When animal control officers found a dog abandoned in a cat carrier on a freezing night in New Jersey, rescuers could barely see the dog’s face. Her coat was so matted that rescuers couldn’t tell her sex or breed, and a veterinarian shaved a portion of fur just to reach the dog’s skin with a needle.
Kimberly Callea, the Easel Animal Rescue League’s shelter manager, took her in and sent her to pet groomer Yahaira Sosa in Ewing Township, New Jersey, to remove the dirt and matted fur that had accumulated for months or maybe even years. After about three hours of grooming, rescuers were shocked to see that the dog, whom they named Lucy, was a six-pound Havanese with gray and white fur.
On Wednesday, her dramatic transformation was celebrated when she won top prize in the Wahl Dirty Dogs Contest, a national shelter makeover competition that awards grants to the groomers and shelters that clean up rescue dogs and help them find homes.
“Looking at [her] today compared to when she first arrived is almost hard to believe,” said Callea. “She went from barely surviving to truly thriving.”
Callea fostered Lucy, now 5, then adopted her two months after the dog was rescued.
Lucy’s rescuers and groomers won the competition by receiving the most votes from the public from a pool of 129 dogs. The title comes with $5,000 each to the Easel Animal Rescue League and Lucy’s groomer. Second-prize winners get $2,000 each and third get $1,000 each.
Second place went to Kailey, a miniature poodle in Maryland who was surrendered to the SPCA of Anne Arundel County in January by her family. Her rescuers estimated that Kailey, 11, had not been groomed or bathed in four years. The matting on the dog’s fur was so severe that she could barely open her mouth, and rescuers couldn’t see her eyes, the shelter said. She looked like a new dog after she was groomed.
Placing third was Dominic, who was found with severe matting after his owner in Southern California died this year.
Wahl, a company that sells grooming products, and Greater Good Charities, a Seattle nonprofit, organize the annual contest.
Lucy was in no state to win a grooming competition when she was rescued near a parking lot entrance in the early morning in February 2025. She was shivering, emaciated and barely able to move, the shelter said.
Callea had been searching for a new dog since her longtime Maltese and Yorkshire terrier mix, Bentley, died in the summer of 2023. She recalled looking into Lucy’s eyes the morning she came to the shelter and thinking, “Oh my God, this is my dog.”
Sosa, who cleared her schedule to help the dog, shaved Lucy’s fur — working with great care because Lucy was afraid of Sosa’s shears and clipper — before bathing her multiple times.
“I haven’t seen a dog like that in a really long time,” said Sosa, 25.
At one point during grooming, the hair atop Lucy’s head stuck up, resembling Marge Simpson’s tall blue hair, Callea said. So Callea decided Lucy’s new name would be Marjorie.
Now, Marjorie follows Callea everywhere, from the bathroom to her car to her bed. She sleeps next to Callea’s head.
When Callea returns home and locks her car, the dog recognizes the noise and shimmies in excitement at the front door. She runs to the kitchen when she hears Callea opening a plastic bag of boiled chicken.
“She’s obsessed with me like I’m obsessed with her,” Callea said.
Marjorie has doubled her weight and now bounds across Callea’s backyard and hiking trails. She wrestles and plays chase with Callea’s Yorkshire terrier, Gypsy, and her six cats.
About every month or two, Marjorie still visits Sosa — but under different circumstances. Sometimes, Marjorie’s fur turns green after she runs in freshly mowed grass.
When Callea approaches Sosa’s house, Marjorie scratches the back window in excitement. She runs through Sosa’s walkway to the front door while wagging her tail before turning onto her back for a belly rub. She leaves smelling like coconut-and-lime-scented shampoo.
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