It’s often been said that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, and while that may be true, photographer Lori Fusaro has proven that you can give an old dog a new home.
Her new book, “My Old Dog: Rescued Pets With Remarkable Second Acts,” showcases 22 stories from all around the country of kind-hearted people giving new homes to older senior dogs that normally get ignored in shelters in favor of young puppies.
“Just because they’re old, it doesn’t mean that they don’t still like to play with their toys and go on walks,” Fusaro, a former CCN editor, said. “So the inspiration for the book was to help change the perception of senior dogs to help people see them in a different light and be more willing to adopt them.”
Fusaro, who works as an animal photographer for the Best Friends Animal Society, said her journey to make senior dogs more acceptable as pets began a few years ago when she met a 16-year-old pit bull/American bulldog mix named Sunny at the Carson Animal Shelter in Gardena.
Sunny, who had cancer, was what is known as an “owner surrender,” meaning that the original owners were unable to continue caring for her, which prompted them to bring her to the shelter.
What struck Fusaro about Sunny was how depressed it acted. Fusaro tried cheering up the dog by offering it treats but that didn’t work. Being an animal lover ever since she was a little girl, Fusaro couldn’t get the sad dog off of her mind and adopted the dog a week later.
While living with Fusaro and her husband Darrell, Sunny began perking up, getting healthier and happier by the day.
“Her personality started showing and she just had such a zest for life and for living that I wanted to show other senior dogs in that same light,” Fusaro said.
Although Sunny died last year, it didn’t dampen Fusaro’s desire to show senior dogs in a positive light. In fact, it was this desire that led her to the co-author of her book Laura Coffey.
Before Fusaro could make her dream about senior dogs a reality, she needed money, so she began a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of $25,000. Unfortunately, she only raised about $16,000 [Kickstarter rules say that if you don’t meet your goal, you don’t get any of the money raised.].
However, the setback was actually a blessing in disguise as it attracted the attention of Coffey, a writer for the Today Show website who contacted Fusaro for an article she wanted to write about Sunny.
Coffey’s article went “viral” and was published in the Associated Press Newswire as well as in newspapers in Malaysia and Germany. The story attracted so much attention that NBC Nightly News came calling and produced a segment about Sunny that netted on-air reporter Jill Rappaport the Genesis Award given by the Humane Society of the United States.
It was then that a literary agent approached Fusaro wanting to represent her. Initially, Fusaro wanted to do a coffee table book of just her photos but the agent convinced Fusaro to include stories of the dogs to go along with photos. When it was time to get a writer for the stories, Fusaro only wanted Coffey, whose article she said started this whole thing in the first place.
To get the photos and stories needed for the book, the two women went on road trips together beginning in the New England area and eventually taking similar trips to California and Florida.
“It was important to me that the stories weren’t repetitive,” Coffey said. “That required some legwork ahead of time. You call around and talk to a lot of senior dog rescue groups all over the country and ask them for their very best success stories.”
One of the biggest success stories that Coffey included in the book was the story of Maddie, a small shih Tzu that changed the life of 75-year-old widow Madelon Weber.
Coffey said that Weber had been struggling with depression since the sudden death of her husband.
“He died suddenly and unexpectedly leaving her alone in their big house in San Mateo,” Coffey said. “She was struggling with the silence and couldn’t pull herself out.”
Coffey said that once Weber got the dog, she felt obligated to walk it every day. It was this daily ritual that finally broke Weber from her depression as the dog became a people magnet, causing random strangers to approach her to learn about her dog.
“She began making friends with her neighbors,” Coffey said. “She is now taking line dancing lessons and volunteering at a women’s jail. She is also seeing a personal trainer once a week.”
In addition to average ordinary Americans, the book also features stories involving a few celebrities and their adopted pets.
“I thought, wouldn’t be fun to get some celebrities in the book and what do you know, George Clooney wanted to be in the book to share the adoption story of his dog Einstein,” Coffey said.
The book also features Bruce and Jeannie Nordstrom of Nordstrom’s department stores, who Coffey said routinely adopt senior shelter dogs.
Fusaro said that since the publication of the book, many people have taken a cue from her and opened their homes to senior dogs.
“I get so many emails from people saying that they saw the book, they saw Sunny’s story and they adopted a senior or their next dog will be a senior, so that’s pretty cool,” Fusaro said.
Fusaro said that anyone looking to adopt a senior dog needs to be aware of a few things.
“Don’t be afraid because they do have medical expenses as well as the whole sadness factor because they obviously won’t live as long as a young dog or puppy,” Fusaro said. “But the joy totally outweighs any of the sadness.”
Coffey also believes senior dogs would make great house pets and hopes that the book will cause even more people adopt one of the older dogs in their local shelter.
“Dogs at that stage of their lives, they make great friends and companions,” Coffey said. “They’re really focused on you and they’re a little less rambunctious than puppies and they’re already house trained. They are so relieved to be somewhere safe and welcomed.”
“My Old Dog: Rescued Pets with Remarkable Second Acts” is available on amazon.com and in Barnes & Noble Booksellers.