When you move in together with a significant other, your life changes greatly. Recently Jessica Williams did this with her boyfriend Jared and the building they moved into allowed dogs so you know that was high on their priority list.
Originally Jared told Jessica they would get a dog for her birthday in November but that’s a million years away in dog years so she figured why not just look.
(Trust me never just look, it’s a gateway.)
Jessica didn’t get a chance to hear my advice though, and she began perusing different shelter websites in preparation for November.
That’s when she saw Benji. He was a stray that had been found in Los Angeles and was taken to a shelter nearby.
He was very scared of people and if anyone passed by his cage he would snap and growl. On top of that he also had a bad flea allergy which was causing him to lose his hair. Even though there were red flags, Jessica couldn’t stop thinking about little Benji.
She told The Dodo:
“He was at the shelter for 10 days and wasn’t handling it well. He would snarl and snap at people as they walked by. I had never seen a sadder dog and knew we couldn’t leave him there.”
The couple were in Sacramento, but knew they needed to drive the six hours to rescue this poor little guy. Once they got to the shelter, even the staff tried to tell them Benji wasn’t suitable for them. Jessica went onto say:
“The shelter also told us he wasn’t friendly and refused to take us into a calm waiting area to get to know him because ‘he wouldn’t be a dog that would come over to us to be cuddly.’ We knew that he had a high possibility of being euthanized and didn’t want him to die.”
They heeded the warnings of staff and eventually began the journey home with Benji in the car. At first Benji was very confused, as would any dog, to be traveling with strangers in a moving box.
The first few days at home were rough but the new family of three kept trying. Eventually he began to show signs of happiness…
Speaking of the transformation they saw in Benji, Jessica said:
“He loves to come up and lick our faces and play with his toys. He is such a goofball now! He has crazy zoomies after he gets bathed. He will also start barking the second we get in the car as if to say, ‘We have to start moving! Let’s go!’”
This just goes to show you that dogs just aren’t born bad. With the right amount of love and care, any dog can understand that humans just want to love them. Once they figure that out they are more than ready to reciprocate.
If you are looking to adopt a pup in your area, take a look at Facebook pages in your area or look at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals here.