Senior Dog 'Overlooked' in Shelter for 11 Years Finally Gets Forever Home

A dog has finally got her happy ending after being overlooked in the shelter for 11 years.

Pit bull Vanessa was surrendered to Villalobos Rescue Center, in Louisiana, in July 2012 when she was just a puppy, and has been waiting for the perfect home for over a decade.

"Her owner brought her in the back of a moving truck as a puppy. He didn't want to take her with him on his move," Tia Torres from Villalobos Rescue Center told Newsweek. "Plain and simple...they just didn't want her anymore. Her little life had barely started and already she was unwanted and minutes away from dying in the back of a sweltering hot box of a truck."

Elderly pit bull Vanessa was overlooked at the shelter for 11 years, but she has finally found her forever home. Villalobos Rescue Center

Thankfully, Vanessa found love and care at the Villalobos Rescue Center (VRC), a large dog rescue facility in southern Louisiana.

"We started out in the 90s as a wolf and wolfdog rescue and then added the other maligned canine to our roster: pit bulls," explained Torres. "In 2011 we relocated from California to Louisiana where we became an all-breed rescue due to the overwhelming number of displaced dogs here in the South. We currently have approximately 500 dogs."

Vanessa, who is thought to have been born in April 2012, hasn't had an easy journey to a new home. In fact, she has been overlooked for 11 years.

"It's hard to say why some dogs are noticed while others are not. No one ever applied to adopt her by no fault of her own," said Torres.

Crate-trained, friendly and well-behaved, the senior dog waited and waited but her new home didn't arrive... Until last week.

A picture of Vanessa in the shelter. After over a decade of waiting, she will go to her new forever home next week. Villalobos Rescue Center

A pet owner who has previously adopted from the VRC got in touch and applied to take on Vanessa—much to the delight of everyone who knows her.

"Vanessa is going to a former two-time adopter," said Torres. "Both of the dogs that were adopted from us have passed away from old age. She will be leaving the Big Easy and heading to Delaware next week."

Her care is covered and paid for by the VRC as part of its senior dog program, leaving her new family to concentrate on providing love and attention in her new home.

Vanessa is far from the only elderly dog who has been left without a home. Just this week Ninna's Road to Rescue in Benton, Louisiana, told Newsweek about Chloe Sue, a 16-year-old Chihuahua who was looking for a new family.

"I think many dogs get overlooked. But I don't necessarily think it has anything to do with being more desirable or not," said Torres. "I mean, we had the longest-running TV show in Animal Planet history and just because our dogs were on TV did not guarantee they would get a quick adoption. You would think they would but it wasn't always the case."

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