Thanksgiving celebration party. A couple of dozen people spread throughout the house eating, drinking, chatting. Dusia is laying on the floor. Her body is relaxed, but her eyes attentively follow two people in the room, Sergey and Rita. Dusia is a 7 year old lab. She lives with Sergey and Rita for the last 3 years. Prior to that…

At first, it was a family with a very active child, who got a puppy for his Birthday. A puppy and a child, what a cute combination. But a puppy soon grew up to be a large dog and everyone in the family lost an interest in her. Dusia was passed on to another family, relatives, who lived nearby. But they had their own issues and a 4 year old lab ended up being too much to handle. Dusia was finally picked up by Sergey and Rita, a young couple with a very active lifestyle. “I will do whatever it takes to be liked. I will be quiet and attentive. I will not bother anyone and will not take much room.”- thought Dusia adjusting to her new place. As time passed, she bonded really well with her new family and they all grew to love and appreciate each other.
During Sergey and Rita’s frequent travels Dusia was staying with their friends and family. She would anxiously wait for them to come back, feeling stressed during the separation, but trying not to show it.

It all changed about 1 year ago when a cancerous bone tumor (right tibial osteosarcoma) was found in Dusia’s back leg, and she had to undergo a full round of radiation treatment. Sergey and Rita were told that Dusia had only 6 month to live, unless her leg was amputated, which would add only a couple of months to her life. It was a difficult decision to make but Rita and her fiance made a decision not to amputate the leg and do everything possible to make these last 6 months of Dusia’s life her best 6 months. They knew that Dusia was the happiest when she was with them, so they changed their work schedule to make sure that she was never alone. They stopped their travels, started to feed her homemade organic meals, introduced vitamins to her diet and poured as much love on her as it was humanly possible.

…At the party, more than 3 months past the dreadful deadline that was given to Dusia by doctors, she was a cheerful and peaceful dog, attentive to the needs of her owners, showing them with every look and every move how much she loved them. Loved them unconditionally.

You can hear many similar stories if you talk to volunteers and workers at Muttvile, a shelter for senior dogs. Wonderful dogs, smart, kind, trained, they are waiting to move to permanent homes where they can express their unconditional love.

SFSPCA created a program that focuses its attention on senior dogs. SFSPCA Square One program supports adult dogs who cannot thrive in a traditional shelter environment. These dogs come from challenging backgrounds and often have special needs. At communal shelters, many of those dogs would be euthanized. Square One creates a bridge between the shelter and a permanent home, by partnering with local and national rescue groups and through foster placements. To help foster families with expenses associated with a dog ownership, SFSPCA created a wishlist that covers the basic needs of these dogs. The toys on this list are needed in big numbers to socialize pets and to show support tonew foster families.