Success Story: Lady

Butch and her partner, Judy, adopted Muttville’s Lady (www.muttville.org/mutt/lady) last summer. Lady was a 45-pound hound who had been starved to the bone. She was nearly deaf and her coat was dry and brittle—whether she had been abandoned and living on garbage found in the street or deliberately starved, we can never know.

Lady was originally diagnosed with liver cancer, and was given only a few months to live. The odds of adopting out a ravenous, terminally ill hound, tall enough to get up and gobble any food left out on the kitchen counter seemed small. But the folks at Muttville didn’t give up on her! After some phone calls and consultations, Butch and Judy agreed to take Lady on as a hospice case. A Muttville volunteer packed Lady up and drove her 200 miles south to Atascadero where Butch and Judy live with their four other dogs on five acres.

As it turns out, Lady’s liver is fine, although she does have Cushing’s disease. But with Butch and Judy’s down-home cooking and room to roam, Lady (now named “Zamboni”) has fattened up and flourished. She spends her days lounging around the house and sniffing out the yard. When her moms come home, she gets so happy she howls!

Thank you Butch and Judy, Muttville rescue moms, for taking on what seemed like a tragic case, giving Zamboni the care she needs, and for giving her a wonderful second life.

AliG | 09.24.10