Saving Lucy: A Girl, A Bike, A Street Dog
By: Ishbel Rose Holmes (World Bike Girl) / Narrated By: Lucy Rayner
Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
Two damaged souls—coming together. Not to be missed!
What I liked about Saving Lucy especially comes right at the beginning; Ishbel prays to God that this lonely dog who’s started following here is gone when she wakes up in the morning. I can totally relate. How many has been the time when a homeless animal has shown up that I cringe with an: Oh Nooooo! Please, NOT me!!!
Well, you can see how that’s worked out for me as my life has been filled (and yes, BLESSED) with a multitude of animals!
Same thing goes for Ishbel. Once she gazes into the dog’s chocolate brown eyes and names her Lucy, she’s a goner for the girl. And it makes for tremendous listening.
Lucy Rayner does a tremendous job narrating their story in her Scottish brogue, which is not so thick that I had to listen at x1 speed, could do x1.25 just fine, PHEW! Her voice fills with laughter, sadness, desperation, just as the story warrants, and it’s a warm voice with wonderful tones. I was captivated by her narration, and it really did justice to what was a great audiobook.
Lucy and Ishbel are drawn together, both of them damaged souls who don’t care enough to fight back in their lives. They feel they deserve the bad that comes to them, and in a country like Turkey, where women aren’t valued and where dogs are loathed, bad comes to them aplenty. But soon they have each other’s backs. Lucy will send many would-be rapists and sexual abusers running as she stands them down, growling, raised hackles. And Ishbel fends off packs of attacking wild dogs and people who mean Lucy only the worst harm.
Their’s is a journey across Turkey, on a bike, Lucy in a crate on Ishbel’s handlebars, all to find Lucy sanctuary in the country, a couple hundred miles off. And hopefully, after a social media campaign, to a home in England once her veterinary health bill comes in clean.
Along the way, Ishbel opens her heart, a heart that’s been deadened and walled off after years of being guarded from abuse and neglect. She learns what it means to love truly and wholly, and her devotion to Lucy is utter and total. During the journey, she tries to raise awareness of the plight of street dogs in Turkey, and she even starts to show youngsters, especially, how to open themselves to loving and trusting a dog. She understands that the abuse is based on fear, and she doesn’t judge harshly.
She just changes hearts and minds!
Up for a warm animal listen? Saving Lucy is at turns funny, sweet, tragic, and thrilling. The not quite 6 hours flew by as rapidly as a dog going by on a speeding bike!
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