Sounds more like a rescue to me. Under the circumstances and living conditions this wee lil pup was living in, I would have done the same thing in your shoes. To me, that is a rescue.
Let me make this very clear to all that may read this thread, NO, taking a 5 week old puppy from it's mother is not what should be done, and, in the USA it is against the law to sell a puppy under 7 weeks old. It's also very dangerous to take a puppy that young, dangerous for the puppy.
But, sometimes you run into situations like arlene Baker where taking a wee lil baby home is safer then leaving it in filthy living conditions where the puppy is left in a filthy kiddie pool with big dogs running about. Sounds like this baby is more then well cared for, and living in clean quarters and loved much. Sounds like this lil baby is doing very well. We would LOVE to see pics of baby Lucy.
To post pics to YT they must be 200KB or under
I upload my cell pics to my computer in a picture folder
below is a free down sizing site that I use, i have included the instructions.
Resize Photos Online - The Free and Easy Way to Shrink Photos and Compress Jpeg Pictures
Open resize photo on line
1-Top of page CLICK resize photo
2-STEP 1-Select photo double click to open
3-STEP 2 change pixels to 600 set QUALITY to 65 %
4-Click up load and resize photo (this may take a while)
when it finishes
5-Click apply setting and generate photo
6-Click down load image
7-Click on SAVE this will save in your download folder
I use the settings of # 3
you can then post a pic on YT