Our names are: Costello and Duncan
We came from: Cyprus
Now we live in: Greater London
Costello’s favourite things are: Sleep, sleep and more sleep!
Duncan’s favourite things are: Human attention, sunbathing, and generally being mischievous

Costello and Duncan’s story

Lucy and I had wanted a dog for a while before finally deciding to press ahead in May 2020. We were familiar with Underdog through my brother and his pup Pablo, and all it took was one look at Costello’s profile for Lucy to immediately know that he was the one. Within a matter of days, we had gone through the process of a home check and he was ours! He made the journey from Cyprus in July, and when he arrived, he was a bundle of nerves who was trembling in fear from the journey he had been on. As hard as this was to see, it simply increased our determination to give Costello the life he deserves.

Over the coming weeks, slowly but surely, Costello started acclimatising to his new surroundings and learning to appreciate the finer things in life. Despite this it was clear that Costello’s previous history had left a lasting impact on him, and his general level of nervousness, particularly around new people, was plain for all to see. However, Costello’s confidence levels increased significantly whenever he was around another dog. After a couple of months of noticing this consistently, we started considering getting another dog to provide a permanent boost to Costello’s confidence.

Enter Duncan!

Lucy had spotted Duncan on the Underdog Instagram account, as he had just travelled over from Cyprus to go to a foster home in advance of finding his forever home. She tentatively enquired with Eve and at that point we were told that Duncan already had a forever home to go to – we were disappointed but also happy that he had found a home. Unfortunately, this arrangement fell through at the last minute, and Eve reached out to us to see if we would still be interested. As it was important that Duncan and Costello were compatible, we rushed up to the foster home where Duncan was staying for the boys to meet. Within 5 minutes they were running around and playing like best pals, and we knew we had found Costello’s companion.

Taking on two rescue dogs in quick succession is not to be underestimated, and naturally there are challenges along the way, but it has been remarkable to see how well they have both settled into home life. Duncan is inherently a far more confident dog than Costello (sometimes way too confident…!), and he is the sweetest dog who just loves attention, but his greatest attribute is that he has never lost his faith in humans, despite clearly being let down in the past.

These days, between walks you’ll find the boys play fighting and then snoozing together on the sofa (which is almost entirely their property). Despite being the bigger of the two, Costello is the lazy one who loves nothing more than sleeping all day, and Duncan is Mr Nosy who wants to know what everyone is up to, at all times. They complement each other so well and we are so happy that we have been able to give them a stable home.

The impact that both Duncan and Costello have had on our lives in what has been a challenging year is indescribable. Our eternal gratitude goes out to Eve and the rest of the team for bringing the boys into our lives, as well as to the amazing foster parents, Tricia and Jordan, who looked after Duncan in the early stages. If you’re interested in getting a dog, please consider adopting, and please consider Underdog.

- Freddie & Lucy