As told by ZoZo, and Alfred Olson, a much loved Muttville volunteer:
Alfred: SHAME ON ME
The purpose of all Muttville Outreach get-to-gethers is to introduce pups to potential parents. I breached the protocol when I saw at a Sunday outreach in the Castro, the little girl I wanted to foster. I was sure she was the one. After so many false starts, where I picked a candidate only to find them going to be fostered or adopted by someone else, I hatched an evil plan to kidnap
keep her away from the group until the outreach ended. I knew very well that one look at those beautiful black eyes and matching toenails would cause many folks to swoon, leaving me to wave goodby with tears in my eyes. At closing time we went back to the group, where
I put her on the ground and announced to the other volunteers, and our beloved leader Sherri, ‘This girl is going to be my foster baby.’
ZoZo: The guy led me away and we got in his car. I just knew he was taking me back to my home. We arrived at a house and he carried me up the stairs. He put me on the floor. I was screaming in my head, ‘This is not my house! Where is my mommy? Where is my mommy!’
Alfred: I carried her up the stairs and put her down on the kitchen floor. She appeared to be in shock. She wouldn’t walk or sit, she wouldn’t eat or drink water. I carried her to the yard, but nothing. Her shriving was constant, so I wrapped her up in towels and placed her in an old dog bed a friend brought over.
ZoZo: The guy slept on the floor next to me, and I remember him comforting me during the night. In the morning he held out his hand to me which contained small pieces of chicken. I ate.
Alfred: When she woke up I offered small pieces of chicken – she ate them. I took her out of the bed, unwrapped her from the towels to see if she would walk, and she did walk, over to the water bowl. We went out to the yard and she smelled all the vegetation, like it was new to her. It was a sign that everything was going to be OK.
POSTMORTEM
Ten days later, Sherri called to say,‘I have a couple of people who saw your foster on the website, and think she is the one for them.’
I said, ‘I have someone here right now who wants to adopt her immediately!’
Sherri asked, ‘do you know this person?’
‘Yes I do Sherri, it’s me.’
Sherri then called me a foster failure, and I didn’t care. ‘No one is going to take away my baby’ I whispered away from the phone.
And so it came to pass on August 30th, 2009, ZoZo, and I adopted each other. The first thing to happen after this union was approved, was the discovery that ZoZo was deaf. I proceeded to make up hand signals she would understand. Everyone who came to the house were taught how not to startle her. She learned to cope with the 85 lb. Golden Retriever she was to live with,
and he held swinging doors open so she could go through, and always lets her go out or in every door first.
She has three beds. One next to my bed, one in my studio, and one in the kitchen. This way she can always see me and follow if I leave the room.
From two vets, one who said she was nine and one who said she was ten, I made her 9½, and with a little fudging, her birthday is March 20th, the 1st Day of Spring, and this coming March, she will be 12 years old.
ZoZo closes with these words, ‘I love this guy, and want to be with him forever – and the big dog too.’
Thank you Sherri, for helping to make this story come true, between a senior dog and a senior man.
2/14/12
Are you the proud parent of a Muttville dog? Send us your story! Include three of your favorite photos and send it to success_stories@muttville.org with the subject line 'Success Story'.
