For some shelter dogs, the wait for a forever home can be heartbreaking and seem never-ending. They see all the other animals around them getting adopted into families while they’re constantly Being ignored. However, for one lucky pup at a shelter, the wait is finally over.
As he walks out of the shelter with his new family, his tail can’t help but wag with excitement. He knows he’s found his forever home and can finally leave behind the loneliness and uncertainty of life in a shelter.
Can you imagine being the last animal left in the shelter? That was the case for one dog, who was left all alone and nearly gave up hope. But he finally got his own happy ending. Capone, a Staffordshire terrier mix, spent years waiting at the Ionia County Animal Shelter in Michigan.
“Finding someone who was willing to take him in took much longer than we anticipated,” shelter volunteer Sammie Vincent told FOX 17.
The family returned him to the shelter after a year, which broke the poor dog’s spirits.
“He lost quite a bit of weight as he just did not have the appetite he did in his home,” shelter director Carly Quinn told The Dodo. “It was very hard to get him to eat. We had to coax him daily with treats and assorted wet foods.”
“He was crestfallen.”
Capone’s fortunes didn’t improve much after he went back to the shelter. People ignored him, and others pretended to be interested only to never actually visit him again.
It got so bad that Capone became the only animal left at the shelter without a home.”All the kennels were empty except for poor, sweet Capone,” Carly remembered sadly.
Although Capone was seven years old and hadn’t yet been adopted, the shelter refused to give up on him. They published his story on Facebook in the hopes that someone would see it and be moved to adopt him. Amazingly, their plan worked perfectly—the post reached just the right people.
Ashlee Long and her husband John couple saw Capone and they were both immediately drawn to him. Ashlee expressed to FOX 17, “As soon as I laid eyes on his face, I fell in love. I couldn’t understand how he was the only dog left.”
Ashlee and her partner visited the animal shelter, where they met Capone and fell in love instantly. It was clear that Capone had been waiting for a family to call his own: “He just came up to us,” Ashlee said. “We both just kinda knelt down with our hands out for him, and he just came right up to us and started snuggling, wagging his tail, we just knew we had to take him.”
They took Capone home, and the dog gave a big smile of relief—finally knowing he was in a loving forever home.
Capone’s friends at the shelter knew he was meant for something great, and they cried tears of joy as he left the shelter for his forever home.
“I was bawling my eyes out,” Carly told The Dodo.
It took a while, but we eventually found Capone his forever home where he’ll be truly happy. Never give up hope!
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