About Zeus |
- Status: Adopted!
- Adoption Fee: 300.00
- Species: Dog
- Rescue ID: 2019-015
- Color: white
- Ear Type: Erect
- Tail Type: Long
- Current Age: 7 Years (best estimate)
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- Housetrained: Yes
- Grooming Needs: Moderate
- Owner Experience Needed: Breed
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ZEUS ~1-2 years old. Good with dogs. Kids and cats TBD.
GSRA Adopts to residents of VA, NC, and SC only
Zeus is a young, sweet, GORGEOUS white shepherd who spent 6 weeks loose in rural Chatham County before finally being lured in and caught by a dedicated network of rescue volunteers. Sadly, about 3 weeks before he could be caught he was hit by a car, which broke both bones in his lower right front leg. You can read more about Zeus and the remarkable effort that went into saving him here by clicking here Emergency Care for White Dog When he finally was caught he was transported to Quartet Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Hospital for urgent care and to evaluate prospects for his leg. This is where GSRA comes into the picture, because the team that did so much to get him to that point wasn’t equipped to foster him during recovery and eventually find him just the right home. GSRA was more than happy to partner with this wonderful group and agreed to bring Zeus into our program.
Well that’s the backstory, now what about Zeus??? OK, OK, I’m getting to that. As I write this (4 weeks after surgery), prospects look VERY good for Zeus healing and regaining almost all of his leg function. Sure, he may retain a slight limp, but there’s no doubt he’ll be a 4-legged dog who can run, jump, and play like any other dog—but not just yet. For now he needs strict exercise restriction so his bones can finish healing. That means confined to an inside pen or crate when he can’t be supervised, short leash-walks ONLY outside to potty, no stairs, no jumping, no running, no romping with other dogs. This is not easy for a young shepherd!! He’s got bunches of energy that he can’t expend, he’s understandably frustrated, and he’s going to tell you about it.
This brings me to the first of Zeus’s personality quirks. Zeus is LOUD. He’s vocal in general, with lots of “roww wow wow” conversing, but he’s also pretty barky, and he HOWLS plaintively when he feels abandoned or neglected. Some of this should abate once he’d not confined so many hours of the day and can get a healthy amount of exercise, but he’ll probably always be a “talky” dog. For this reason he is not well-suited to apartment or townhouse living.
Another of Zeus’s personality quirks is that he’s fearful of strangers—hardly surprising, given his backstory—and he’ll react with defensive barking and growling. Once comfortable with a new person he becomes the sweetest of marshmallows, but he needs slow, careful intros to get to that point. Once his leg is healed and he can go out and experience the world with a person he trusts I think he will gain confidence and not be so fearful of new things, but this is definitely something an adopter will need to work on with him.
Zeus is friendly with other dogs but completely clueless about dog etiquette, so in a multidog home he would need some gentle “schoolin’” from the resident dogs. He seems to have a high prey drive so is probably not trustworthy around cats. He must continue his exercise restriction until mid-May at least, and possibly longer depending on results of regular rechecks.
As you can see, Zeus is a work in progress, both medically and behaviorally. If you think you’re the right person to take him on the final steps of his healing journey, please submit your application to adopt him. You’ll be rewarded with a loving, loyal companion who will always be happy to hear about your day. But he’ll want you to listen to what he has to say about his OWN day, too. :-)
