Neglected Eenior Dog is so Happy to Be Loved

Ziggy was found abandoned in Texas. I'm Isabel and this is Ziggy's story for GeoBeat. A New York City-based rescue, Waggy Tail Rescue, pulled him up here and placed him in an amazing foster home. About a month later, I adopted him. I always knew I wanted a dog, but I never imagined that I would receive so much love in return from a dog. He's always just so excited to see me and sometimes he gets so excited that he goes and he eats his food that's been out the whole time I was gone. He waited for me to come home. He had a rat tail and pretty soon, with some love and care, his tail blossomed. I don't know exactly how long he was on his own. I think he lived in some sort of household at some point just because he's so well-behaved indoors. But what I do know for sure is that he wasn't getting the care he deserved in that house. He had a thyroid condition that they were quickly discovered once he was in shelter care and none of that was being treated and he was underweight. So wherever he was, they weren't taking the care of him they should. He is getting used to the New York winters. He's pretty good at being outside when it's already snowed, but he doesn't like when it is snowing. A lot of the times I will just pick him up, carry him under an umbrella to the nearest awning or scaffolding I can find, let him do his business and bring him right back inside. But it's hard for him because he does need some exercise each day even though he's older, he's still pretty spry. The best thing I've learned to do is to let him run back and forth. This started when I had broken my foot pretty soon after adopting him and I felt so bad that he couldn't go on full-length walks and it made me so emotional that he ran so excitedly both towards our home, our door, and then back towards me when I called. When I took him in for his first vet appointment, his vet showed me kind of a little teeny bit of fur that was coming out about an inch below Ziggy's tail and she said that's where his tail is going to start. And I didn't believe her, I thought she was joking. He was a senior dog, there was no way he could reverse and regrow all this fur but slowly but surely his tail basically blossomed. I was just in disbelief. He just came back to life and he kind of aged backwards. A lot of people call him Benjamin Button and now even though he's a senior dog he looks like a puppy so I like to say he's getting his second chance at his puppy years.