He was old, blind and had arthritis.
When you adopt a pet, you create a commitment to be with them for all times, and there's never a legitimate excuse for deciding to allow them to go. Pets are like children, and lots of people don’t seem to know that there'll be good and bad times as your pet grows with you. A bit like humans, pets can get sick, old, and develop illnesses. But that doesn’t make them any less deserve love.
So when a senior dog was dumped at an area shelter for reasons that were out of his control, we can’t feel gracious to the owners that they took him to a shelter rather than leaving him out on the road. TheThe explanations included the dog’s illnesses thanks to adulthood, and heart-breakingly, the disgusting humans even branded the old boy as “stupid.” Luckily, this story features a happy ending, and that we hope this will be a lesson to everyone who is considering adopting a dog. they'll not be young and healthy forever, but their love will never get away
One morning, the staff at the Muttville Senior Dog Rescue shelter in San Francisco, California discovered a tragic little surprise. Figgy the 18-year-old poodle had been surrendered outside their door, and so the senior dog’s owners had written down an inventory of excuses for why the dog couldn't be in their care anymore.
These included the man’s wife not liking Figgy, Figgy’s arthritis – and that he’s ‘stupid.’ After 9 months of loving and bonding with his owners, Figgy had been carelessly abandoned simply because he was getting old (which believe it or not, happens to each animal in the end!) The note read: “Can’t keep because wife doesn’t just like the dog and he had an accident within the RV. Blind but can move around but suffers from arthritis. No teeth. Owner says, ‘he’s stupid.'”
When he received the shelter, poor Figgy was small, blind, and scared. Because of his adulthood and medical conditions, the sad likelihood was that Figgy would be in the shelter until the very end. But the team wasn’t close to let that happen. Albeit the shelter describes themselves as cage-free, they wanted Figgy to be as comfortable as possible. They decided that they might not let him live out his final years during a cold, hard shelter. He needed somewhere crammed with love, warmth, and luxury, where he could rest and eat good food and have many cuddles. With this in mind, the shelter decided to call in experienced hospice mom Eileen. The amazing woman takes on dogs who are nearing the top of their lives and makes sure that they need a cushty, happy, and loving final ending to their life.
In a video posted by the shelter, we will see that from the minute Eileen meets little Figgy to need him home as well as her, there's a momentum bond between the pair. Figgy visibly relaxes and Eileen holds him close to her and provides him an enormous cuddle. The pair then chases away home – just in time for the holidays!
It’s so amazing that there are people like Eileen who offer their homes to dogs who are nearing the top of their life. We imagine that it are often a really emotional and difficult job, but it must be incredibly rewarding to offer senior dogs the ending to their lives that they deserve. Watch Figgy’s sweet adoption video below.