...and along came Zuzu

I was writing a completely different post last night and along came Zuzu to change my path. She is a 12 to 13 year old brown dog who was going to be put to sleep today because of severe hardships in the family who took her in as a foster a year ago and an inability to find rescue for a girl that old with some physical limitations. Rather than bring her back to animal control, where she would most certainly be euthanized, the decision was made that if rescue couldn't be found by today, the most humane thing to do would be to send Zuzu quietly to the Rainbow Bridge.
That was when fate stepped in. Our friend Caroline, a GREAT Great Dane Rescuer, made some wonderful comments about Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary on her facebook page that made some of her GREAT Rescue friends aware of our existence. We were contacted by a couple of people who were aware of Zuzu's story and wanted to know if we could help....
To know us is to know that it is very difficult for us to say no. We had set our limit of dogs here to 15, and heck, there were only 14 at the moment. We said that we would try to help.
Today, things fell together very nicely. Before noon, Zuzu was with us and on the way home. She rode well in the car and once we got home easily took a walk around the yard with Leo and then took a nap.
Zuzu is a sweet, affectionate girl who wags her tail so much that we can find her anywhere just by listening for the loud thump-thump-thump on the walls, the floors and the furniture. She walks slowly with a little stagger and always seems to have a smile on her face.
When Dr. Benner examined her this afternoon, he found her to be in good health. He was not concerned about a small growth on her forehead. We were very happy that she is heartworm negative and now she is up to date on all of her shots and preventatives (conveniently, today everyone got Trifexis along with her). She has a deformed foot, all but one toe is missing, either from an accident or since birth. It is healed well but keeps her from walking normally. She will need some dental work soon, but we will wait until she is settled in for a while. Dr. B thinks she may be a bit younger than the 12 or 13 years originally thought, or at least a "young" 12 or 13.
Once home, she needed some rest. The day was wearing her out. She slept on the couch downstairs until dinnertime and gobbled that up. We were going to wait to introduce her to the gang until tomorrow because she had been so tired, but changed our minds when we took her for a walk and she seemed up for a challenge.
We put her in the fenced area and introduced her to everyone one or two at a time. It went well and we had no problems at all. Within a few minutes she was sitting happily with the rest of the group and has been doing well all night, ever since.
Once again, and I'm sure everyone get's tired of hearing it, I have to tell everyone how proud I am of our pack. As always, they welcomed a newcomer into their home and happily allowed her to pick her places, and share their attention, space and things. We love them all so much....
Here are a few first day photos of Zuzu.

at Home at last

and furthermore.....

a happy girl

hanging with the pack

and loving it....