12/29/2025
Some have asked about Zeus. I found the original post from the beginning of his journey with me. It took a while to get him, and I thank everyone that helped.
It all started April 10, 2015
This is Zeus. He has a story to tell. In early April 2015, a poster in SC Lost Pets posted there was a dog she found and wanted to locate owner, if not, he was for sale. This outraged members as we do not support selling a lost or found dog or ridding them before attempting to reunite them. When they are offered for sale, this is a red flag for the trade of "dog flipping".
Once the feed got heated and she was questioned by many people on her true intentions, she became defensive and her story changed, numerous times. She stated she wanted him to have a home because she could not keep him. Then she said she worked for the rescue Pawmetto Lifeline and was trying to get him adopted, explaining the adoption fee and the requirement for home visits. Pawmetto immediately posted she is not in any way affiliated with them and for her to please contact them due to misinformation. Instead of backing away and disappearing, she stood ground and started changing her tactics and becoming more defensive.
This is when she posted that someone else posted those photos and him for sale that he was HER dog, her baby and family pet. He was not lost and not for sale.
Questioned further she explained that she let a coworker stay at her house and they used her page to post her dogs for sale behind her back, just moments before she started the new rant. She stated he was successful in selling one dog, her Australian Sheppard, and was waiting on an officer to call her back to file a police report. Per LCSD, no claim or police report was being made at that time. In fact, the same claim she made here was what she claimed and filed a PR on in February earlier that year. So she claimed her Aussie was still missing, stolen if you would, and to keep an eye out.
I knew the situation was grave and the dog was in danger of becoming a flip victim and offered to buy him from her. She said he was not for sale. She also stopped responding to me. So I asked other people to please message her and get her to agree to sell to them as she was avoiding those in the feed. No response.
The very next day, I was provided numerous new posts that this dog and another were both FOR SALE by her on various for sale pages. Remember, this was a friend that stole and sold one and the other was not for sale. They are both mysteriously for sale and in her hands now.
I asked others to reach in and offer to buy them both. She responded to a few of them offering the dog for sale stating he was FOUND recently. Other posts stated he was her pet and needed to go and one stated she took him from someone for $100 to get him out of the horrible conditions he was in and just wanted the $100 back. One friend that reached out to her got a response. She stated she would meet him the next day for cash at the Barnyard Flea market. Not even at his home where the dog would be. During the discussion, she mentioned two additional dogs. So she wanted to sell three now. My decoy stated he would take all three.
The next day, Saturday, April 18, 2015, she met my decoy at the Barnyard Flea Market. I was there with a LCSD K-9 officer to witness the transaction. She did not know I or the officer was present. She showed with only two dogs stating she wanted to breed the female pit-bull. She almost backed out of the Aussie as she said she wants to breed her and changed her mind. She is not spayed and appears to have had puppies.
The two dogs were A) a pit-bull AKA Zeus and B) an Australian Shepherd AKA Betty Boop. She took the $200 cash and traded the dogs with a few explanations on their condition. She stated Zeus was limping because the vet told her he had a pinched nerve (in other posts she stated he was hit by a car or something). She stated she had recently put 30 pounds on him that he was actually thinner. She stated that the Aussie was named C but the shots place has her as name D. Nothing added up. She showed the decoy Zeus' teeth explaining they were filed down a bit not to worry about biting.
After the transaction she was allowed to leave before I approached the truck to meet the dogs. Zeus was in a very small ball in the driver's seat and quiet. Boop was in the back. Being cautious I approached Zeus with my palms together and out. He dropped his head in my palms, went limp and was asleep. We were furious. I could not help but cry. He was so physically and mentally exhausted. It took great care to get him down from the truck to transfer him. He was in obvious pain and his rear legs were not functioning properly.
Once home and introducing took place to my other pets, I was able to observe his physical status. He was clearly starved and brittle. His bones and ribs were protruding and his head hard and sharp from his skull having no mass of fat or meat over it. His tail bone had no mass at all. His eyes were full of puss and swollen. He had wounds all over his muzzle and his ears were jagged and torn. He shook his head constantly. Observation showed they were packed with mites and dirt beyond seeing in his ear canals.
He would occasionally drag both back legs to the floor and pull his lower portion of his body behind him. He would not use his back end. When getting on the couch, he used his entire upper and front body to raise his back portion in full, not touching the couch with either foot. He did not want to eat but drank heavily. I had to stop his drinking to prevent bloat. His legs also shook and shivered when sitting still, signs he was clearly in pain.
The next business day was Monday, April 20, 2015. I took them both to my vet for a thorough examination and to allow documentation of his horrible condition. The doctor concluded that day:
Zeus:
ā¢ Was TWENTY (20) pound underweight minimum. He was 57 pounds and should be 80+
ā¢ Had wounds on his face and ears
ā¢ Had hook worms
ā¢ An x-ray showed pellet from being shot
ā¢ An x-ray showed a broken left femur gone untreated. This was a HARD break that would require heavy impact. It had established a messy heal and was inflicting walking difficulty, pain and muscle loss.
ā¢ His teeth were worn down from chewing on heavy metal from a chain or confinement for long periods of time. He also has two eye teeth that are almost black from wear.
* He had a large hematoma on the back of his neck indicating a very tight bind or being pinched by bites or hands.
ā¢ His 1-10 body condition was rated a 2.
ā¢ He was referred to the specialist to determine what can be done to repair or save his leg but could not have surgery or go under anesthesia until he gained much more weight as it could be deadly.
Boop:
ā¢ Determined to be 5 pounds underweight but in better condition.
ā¢ Body condition rated 6 out of 10.
The vet concluded she was filing an abuse and neglect case.
After being seen in his current condition I was able to bathe him. I had to wear a mask to prevent gagging. When I wet him he smelled of rotting flesh and road kill. He was so dirty that the first round with soap rinsed him with clean water. Knowing this was impossible I washed him again. This time the water rinsed dark brown and bloody. It took an additional bath to get him clean enough that the smell stopped and the dirty, bloody water rinsed clean. He was not a brown dog. He has a silver fawn coat.
Cleaning and treating his muzzle sores, a Q-tip was able to push through his lip. The wound punctured through his entire mouth. They were consistent with bite wounds. His ears required me to sedate him and pick the gunk out. After getting them as clean as possible, I applied antibiotic ointment to both. I repeated this treatment for four days before he started to show signs of improvement. He also stopped shaking his head and could hear my commands. His eyes also became clear and clean with no gunk or fluid buildup and swelling was gone.
I immediately began hook worm treatment and pain regimens for Zeus.
I exercised him daily and made him use his leg. He was placed on a special diet of white rice, no grain dry food and prescription moist puppy food. He began eating again over the next day. Within days he was gaining weight and the rice and puppy food stopped. He is now on a routine grain free dry food diet with my other pets.
On his follow up on May 23, 2015, he has gained 10 pounds and regained a great deal of muscle from exercise. He has improved in mobility since he is no longer confined to a pin or tied down with a chain. His head has gained an inch in size around and his bones no longer protrude from his eye sockets or top of his skull. He still has some type of parasite that has been difficult to cure. He will be placed on another round of medication.
In just under two weeks he showed vast improvements and looked healthier. In a matter of four weeks he had gained enough weight to not cause alarm when he was in public. One woman told me I should be reported for abuse of my dog when she saw him. I explained he was in my care because of someone else's abuse and he was starting to improve. She dropped her jaw and could not say anything else.
He is now healthy enough to see the specialist for advice on his leg repair.
Zeus is more mobile than ever. He can run and sit and stand more easily. He still shows resistance with the pain in his leg, but he is using it with the pain therapy and the exercise. He is a playful and very vocal boy. He is friendly and respectful of his master. He listens and obeys me well. When tempers rise he always responds fairly quickly to back down. He has learned his new name fairly quickly, so has Boop.
This same follow-up visit, I took him through PetSmart for socialization. He only barked at a very large dog that first barked at him. I was able to control him and remove him easily. He approached people gently and allowed children and adults alike to pet and interact with him. He stayed by my side and obeyed me when commanded.
Both dogs have shown amazing and quick response to proper food, care and affection. This stands to prove even further that they were neglected, abused and were treated with a cruel and malice manner. Everything this poor dog has been through and exposed to should have caused him to carry a very aggressive behavior, instead he is very docile. He makes the perfect bait dog, non-aggressive, neutered to control drive, injured to prevent retaliation and strong and large enough to maintain. He deserves better. He deserves justice.
Through investigations, information from non parties, neighbors, law enforcement and underground research, this woman is known for stealing, breeding, flipping and hoarding dogs. They are all kept in horrible conditions and she has had reports filed on her numerous times. No arrests were made. She also had to surrender a horse through Animal Control two years prior to this incident. She has filed false police reports according to her friend and neighbor. The police report she filed in February is the same story she claimed was happening now. The dog she filed as stolen in February was the one she said this week was also stolen and still missing, yet she sold her to me the next day. She will continue to ride the radar and make her income by abusing these dogs since she knows nothing will be done to stop it.
December 29, 1025
Although we lost Zeus 12/19/22, he lives on. He never needed that leg surgery because I built him back up with exercise. He was a champion for pitties, fight against abuse, children and their love of dogs and so much more.
The culprit is still actively involved in the same inexcusable activities. The LCAC leadership then and until recent change failed to do their jobs. Records were destroyed, lies were told and jobs were lost. It didnāt make up for what she got away with at their hands. Nothing will.
We strive to get more laws changed and improve ordinances and enforcing the laws on the books. Iām SC this is a huge challenge as our leadership, lawmakers, and enforcers do not hold the same values and have the same concerns as the compassionate citizens that hand them their jobs.
Until we have humans with humanity making these decisions, there will always be a need for rescues.
