Rescuing a neglected, abandoned dog isn’t easy – but it must seem like child’s play to Lucy Anthill.

After all, she is a former whale rescuer.

Indeed, Lucy has a fascinating history of rescuing animals and plants in some exotic locations before settling down as a dog rescuer in Lapal, Halesowen.

While living in New Zealand Lucy became a member of a whale rescue group called Project Jonah.

The specially trained volunteers would be called out to rescue marine mammals like whales and dolphins, carefully helping them to refloat.

Lucy has always been interested in animals and conservation, and she has practiced it across the world.

Apart from New Zealand and Australia, Lucy has also done conservation work in south and central America, including when she was teaching English and science in an American school in Ecuador.

Her career has been in teaching and children’s service, but she has always been involved with animal care and was working with dog rescue organisations before she and her sister Kate, of Old Hill, set up their Monarch’s Mutts volunteer group.

Lucy has fostered more than 70 rescue dogs and permanently adopted three.

Along with her own background, the name Monarchs Mutts has its own intriguing history.

Her late dad Trevor wrote three books about the Monarch’s Way, the 600-mile route taken by Charles II in 1651 to escape capture by the Parliamentarians after the battle of Worcester.

Part of it runs through the Halesowen and Romsley area, where the Mutts recently held an 8-mile fundraising walk.

Walking the Monarch’s Way is a far cry from being a mammal medic helping refloat whales, but its all got animal welfare at its heart.