Human: Marty and Kelly
Canine: Shockey
Location: Liberty Humane Society, Jersey City, NJ
Type: Pointer / American Pit Bull Terrier mix
Our Story:
We were looking for a dog to adopt and wanted to rescue one from a shelter. I was browsing through the petfinder website and every picture I saw just broke my heart. There were so many homeless pit bulls, that’s when we decided we were going to give one a second chance.
I started looking in the classifieds online and the very first listing was for an adorable 2 year old white and tan pit bull. His eyes were full of sadness and he was too skinny. I had to go see him. He ran right up to us barking in his cage in the shelter and my now husband was a little taken back. I asked if we could take him out and the attendant said sure!
Doughboy, as he was called, was found as a stray and was absolutely sweet. When my husband knelt down to pet him he gave him a kiss on the face and we fell in love right then and there. We threw him a tennis ball and he ran and brought it back to us. There was no way we were leaving without signing the paperwork to adopt him.
It was a long weekend but the day came when we were supposed to go bring him home and the adoption counselor called us with some bad news. The shelter gave him his shots and his blood test came back positive for heartworm. She told us that the shelter cannot provide the expensive treatment, and that we as the potential adopters would be responsible. She told us they would understand if we had to go back on the adoption list, but also added that if he doesn’t get adopted soon then he would have to sadly be put down because the disease would be slowly killing him.
My heart immediately sank but there was only one option. We were not going to turn our back and leave him to his doomed fate. The counselor was touched by our decision because Doughboy was her favorite and she wanted to see more than anything to see him go to a good home.
It’s going on three years and Shockey has had a clean bill of health and he has brought nothing but happiness and love to our home. He has such a personality and is a complete moosh. He is our heart.
