Old Friends Senior Dogs: Layla - the GSD

Even though our German Shepherd Layla has only been here since last Summer, we have loved her since we moved here over 7 years ago. She lived in the yard of a house on a corner lot in our neighborhood. She never went inside, but was always there, sitting in her front yard. When she was young, her toys would be in the road and a couple of times, she'd have someone's UPS package in the middle of the road, borrowed right off of their porches. We'd always worry about her when we didn't see her, we didn't know her name. She was Fida in our mind.
A few years ago, our Black Mouth Cur, Freedom, fell in love with Layla. We could not keep him in the fence....he would jump out and sit with Layla in her yard, on the corner. They were truly in love, the talk of the neighborhood. He would leave after breakfast and come home for dinner. All day, they would sit there. It was such a sad night when Freedom was hit by a car in front of Layla's house. Layla would always miss Freedom, and she was always special to us, like family. We looked for her every time we drove into the neighborhood and waved to her when we went by.
Last year, her family fell on hard times. Layla was looking old and worn. For a time, there was no one in the house for days at a time. We stopped by and fed her sometimes and gave her treats. We were told that she was being fed and that the neighbors were feeding her.
Once the summer came, there was Layla, still out in the yard, losing weight and looking tired and more worn than ever. One night, Michael was out getting food, it was over 100 degrees at 7pm, he couldn't stand it anymore. Michael loaded Layla into the truck, she was skin and bones and sick. The air conditioning in the truck was the only relief she had had in weeks. While Michael was loading her up, the "owner" showed up and said that he couldn't take care of her anymore. Why didn't he tell us sooner??
We moved Layla into our downstairs room, it is cool, comfortable and we are able to block it off from the rest of the house. Once we had her there, we realized how sick she was. She had a bladder infection....she was peeing straight blood, she had chewed off half of her tail, she was covered in fleas, and was skin and bones. She slept and slept, happy to at least be cool. Hopefully Michael had gotten her in time.....