Meet Susie, our 8 year old female yellow lab. She was saved from an abandoned house after her owners moved and decided to leave her and the cat behind, stopping by here and there to dump a bag of food for them. The local mailman discovered the animals in the house and well, here she is! (We're still looking for the cat, as he was unable to be located when Susie was rescued).

Susie is a very sweet girl, very chubby right now but full of life and happiness. She is approximately 7-8 years old, spayed, good with other dogs, and had grown up with kids in the house. Cat-friendly, too. She enjoys her walks and really wants to be with people after being abandoned, so we would love for her to go to a home where people are home a lot. We have a lot more pics that I would be happy to email you.

She is located in IL, but we will be working with LOLIN, too. We do have tranportation to IN and OH for her, thanks to Stop The Suffering.

So, here she is, the happy sweetie pie- Susie!

http://www.myimagehosting.com/pic.php?u=295IdC0V&i=21019 (http://www.myimagehosting.com/pic.php?u=295IdC0V&i=21019)

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww she is so sweet, man I wish I could take her.

She is just precious!!!! How can people do this to their pets??? I am so happy she was rescued....I am sure she will find a good home...Just look at that face!!!

She is Beautiful! I have the "I wants", Dh would KILL me! Crossing my fingers the perfect home is found soon.

What a pretty girl Dawn!!! I can help with transport down this way, if you need! :tup2: You do great work!

She's such a beautiful girl! And, I like the name too!!!

i have a friend looking into getting a a dog. they were looking at puppies but don't have the time for one right now. i directed them to your web site about susie. i am hoping they will be interested. waiting to hear back from him!!!

She is a BEAUTIFUL Dudley!!! We are going to cross post ASAP on Lolin.

Oh what a beautiful girl. I just cannot believe they left her in an empty house. I hope she finds a wonderful forever home soon.

Gosh, she's beautiful! Eight is a wonderful age! Well behaved and/or easily trained; calm compared to the high energy of the younger years; but still plenty of energy to retrieve, swim, butt tuck, and walk!

Louie-Lola, if your friends are interested in a lab, seriously Susie is a great choice; I would want her over a puppy! If they are thinking puppy, 8 might sound old to them, but really that is a great age. Abbey was a true delight at that age!

Now that I have fostered who knows how many adult dogs, I cannot imagine getting a puppy. Sure they're cute, but ... Let's see I presently have 3 adults that came to me as adult fosters; they have not had a single accident in the house; only ONE item has been chewed up that was not intended for the dogs. They are very bonded on us and an adult can form the same lasting bonds that a puppy does. In fact, I think rescues sometimes, in their own way, are even more bonded. It's like they know they were rescued!

Keeping my fingers crossed for sweet Susie.

Susan

--and more than a little worried about the kitty. Unfortunately when they get spooked, they can be nearly impossible to find.

Update on Susie- she's been vaccinated and microchipped and has a vet appt. wed for her HW test, rabies, and to check out a lump she has on her side. We're going to do a lumpectomy regardless, because it's ugly and can't be comfy when she lies down. Cross your fingers that it's benign because this girl is PERFECT! What a good girl she is- I vaccinated and microchipped her without even holding onto her (just bribed her with a piece of cheese!). She is super loveable and sweet, and was very sad when I left her.

Plus she looks like a beautiful dudley. I would take her if I had room.....but the wife would kill me.

Shoot Alex or Kim. She sounds great for either of your families. Already around dogs and cats! Easily motivated by food, which may explain her being a tad chubby! :) Dang your practical spouses! :) :)

I hope all is well on her vet check. If something comes up in the exam, where some extra funds would help, let us know. I bet more than one of us would be happy to contribute. I wish I had space. Harley (Tammy posted about him) and Susie ... what a yellow pair that would be !!

Susan

Thanks everyone. I can't believe someone just abandoned her. We've had several volunteers work with her already and they just cannot believe how awesome she is. I'll keep everyone posted, and hopefully will be able to report that she has a home in the works!

Shoot Alex or Kim. She sounds great for either of your families. Already around dogs and cats! Easily motivated by food, which may explain her being a tad chubby! :) Dang your practical spouses! :) :)


LOL. I know.......she is perfect. My wife said next dog we get will be a bit older because she knows that puppies go so fast and that the older dogs are usually passed over.

Here's some more pics:

http://www.myimagehosting.com/pic.php?u=295IdC0V&i=21068 (http://www.myimagehosting.com/pic.php?u=295IdC0V&i=21068)

http://www.myimagehosting.com/pic.php?u=295IdC0V&i=21069 (http://www.myimagehosting.com/pic.php?u=295IdC0V&i=21069)

http://www.myimagehosting.com/pic.php?u=295IdC0V&i=21067 (http://www.myimagehosting.com/pic.php?u=295IdC0V&i=21067)

she is beautiful. fingers crossed for her getting a good home soon.

She is an absolute sweetheart. She would make someone a wonderful companion. Happy girl, easy to love!

Susan

She's so pretty! I wish I could...we need a bigger house! I will never have another puppy. Adult dogs are so much easier and they are so thankful to have a sofa to sleep on and people to love them!

She is the "perfect-ready-to-go-adoptive-dog"! She's perfect and people should be standing in line to adopt her. Here's hoping Miss Susie gets the perfect home ASAP!!!

Wow! Is she pretty!!!

WED UPDATE: Susie has ALL her shots now and has been tested for HW. The lump on her side is only a cyst and will be removed for her comfort on Tuesday. She will be ready for a home Wed. morning! Any takers? :)

I was so hoping that you were posting that she found a wonderful forever home! Come on peoples....who wants a beautiful labby?

Oh Susie is absolutely gorgeous. UGH! I wish my parents would decide that it's time for another dog. They want one that is old enough to be calm and would love to take walks with my mom but gentle enough around my dad because he can't walk very well.
But I guess I can't force a dog on them. :( Hopefully she will find her perfect home ASAP.

I would so take another one - if we only had the room. :(

She is a cutie - I pray someone gives her a great home.

Oh what a beautful dudley girl Susie is. She does seem like the perfect little girl. Why would anyone do this to her. I just don't understand people. Glad she's being cross posted thru LOLIN and if you need help with the transport, please let me know. Linda, do we have a foster home for her?

OMG she is gorgeous. I wish I could take her she would make a wonderful additin to my family. SOmeone adopt my husband so I can adopt her.

SOmeone adopt my husband so I can adopt her.

Carol, you never fail to make me laugh!! Thanks, I needed that this morning. :floor :floor

OMG she is gorgeous. I wish I could take her she would make a wonderful additin to my family. SOmeone adopt my husband so I can adopt her.
:floor :floor :floor

Carol, you never fail to make me laugh!! Thanks, I needed that this morning. :floor :floor
What.......no takers. SHeesh. Seriously, it was just my birthday and he did not get me anything....(I bought a digital camera for myself as when I got Bennett and he told me to consider that my early Bday present when I bought it, so I can't acutally say he did not get me anything), but hey...she would make a lovely bday gift. He probably would say yes, but rightnow he is so fed up with hair everywhere. Lilly has gone into mega shed mode and he hates the hair everywhere, he says it is on his clothes and just everywhere and that it is not sanitary....blah, blah, blah. I don't minde the hair and if anyone should it should be me, I do all the vacumming twice a day and dusting once a day. SHe is just too sweet to pass up.......

We have a lab-board member's application in on Susie!!! I won't name names so there isn't any pressure, as we want Susie to have a home that wants her for being her. But everything on the application looks great, just have to check references. Then Susie can work her magic and hopefully find a great new home! Cross your fingers!

That's such incredible news. I hope when appropriate, the identity will be revealed. Whoever you are, I think you are applying for one awesome dog and the fact you are willing to consider a "senior" will be repaid many times by this girl!

Fingers crossed for the board member and for Susie!

Susan

OMG she is gorgeous. I wish I could take her she would make a wonderful additin to my family. SOmeone adopt my husband so I can adopt her.

Carol, this was funny. It also reminded me of a For Free ad in the paper (yes, I know we hate those ads). It said something like: To Good Home--One Husband Allergic to Cats or one Beautiful .... Cat. Your pick, both are free.

Susan

Carol, this was funny. It also reminded me of a For Free ad in the paper (yes, I know we hate those ads). It said something like: To Good Home--One Husband Allergic to Cats or one Beautiful .... Cat. Your pick, both are free.

Susan
OMG that is so funny.


Yahoo........for SUsie, I will be crossing my fingers for this beautiful girl and her new possible family. Please keep us posted.

Well, I will spill the beans. My girlfriend and I have thrown around the idea about adopting another lab. We currently have Tela, a 6 month old Chocolate that just loves my family and my Gal's families yellow labs. I just hope that our puppy won't put to much strain on her because we understand the responsibility of bringing an older dog home. We are excited to meet her and we are just working out some fine details. This would be the first dog we have adopted, but we feel that we would rather do this to help out a dog that needs us, and it would be coming to such a great home. We live about a 2 minutes walk from a dog park and every weekend we are there for at least 1 hour, if not a few times a day to run the heck out of Tela.

Anyone on here adopt an older dog? We are just hoping that she is in good health, and that her hips are looking good. I have lost 2 dogs when I was younger due to hip problems and it is just a really tough sight to witness. The day when they just stop walking... so we are hoping that Susie's hips are showing no visual signs. We are excited about the possibility of bringing another lab home. Susie would love being with us.

Anyone introduce a younger pup while they had an older dog? I know that it will take a bit for the 2 dogs to establish pack order and I am not concerned with that. I wonder if Tela will help bring more and more life into Susie, or would Tela maybe make her spirit age faster?? As you can see I am so interested, but I want to do what is best for Susie in this situation and would love to hear some opinions from others who might have had a similar situation. I know that I will be approved, anyone that knows me knows that I am a complete dog lover and spend as much time as possible. My Gal and I do both work full-time, but we have a licensed, bonded, pet walker that comes for Tela and would love to sign Susie up as well!

But please, anyone who has any advise, or experience with a younger dog and a senior, please step in!

-Mike

I adopted Red, a Senior back in late July. He has been a blessing to my family. The first thing I did once getting him here was bring him to my vet for a full blood panel and x-rays. His hips are fine but he has bad knees. He takes 1 Rimadyl every other day. All of his organs are fine, within normal levels.

Red is content sleeping on the sofa, on the floor next to the bed, playing with Shaq or the kids or cats.

I had to put my Shar Pei down shortly before we got Red. My husband could not understand why we were bringing in another older dog when we had just gone through putting a senior down. I simply told him that he "needed" us, and to this day I do not regret it for a second. It seems like I have had him his whole life. He adjusted so easily to our schedule, pets...everything. He does not chew or tear anything up...a perfect gentleman.

I will never have another puppy. Thank you so much for opening your home to this gal. If I could have talked hubby into it, we would have applied for her! Congrats!

As all of us our Lab owners, you know how active a 6 month old is. Tela is well behaved, but she likes to play rough with older dogs. (Unless she is fetching her ball. Then it doesn't matter who or what you are... its all about that ball). I heard from Dawn and they are doing full blood work, her hips look good.

I am just starting to wonder if Tela will understand that she can't go crazy, as she does with the other younger labs in the family. So anyone else bring a young pup home with an elder?? How did it go?

I know that Susie needs to loose some weight which won't be too big of a problem because we love going to the park and of course walks. If we do ended up adopting her, we will switch her food to Innova, because I am big on it and really believe it is one of the best kibbles out there.

We will see. I am excited, but I of course only will take Susie if my Gal and I both believe that Tela and us will help her live the rest of her life to the fullest. I just wonder how Tela would react to bringing another dog home to live! As you can see, I only want to do what is 100% correct for the dog. My Gal and I have more to talk about and make sure this is the correct idea... we will keep you all informed...

Mike-

I'm glad you are taking this so seriously. I have to smile, because though Susie is a senior, she is not elderly in the least! She has a lot of get-up-and-go to her and still likes to run and play. I think she will have a ton of fun with a puppy, even a rambunctious one- though she may put Tela in her place when she's had enough! No one would ever guess Susie is seven. Really. If you could have only see how much fun she had when we ran from the back of the property all the way around to the van because I was late to the vet. She may be older, but she's still very much young at heart. :) I hope we meet soon! Keep the advice for Mike coming everyone!

I am excited by this as Susie is really cute and I want a good home for her.

Definitely adopt her and seriously don't worry about the hips. She could have 3 legs or 5 and she'd still likely be the sweetest dog. We adopted a 8 year old Yellow Lab Ashley who was being retired from breeding. ( 5 litters-50 pups total ) She died less than a year later and it was very sad but I'd do it all over again because I knew we gave her the best damn year of her life crammed into 9 months.

I'm always for adopting senior dogs. You won't have them as long as you would like but you can give them the greatest time of all while you have them.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, this is wonderful. You guys have a lot of great advice to give Mike and Mike, I hope this works for you guys, she seems like such a wonderful girl.

I brought Hank home(Terrier mix) when he was 4 months old from the local kill shelter(about 3 months ago). Susie is almost 6. At first it was really rough. I though Susie was going to KILL Hank. There was growling and lungeing and barking for about 2 weeks.

Now they are the BESTEST buddies!

They must establish pack order. An older dog usually deserves it. An older dog also will not think twice to give a pup a shake and growl and teach a pup some manners.

You can also put one or the other in a crate to give them time outs if it gets out of hand. I myself do not have crates but may here are experts on them.

My 2 spend all their time together, playing, eating, sleeping, growling and wrestling. Susie has taught Hank pack order and respect and Hank has taught Susie to eat out of the garbage and play!--The garbage thing I could do without but Hank brings out the PUPPY in her.

Good luck.

Last night I had the dogs out and when I went to open the door to let them in they were both asleep--in SUSIE'S dog house. So sweet.

Cricket

Mike,

This is wonderful news. Eight is not old; in fact I almost objected to her being classified as "senior." At 8, my Abbey would have whipped a puppy into shape!

Many of us have experience integrating adult dogs into our families. If you end up adopting Susie, don't hesitate to ask questions. Right now, I know I feel like if I run a lot of suggestions out, it will be information overload and make a very doable situation sound more difficult than it is!!

I think the only suggestion I have right now would be crates. If Susie or puppy needs some down time (where one can't pester the other), crates can be invaluable. Having a crate for each might be ideal, but I don't know if either dog is crate trained. It gives them their own space, a way to separate them at feeding times if need be, and just a way to quick lock one up for any reason at all.

I'll be so anxious to hear how your meeting goes!

Susan

Hey guys,

I sorta got a bit ahead of myself yesterday. But here is what I just PM'ed to Dawn.. I am so sad, because I really would love to show Susie how much she could be loved..

Dawn,

I have some unfortunate news. Eileen and I sat down last night and really worked some figures to make sure we could afford to give Susie the correct life. With an upcoming wedding, field training starting for Tela, and a new car payment on the horizon, we would really struggle to bring Susie home. To add to that, we brought over Charlie who is my sisters lab because we have never had 2 dogs in the house before. As you know we live in a town house and we wanted to see how the two dogs would be with the smaller space. We just don't think that we truly have enough space in our house for 2 dogs. Sure, we are very active as I explained in the application, but again we are only looking out for Susie and her well being. The third reason, is that Tela would really benefit from having a younger dog. Charlie and Tela just play, play, play and I know that is how she would want to be with Susie. In the house, they just didn't have adequate room to romp around as they should.

I feel really bad because the both of us have already fallen in love with her just from her photographs. I know that if we met her we would take her home, but that is just not the correct thing to do for her. As I explained we were interested, but we didn't want to sign on a dotted line until we really sat down last night and talked about it. I really wish you the best of luck finding Susie a home that is a bit larger than mine, and people like us who would show her what LOVE really is. It saddens me because I know we would be able to give her all the love, but we don't think we can do it.

I feel terrible for wasting your time. I let all the contacts I listed to you yesterday, know that we thought long and hard about it, but with the crunched numbers, smaller town house, and Tela's youth, we just truly don't believe at this point that it is the right decision.

To look into the future though, Eileen and I are hoping in 2 years to buy a nice big house where we will have a fenced in yard, close to the dog park, and hopefully at that time we can come to you and help your cause and find another young at heart dog.

I hope you understand, but the three of us (you, Eileen and myself) are only interested in what is best for Susie

I hope you understand Dawn. I feel like I have let you down and I hope you understand. I am not a person who backs down, but in this situation I have to be selfless and remember this is all about Susie!

I am sure you will have no trouble finding a home.

Thank you
-Mike

Awwwwwwwwwwwww Mike it is okay, this is about finding the best situation for Susie and it is great that you recognize that. SUsie will find the perfect home, this board will make sure of that.

SO okay guys it is time to get busy finding this beautiful girl a home.

I hope beautiful Susie finds a forever home. She looks so happy. I wish I could take her. She would be a wonderful addition to any family.

I hope beautiful Susie finds a forever home. She looks so happy. I wish I could take her. She would be a wonderful addition to any family.
Yeah I am right there with you, I would twke her in a heartbeat if my DH would say yes.

I have told Dawn that we would take her in and foster and find her a home, but I think she has had several "hits" on her and will be able to find her a home soon. I love her, too.

We've definitely got some interested parties, we just need to find the right one for her. She has a foster home and will be well-loved until we find her forever and ever home. It's out there. She's perfect. Good with kids, cats, and dogs, housebroken, healthy and oh-so-sweet. We'll find someone who will overlook her age, like we always do, and they will be rewarded beyond anything they could've imagined! I'll post when she's found her forever home! No worries for Susie. She'll win somebody over soon enough :)

GREAT news Dawn!!!

Susie will find just the right home; having a foster home gives her the time she needs.

Mike, don't get all embarrassed on us. Susie is a wonderful dog by all accounts. I think it is great you recognized that! There would be fewer Susies in the world (in other words, homeless labs) if people put as much realistic thought into adopting a lab as Eileen and you did.

Susan