Funny how it goes some times

We had a few dogs become available for adoption today. There were brought in as relinquishments this past Saturday. There is a pit mix, a chow mix, a samoyed, and of course a lab type mix. All of the animals seem very socialized and of course loved but there are always those reasons that they are brought in. Recently it seems more and more that they are here because families are loosing their homes.

One story that stood out to me from the group of new arrivals was the lab mix named T.J. He is a sweet and skittish boy that physically reminds everyone at the shelter of a long termer named Arnie. As soon as you relate him to our buddy the immediate fear of having this poor guy at the shelter for six months sets in. A little history on our new friend. His original owner had him for two years and was moved from state to state until she was deployed overseas for the military. Luckily she had her brother take T.J. until she got back. Three years later she came back and was unable to find him a new home. The really sad part is, the last three years the brother really didn't want the dog, and because he had wood floors decided to keep T.J. outdoors 24 hours a day. Makes me tear up every time I think about that poor dog out there by himself, especially after being an INDOOR dog with the man's sister. Anyways, we got him here at the shelter and his first few days were tough. He was very fearful and every time you put a harness around him he would whine. Rather than be aggressive he was completely shutting down. Not sure if it was learned helplessness or what, but all we could do was wait to see if he came around. Because of all of his issues and his tough life it made us stress out even more that due to our previous experience with Arnie this poor guy would be here forever.

Right as we opened there was a call for a showing with our new friend. It was a woman that had been in several times this past week and had read T.J.'s profile on the computer but didn't get to see what he looked like because there was no picture. I spoke with her at length about T.J.'s history and how he has improved since first coming into the shelter but still needed a lot of work. I did the showing in his kennel to try not to overstimulate him with new people. The woman had recently lost her dog of 15 years and finally thought it was time for a new partner. She fell in love with T.J. and he fell in love with her. He was attached to her hip the entire showing and of course she felt the same way and wanted to adopt. Unfortunately he still needed his medical intake done which I had no idea about but it turns out he is good to go except for an ear infection. A great adoption and certainly put a smile on my face and a few tears in more than one person. T.J. will finally have a forever home that will take him everywhere his new mom goes.

The picture up top, as you can guess, is T.J., he will be going home tomorrow afternoon once all of his ear meds are taken care of. Thanks for reading everyone and I really hope some more stories like this occur sooner than later. I look forward to your comments and to all of the great hearts out there helping animals around the world, keep your heads up, you are appreciated more than you know.