AFTER being separated from her family, a Staffy found her forever home thanks to a charity.

Bayley, a Staffy who was in need of a little love and affection to bring her out of her shell. Bayley came to Worcestershire Animal Rescue Shelter (WARS) after the break-up of a marriage, with neither party wanting to take her with them. Spencer Harris, community and events fundraiser at WARS said: "It must have been awful for Bayley to be separated from the family completely but in bringing her to WARS, they ensured that she would continue to be loved and the right forever home found."

She had previously lived with children but had very little socialisation with other dogs. Being in the shelter was tough for her and she didn’t acclimatise well. She was very nervous and shy and it took a few weeks for her to begin to trust staff and volunteers.

Slowly though, she came out of her shell and started to brighten up day by day. She began to be more and more comfortable around other dogs and was more than happy to receive a little bit of fuss.

Bayley had been with WARS for just over 18 weeks before she caught the attention of Andrew Wakeman.

Andrew said, “We already had a wonderful Staffy called Buster. We adopted him from a puppy and from the age of 2 he suffered from fits. Buster was getting on in life at 11 years old and we decided to look for a companion for him. Given the amount of Staffies in rescue shelters we focussed on that and we found Bayley at WARS.

Initially Bayley didn’t take to Buster but over a period of about 6 weeks we persevered bringing Buster to the centre and eventually we took Bayley home in February 2016.

At first she was very timid and wouldn’t walk unless it was in a fenced in area. With patience we managed to slowly win her over and over a number of months she began to become more confident and trust us. She then quickly became great pals with Buster even fussing over him when he came round from his fits.

Sadly, Buster passed away in December 2016 and Bayley really missed him. She seems to be over it now and is a fantastic animal with a typically boisterous Staffy personality. We are a big fan of the breed so may be biased but she is loved greatly and gives it back to us in spades. A truly wonderful dog and we are so pleased we are able to give her the home she deserves.”