Black dog wasn't getting adopted likely due to color
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00:00 He was dumped from a car.
00:01 Luckily, a good Samaritan brought him to the animal shelter.
00:04 And at no fault of his own or the shelter's,
00:08 it was just overcapacity.
00:09 He was at the shelter, I think, 67 days,
00:12 living in a crate for about 23 hours a day.
00:14 While I was volunteering at the shelter,
00:15 I remember another volunteer saying,
00:17 "He's so good and there's been no interest."
00:20 And that's when I learned about something
00:21 like the black dog syndrome,
00:23 where black dogs spend up to four times longer in shelters.
00:26 And it was just surprising
00:28 that no one had showed interest in him.
00:30 And so I was like, "Let's do it."
00:31 I'm a working mom.
00:32 I already have two dogs at home.
00:34 It is a full house,
00:35 but we are happy to provide him a really loving home.
00:38 He met my kids, he met my husband, he met my dogs,
00:40 and then we decided to foster him.
00:42 And in record time, we foster failed. (laughs)
00:46 We went to a meet and greet with our veterinarian.
00:50 And the very first meet and greet,
00:51 it was found that he needed surgery on both of his legs.
00:55 And we did physical therapy after the surgery.
00:58 (dog whining)
00:59 He got out of physical therapy early and is doing great.
01:02 His expression, his eyes,
01:04 everyone says that bully mixes are like a land seal
01:06 mixed with a hippo,
01:07 but I swear there's a little bit of teddy bear in him also.
01:10 One of the best pieces of advice I was given
01:13 was just the information about decompression
01:15 for shelter dogs and how important it is.
01:20 All right, so I had signed a foster application
01:23 and someone actually fostered him right before me.
01:25 And they brought him back the next day.
01:28 I think that there was some stress there,
01:30 but how important decompression is for a shelter animal
01:33 and allowing them space, time, patience.
01:37 In the beginning, I wanted to provide him all the resources
01:40 to be his best self.
01:41 He slept a lot.
01:42 And then he folded in with our family really, really well.
01:55 His little spunky, lazy couch potato personality came out.
01:59 It was fantastic.
02:00 Rick, he's a boss.
02:01 He's incredibly friendly.
02:03 He loves kids.
02:05 He's not a jumpy guy.
02:06 He walks really well on a leash.
02:08 He is a dog of good fashion.
02:10 He's really calm.
02:11 He is really open to getting all the pets
02:14 he can possibly get.
02:15 I love him so much.
02:16 And I just think he's done so much for me.
02:19 And he's done a lot for my family.
02:21 My kids love to, we go on family walks together
02:24 and it has created another form of connection
02:27 and it's given them some responsibilities.
02:30 He makes me so happy.
02:31 I hope he knows how loved and safe he is.
02:35 I love that dog.
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