Bringing Joy to a home

Linda Lueck says she prayed for some Christmas joy. The Joy she got barks.

Lueck adopted Joy, a beagle who during the last year had become a regular site in much of Saukville, roaming the village as a stray, begging for food but never letting anyone get close enough to hold or pet her.

She was nicknamed Little Orphan Annie by Dan Bolz, a caretaker at the shuttered Arkema Coating Resins plant, and Snoopy by the employees at Saukville Feeds.

But she was renamed Joy at the Wisconsin Humane Society after she was captured by Bolz, who used a fishing net to do so, not wanting to see the dog go through another winter in the wild.

Lueck said she stuck with the name.

“I prayed for Christmas joy. And now I got her,” she said.

Lueck said she already knew Joy. Since Feb. 22, to be exact. That’s when Joy first came by Lueck’s house on North Dries Street looking for a handout, which Lueck was glad to give, having owned three beagles herself over the years.

“By the end (when she was turned over to the Humane Society), she was eating from my hand,” said Lueck.

“She would run through Grady Park and then she’d run around the (Saukville Elementary) school.”

Joy greeted Bolz every day at 9 a.m., he said.

“At 10 she was at my place,” Lueck said.

Lueck estimated Joy made the rounds and was fed by about 15 different people.

After Bolz turned the dog over to the Humane Society, they had to wait to see if anyone claimed her.

When no one did, Lueck applied to adopt her. Joy officially became hers on Dec. 19.

It’s her first dog in seven years.

“I was not planning to get a dog. I was working in Franklin and couldn’t take one on. But now that I’m retired I have all the time in the world,” said Lueck, who worked for 40 years for the U.S. Postal Service, including 18 years at the Saukville Post Office. She retired in March.

“But she came to me. She was the one looking for a home and she came to me,” Lueck said. “I never had a dog who was a runaway.”

With so many people giving her food, Joy’s weight is good.

“She’s at 23 pounds, and the vet said to keep her right there,” Lueck said.

The dog has worms, probably from drinking bad water, and ear infections, which are common to floppy-eared dogs like beagles, Lueck said. But she’s otherwise in good health.

Joy is making herself at home, but it’s going to take some time, Lueck predicted.

“She’s not a people person. But she’s coming around,” Lueck said. “She’s still skittish, but she’s breaking out of her shell. She’s got a good home now.”