Mayte Garcia of Mayte’s rescue gives a kiss to Jojo, a 14-year-old Pomeranian, in the lobby of Boogie Time Las Vegas, a doggie daycare, boarding and grooming business, Wednesday, May 13, 2020. Garcia adopted the special-needs dog from a rescue in Tampa, Fla.
Saturday, May 16, 2020 | 2 a.m.
Now at her new home in Las Vegas and healthy and loved, little Jojo was facing a dangerous situation when her former owner surrendered her to an animal shelter in Tampa, Fla.
The Pomeranian still looked like a stuffed animal, but a ragged secondhand one that probably wouldn’t pass muster at a thrift store.
She was flea and tick-ridden, missing fur and had severe pneumonia. She appeared to be suffering seizures. She was paralyzed in her hind legs. Her teeth were diseased and she had a heart murmur.
“In the past, a dog like this would have been euthanized,” said Scott Trebatoski, director of Hillsbourough County’s Pet Resource Center. “I think five to seven years ago a dog as old as 14, dragging its hind legs, they would have just said there’s nothing we can do. Nobody will want it.”
Trebatoski said the county tried to think more “outside the box” now. “We try to say, ‘Well, who’s really judging that? Let’s at least try first’.”
So they tried. But the county shelter is not equipped to handle special-needs dogs for very long. They quickly put out an email blast to a network of 125 animal rescues with Jojo’s picture and medical history attached.
Lisa Letson, with True & Faithful Pet Rescue Mission, replied that she was willing to take a shot with Jojo. The nonprofit rescue specializes in senior dogs.
“She was very broken,” Letson said. “She had basically bed sores, from not walking.”
Letson, who left a job as a nurse to run the Venice, Fla.-based rescue full time, was up for three nights giving Jojo breathing treatments and intravenous fluids.
Jojo showed a will to survive and perked up, Letson said. “Turns out she was a sassy little thing.”
That was half the battle. The other half was finding a home for a 14-year-old dog with paralyzed legs.
Mayte Garcia, a professional dancer and actor, adopted her first senior dog in 2017. Ziggy had been left in a box on the roadside in nearly as bad of shape as Jojo was.
When Ziggy was nursed back to health, People magazine wrote about him becoming the mascot for Garcia’s own animal rescue in Las Vegas, Mayte’s Rescue. Garcia was at the time coming off three seasons of the cable reality series Hollywood Exes and had just released a book, “The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince,” about her professional relationship and then four-year marriage to Prince.
Ziggy died last August, but Garcia has a special fondness for senior dogs now.
“When I had Ziggy, there was just a connection,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s because they know someone had given up on them, or because they’re older and they know how to tell you what they’re feeling, but it’s a sense of gratitude you feel.”
When Letson sent Garcia pictures of Jojo, she couldn’t resist. Garcia flew east from Las Vegas in late February to give a belly dancing class, and returned home with Jojo tucked in her sweater — she’d only paid the airline for one dog but had two with her.
Jojo didn’t look like the sick dog from the photos. “She looked like a little teddy bear,” Garcia said. “She doesn’t even look real.”
The dog gained weight and grew back her fur. She hasn’t had any seizures.
There was one more surprise to come: Garcia received a wheelchair for Jojo from Walkin’ Pets. The dog took to the chair right away and started walking. After some time, Jojo started walking — slowly — without it.
“Somehow the chair made her stronger,” Garcia said. “Now she follows me.”
Garcia has three senior dogs now. The others are Tulip, a chihuahua with no lower jaw, and Zuli, a yorkie. She calls the trio “the golden girls.” Garcia has caught Jojo snuggled up with her 100-pound German shepherd.
“It’s rewarding to know those last years are filled with love,” Garcia said. “And they’re going to go out feeling loved.”
Puppies are always adopted first from shelters. Geriatric dogs have traditionally been the most difficult to find homes for, though Trebatoski said that attitudes about older dogs have changed in recent years.
Some families prefer to bypass the constant supervision a puppy needs. Some like a pet that may have mellowed a little with age. Some believe an older dog might be more accustomed to living in a home with a family, and will therefore adjust to a new situation more easily.
“I’d say 9 out of 10 geriatric dogs leave our shelter now,” Trebatoski said. “It’s good to know there are people out there who understand that though they might not have many years, they are potentially really good years.”
