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The length an animal stays at an animal shelter varies and their time is impacted by various factors.
If the animal is young and can live with children or other animals, the chances of them finding a forever home are much greater than a senior dog that might take a little longer to warm up to people or another animals.
When Higgins first showed up at the Humane Society of Preble County, he was on the older side, a year old. Statistically, he still had a good chance of getting adopted, but as time went on his chances grew slimmer and slimmer until Brendon Reed walked through the front door.
“He just seemed so cute … I don’t know how he didn’t get adopted,” he told The Dodo.
Higgins first arrived at the shelter in Ohio when he was a puppy and the German Shepherd was adopted quickly.
“We heard he was nothing more than a dog chained up to a dog house,” Leslie Renner, the executive director of the shelter, told The Dodo. “About a year later, someone walked in with a stray dog — and it was him.”
Nobody came to retrieve him. As animals went home to their forever homes, Higgins remained at the Humane Society of Preble County.
“Why don’t you just put him to sleep?”
It was a question that Renner said was brought up often. Weeks turned into months, which turned into years.
Suddenly, it had been six and a half years since the German Shepherd arrived.
There was nothing wrong with Higgins, per se. As time went on, his chances of being adopted went down simply because he was transitioning into the senior dog category.
“His face always had such a worried look on it that he was a little intimidating when he was in his kennel,” Renner said. “People just walked past him.”
But then one day Brendon Reed walked into the shelter looking for a companion.
“I work for a felony re-entry organization, and we’re all about giving guys a second chance who haven’t gotten that from normal society,” Reed told WDTN. “And Higgins, I don’t know how he hadn’t been adopted yet, because he’s such a sweet dog. But I just wanted to give him a second chance because he’s been there for so long.”
Finally, after spending the majority of his life in a shelter – 2,381 days, a record for the shelter – he found his forever home.
“He is just so happy, it’s kind of crazy,” Reed said. “He just likes to chillax.”
The longer Higgins stayed at the animal shelter, the less chance he had of getting adopted.
There was nothing “wrong” with him, he just wasn’t a young pup anymore. But Brendon Reed didn’t see that as a problem. He wanted to give Higgins a second chance at life.
Pass this story on if you don’t care how old a dog is, if they’re in need, you’ll give them a home.
