Lionel's Legacy Senior Dog Rescue

At Lionel’s Legacy Senior Dog Rescue, we believe love has no age limit. Our mission is to ensure senior dogs receive the care, dignity, and devotion they deserve in their golden years.

We specialize in rescuing and rehoming senior dogs, those often overlooked in shelters simply because of their age. These incredible companions still have so much love to give, and we are committed to finding them safe, loving homes where they can thrive. For those in their final chapter, we provide compassionate hospice care, ensuring they experience comfort, stability, and unconditional love in their remaining days.

But our work goes far beyond rescue.

Through our Keeping Pets HOME program, we provide financial assistance to help aging pets stay with the families who love them most. When unexpected medical expenses threaten to separate a senior dog from their person, we step in to bridge the gap—keeping beloved companions where they belong: at home.

Our Always HOME program ensures that senior pets are protected even after the unimaginable happens. When an owner passes away or becomes too ill to continue care, we step in to take those beloved pets into our rescue, honoring the promise that they will always have a safe place to land.

We also support senior humans through our Home away from HOME program, offering emergency temporary boarding at no cost when an elderly owner is hospitalized or facing a short-term crisis. This allows pets and their people to be reunited once stability returns.

In addition, we operate Free to Chew, our low-cost community dental clinic. We provide comprehensive dental care, including pre-dental exams and lab work to ensure pets are healthy and safe for procedures. We also now offer low-cost advanced diagnostics such as echocardiograms and ultrasounds, making critical medical care more accessible.

By combining rescue, prevention, and affordable medical support, Lionel’s Legacy creates a true safety net for senior pets and the families who cherish them.

He was in terrible shape when he joined us and wasn’t given much time to live,

But his spirit and will amazed and inspired us all. Lionel, originally known as Sad Lionel Boy, came to It’s the Pits dog rescue from a shelter in Los Angeles at the age of 15. He was extremely thin, barely able to walk, infested with fleas and worms, and his ear canals sealed shut from chronic and untreated ear infections. Lionel truly was sad as he gazed into our eyes. We could hear Sad Lion Boy saying, “Why? Why didn’t they take care of me? What did I do wrong? Ok, so I barked a little.”

We decided to take him into our home as a foster dog. He was afraid and untrusting at first but over time Lionel learned we were here to love and care for him. We realized Sir Lionel would stick around for a while when he began to eat, and eat, and eat … like a lion! In fact, when he smelled someone else eating, he started barking for their food too. When he gained enough strength he was finally able to walk down the street, pulling in search of smells and spots to mark his territory. Curious, our senior cat Hercules decided to join us on our daily walks. Lionel and Hercules hit it off and although they were quite the odd couple they became the best of friends walking up and down the street together. Every once in a while, our daughters would hop on their scooters and join us for our walks, Lionel would get so excited that he would take off in a sprint after them. Of course, he’d be done after 100 feet or so, but he showed that he still had the will to live and thrive.