something of an escape artist in his previous home. He found a habit of escaping his garden and chasing the local sheep and was subsequently picked up by the local Dog Warden and brought to the shelter.

After successfully locating the owners through Sparky’s microchip, the family decided that they couldn’t look after him anymore, and signed him over to us so we could find him the right home to care for him.

Sparky was 7 months old and a typical puppy – playful, excitable and full of interest in everything he encountered.

He settled in well at WARS and enjoyed meeting everyone and other dogs. Unfortunately, he wasn’t getting much interest and it was over a month before he came to the attention of Joanna Marston.

Joanna said, “I had wanted to give a home to a rescue dog for a quite a while. We came to WARS just to see the shelter and the available dogs. Sparky (then called Bertie) caught my eye, he looked bright and happy and was not too big. We wanted a smaller dog preferably, as our first dog is of a small breed.”

“Sparky went to the play pen with our kids and was very playful and run around with them, clearly enjoying the company and attention. I wanted an active dog as we live in the countryside and I just fell in love with him straight away.”

It was exactly 50 days before he went home to his new family. It wasn’t long before Sparky was enjoying his brand new forever home, although it wasn’t immediately happy.

She said, “Sparky was not welcomed by our current dog straight away, but after a short time Jerry accepted that he would have a brother and they are good friends now. Sparky was under 1-year-old when we took him and did not have much training, so we needed to be very patient with him. After many destroyed toys, dog beds and stealing any available food from the kitchen Sparky has settled down and behaves lovely.

“He still has his destructive moments but when he’s kept busy and has plenty of running around, all he wants is to cuddle on the sofa and enjoy human company. He is affectionate and often just melts my heart when he jumps on my lap asking for strokes and cuddles.”