Names: Zao (6 y/o) & Marco (3 y/o)
Family Members: David & Shelby, Starla - pittie sister, Pumpkin - golden/chow mix foster sister, Kona - kitty sister
How long have Zao and Marco been in the family? Zao - 5 years & Marco - 2 years
Professions: Carpenter for Gwinnett County Parks and Teacher at Treehouse Academy
Location: Snellville, GA
Nicknames: Every day we have new "nicknames" for the boys..most are too silly to say! Zanzabar and Marky Larky are just two.
5 of the best words/phrases that best describe Zao & Marco:
Zao:
- Snuggly
- Pitiful
- Plump
- Gentle
- Catlike
Marco:
- Playful
- Pitiful
- Social
- Silly
- Lovable
What makes Zao and Marco unique? Zao truly believes he is an 85lb cat. He loves to lay on the arms of couches or your lap at any means necessary. Though the process can be tricky, once he gets comfy he's the best snuggler around. Marco is the social butterfly of the bunch. He enjoys playing with all the animals of the pack equally but is particularly fond of Ms. Pumpkin.
The boys with their pack!
Rescue Story: Zao was actually spotted by my husband at work one day. He was doing work in a park and saw this handsome pup in the playground area. Due to being on the clock at the time he vowed that if the pup was still there at quitting time, he would bring him home with him. Sure enough, Zao was there, playing with the kids who just loved him to pieces! David brought him home and he and Starla have been inseparable ever since!
Marco was found when he was dodging traffic on Five Forks Trickum in Lawerenceville. We took him in and cleaned him up. We looked up the owner's info through a rabies tag. When we attempted to return him home, the owner just didn't seem committed to him anymore; like she was fed up of his fence jumping adventures. So we decided he was meant to be ours. We learned more about his fence jumping a few years later when he got out of our own yard! After a horrific 9 days of missing him and exhausting all efforts to find him, a wonderful family from Grayson called saying they had our baby! He had made the nearly 3 mile trek to Yellow River Park where this loving family knew he had a home somewhere and didn't want him to fall into the wrong hands. We have had to make a lot of adjustments in our lives to accommodate this little rascal, but he is worth every single one!
Zao on his ride to his forever home!
Hello my new family!
What is your favorite pastime as a family? On the weekends, we love taking the pups to Stone Mountain Park for hikes and a picnic lunch! They love playing in the creek and getting a "special" lunch. It's also nice to get to show off how mild mannered and lovable they are to passerbys!
What is life like since you rescued Zao & Marco? We feel like every dog we have is special and they were meant to be ours. With 4 dogs and a cat, our house feels full to the max at times but each one adds such a wonderful element to the mix! Zao and Marco have the loving family they may have never got to experience and I am so glad they found their way into our lives.
Photographers Note: It's always fun for me when working with multi-dog packs. The opportunity to sit back and observe the different personalities and how it all works together is really interesting to me. Zao who is sweet as can be but content to wander about and do his own thing; not that focused on the new person in his yard (unless there were treats involved of course). In fact, he was more focused on my bag that had the treats in it, then me! That all being said he was a fantastic subject to take photos of because he is so laid back and very food motivated! Marco on the other hand, is that little brother with all kinds of energy and just wants to play, play, play! Very social as Shelby said and not as food motivated so getting him to sit still took some doing by David and Shelby. He just made me laugh with all of his antics and such a happy boy!
When David had mentioned there family Christmas photo last year were basically outtakes of them wrestling with the 4 pups while the camera was on a timer (now that I would love to see), I was really thrilled to be able to get this family photo of them! Such a good looking group; all humans and dogs are looking at the camera and eyes open!!