Zeeva Chocolate Labrador Retriever Female 9 Years Old ID #2879

Zeeva, a nine year old, chocolate Labrador, along with her three “sisters,” came into Brookline’s care as an owner surrender.  Due to some life changes, Zeeva’s family could no longer care for her, and contacted Brookline to help find Zeeva, and her “sisters” new homes.  Zeeva is currently in foster care.  Please read her blog from the bottom up.

April 10, 2021

Zeeva continues to thrive in our home. She was diagnosed with Lyme disease and has started a regimen of doxycycline. Within the first few days of being on the medication, we already saw a difference in her speed and agility. She was getting up quicker, and would come when called much faster than before. She must have been in a lot of pain in her hips and knees as a result of the Lyme. Our walks are getting longer and quicker, although they’re by no means “fast”! Zeeva is still great on the leash, she is content to walk beside whoever is with her and even if she spots a squirrel or a rabbit she’ll stop to look, but she won’t try to run after it. The one exception are bees, she loves to chase them!

All Zeeva wants is to be with people. She’s content to sit at our feet while we’re watching tv, or lay on the kitchen floor while we’re cooking. She gets so excited when someone comes home, or even in from another room and she does the cutest little tap dance when she’s excited.

Zeeva has gotten into a nice routine each day. In the morning our resident lab, Zeeva and I go out so they can go potty while I drink my coffee on the patio. Once they’re done and they do a quick lap of the yard, they’re ready to go back in. While they don’t play together, they are tolerant of each other unless Zeeva feels like our lab is getting too excited and she’s not comfortable. When that happens she gives a little growl and he knows to give her some space. Otherwise, they’ll lay next to each other and fetch the ball together in the yard. He does get a little jealous when she steals his favorite teddy bear.

In the evenings she eats dinner, then gets her medicine. She prefers a walk after dinner to playing in the yard, but once we come back she’s all tuckered out and she lays on the floor as we all watch tv. Within minutes she’s snoring away and will only wake when we get up to go to bed – then she’s out again like a light.

April 3, 2021

Zeeva has doing really well acclimating to our home this past week. On Wednesday we visited the vet and confirmed what we all knew, that this lady needs to lose a few pounds! Zeeva was so sweet and well behaved at the vet, she loved every minute from the car ride there to all of the attention she got from the vet and the technicians.

Earlier in the week, Zeeva got her care package from Brookline and even though up until now she hasn’t shown much interest in any toys besides tennis balls, a stuffed pink dinosaur has stolen her heart! She loves to carry it around and lay with it at night.

Zeeva is doing great on her walks, and the extra exercise seems to be great for her hips, as she’s having less trouble getting up after laying down. With our success on walks, we tried Zeeva on the stairs yesterday and she handled them like a champ! She took her time, but went up and down with no trouble or pain.

Zeeva adapts to routines very quickly, she’s a smart girl who learns easily and is very food motivated – she even started to ring the bell on the back door to let us know that she needed to go outside. Zeeva’s favorite evening routine is to lay in the kitchen while we make dinner. With all of her newfound exercise, though she’s often so tuckered out she falls asleep and snores away while we cook.

March 29, 2021

Zeeva continues to feel more and more comfortable with us, she is a great dog and a perfect first foster for our family. She has some weight to lose, so we have been going for several short walks a day. She usually makes it about 6 blocks around our neighborhood at a slow pace. She loves walking and is a dream on a leash.

Zeeva gets so excited when we get the leash out, she starts hopping and wiggling her butt; but once we’re on our way, she’s quite content to take it slow and just look around. Today we played ball in the back yard with our resident two year old lab, but we had to use two tennis balls, since the 2 year old beat poor Zeeva to the ball every time. Zeeva is such a love and soaks up all of the attention from everyone in the house.

March 28, 2021

Zeeva cried a bit at when we went to bed last night, but she was so exhausted from the day, she fell asleep fairly quickly. She was finally comfortable enough to lay on her bed as long as my 10 year old son was next to her giving her some love. Her favorite toys are clearly tennis balls, she lights up whenever you have one in your hand, and has little interest in bones or tug toys. She is such a sweet girl, she gets so excited for pets and butt rubs (her favorite). She grunts when you give her good ear scratches and leans into your hand, and just gets so excited that she can barely contain herself whenever she sees anyone coming that might pet her.

She seems to be having some trouble getting up from a laying position, something I’ll talk about with the vet when we go on Wednesday.

March 27, 2021

Zeeva had a very eventful day today! She was great on the car ride and soaked up all of the pets from my son as she rode to our house.

Once she came home with us, she took some time scoping out the house and finding all of the comfy spots where she can lay. She had a great time playing ball outside with our resident 2 year old lab and meeting all the neighbors.

She had a bath in the sunshine and then got to chase a ball as she dried off. She is great with everyone, and just wants lots of ear and butt rubs!