A shelter dog has been finally adopted after waiting 11 years.
Vanessa had been living at Villalobos Rescue Center (VRC), in Louisiana since she had been dumped at there in 2012 when she was just a tiny puppy.
“Her owner brought her in the back of a moving truck as a puppy. He didn’t want to take her with him on his move,” Tia Torres from Villalobos Rescue Center told Newsweek. “Plain and simple…they just didn’t want her anymore. Her little life had barely started and already she was unwanted and minutes away from dying in the back of a sweltering hot box of a truck.”
Whilst Vanessa didn’t get the best start to life, she was looked after and nurtured at Villalobos, a non-profit in the USA that takes in mostly pitbulls. The rescue features on TV, and takes in 40 new dogs each month.
“In 2011 we relocated from California to Louisiana where we became an all-breed rescue due to the overwhelming number of displaced dogs here in the South. We currently have approximately 500 dogs,” Torres says.
The perfect dog meets the perfect owner
On paper Vanessa was the perfect dog. According to Torres, Vanessa was crate-trained, well-behaved and extremely friendly. However, the perfect owner only manifested for Vanessa last week, in July 2023. And the new owner is an experienced adopted, having already adopted two dogs from Villalobos in the past.
“Vanessa is going to a former two-time adopter,” said Torres. “Both of the dogs that were adopted from us have passed away from old age. She will be leaving the Big Easy and heading to Delaware next week.”
Senior dogs need loving homes too
Senior dogs make fantastic companions! Unfortunately, only 25% of older shelter pups get the chance to be rehomed into a loving family. They say with age comes wisdom, and that definitely applies to senior dogs. Generally these older pups already have some basic training, so you don’t have to spend a lot of time teaching them commands. They have generally grown out of puppy habits, such as chewing, and are more likely to be toilet trained too.
Many shelters have senior programs too, including VRC, who will pay for all of the costs for senior shelter dogs for the rest of their lives.
See the ASPCA’s website for more reasons about adopting a senior dog!
