Meet Solo, a stray who has spent his entire life exploring Los Angeles' streets.
He finally grew too old and unwell around the age of 11 to run around the streets with the other dogs. As a result, he was forced to remain on a woman's porch until assistance arrived.
When the woman found the old dog residing on her porch all by himself, she gave him the name Solovino, which is Spanish for "he arrived alone" and implies "he lived alone."
After a few days, Solo was still living on the woman's doorstep, so she called the Rocket Dog Rescue. He was transported to San Francisco by plane after the rescue center decided to adopt him.
Solo was soon placed in a foster home, where he spent the next 1.5 years. He was adopted out on several occasions, but he was always returned.
Nobody could seem to figure out why the cute puppy wouldn't calm down until Carol Messina came across his picture online one day.
The Dodo quoted Messina, Solo's new mother, as saying, "As soon as I saw his face on their site, I wanted to love him." Being a huge "Star Wars" fan (I have a cat with the same name) when I read that his name was Solovino, I instantly thought, "Well, his name is Solo!" It turned out that his foster father had been referring to him as such. I knew it was fate. Then when I met him and saw how sad he was, I knew he was going to stay with me forever no matter what.”
Solo was quite fearful when he arrived in his new permanent home. It was understandable that he was wary of people after spending his entire life on the streets.
He put his tail between his legs for months when he first moved in with her, according to Messina. He flinched whenever someone tried to pet him and was highly non-reactive to dogs, people, and cats. His hearing and teeth were far worse than his foster parents had realized, I quickly discovered.
Because Solo was already extremely old and unwell, neither the rescue nor his foster parents were aware of his severe tooth decay or that he was almost deaf.
As he couldn't hear people approaching, he was quite scared around them and when he was touched. In addition, his tooth discomfort made it impossible for him to be excited about anything. But once his teeth were healed, Solo changed radically.
Solo now takes pleasure in running around, playing, and finding new dog friends. He appeared to have accepted that this is how his life is now and that it would always be, and as a result, he appeared to be lot happy now.
He doesn't even seem like the same dog anymore, neighbors of ours frequently remark, according to Messina. He hadn't smiled or even opened his lips to pant for months, but now he rolls around and runs across the grass at full speed a dozen times a day.
I'm pretty proud of his improvement, Messina said. He has inspired me to take in other senior dogs that need hospice care since it was the best thing I have ever done for my life.
Messina remarked, "I'm quite proud of his development. He has motivated me to adopt other older dogs that require hospice care since it is the finest thing I have ever done with my life.