Woman's love for shelter dog ends unexpectedly
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00:00 I started volunteering at my local SPCA and a staff member said, "Have you met Otis yet?"
00:05 And I just instantly fell in love with him.
00:08 Otis came from a family that had a house fire.
00:10 They could no longer keep him and that's why he was in the shelter.
00:13 I walked him every single day.
00:14 He was the easiest dog to walk.
00:16 He was so gentle.
00:17 He was so sweet.
00:18 He was so unique looking.
00:20 I've never seen a dog like him.
00:21 It almost looked like all he did was bodybuilding, but he was just such a sweetheart.
00:26 You could tell that he had some separation anxiety.
00:29 He was whiny when you would leave and he was just so happy to see people.
00:34 He was just waiting for a home or his next walk with a volunteer.
00:38 I would come up to his cage and he instantly knew that we were going on a walk.
00:41 He started to recognize me.
00:42 [dog barking]
00:45 There would be nights where I would come home and I would genuinely cry thinking about the
00:49 fact that while I was home, he was just sitting in that cooped up cage.
00:54 The shelter, it's the SPCA of Southwest Michigan in Kalamazoo.
00:57 They are so incredible with the dogs and they have such a great volunteer program to make
01:01 sure these dogs are as happy as possible.
01:03 I could just tell the minute he would get outside, he was like a different dog in the
01:07 best way.
01:08 You could tell he didn't want to go back inside.
01:09 He just wanted to stay out and play and enjoy what a normal dog enjoys.
01:13 Seeing him get the zoomies and just de-stress and let it all out and be so happy was, I
01:20 don't know, it just made me happy because I knew that I was making him happy by going
01:24 there and taking him outside.
01:26 He hadn't had a whole lot of interest, but I do remember there was a day that I came
01:30 in and he was being looked at and my heart kind of dropped in a happy and sad way.
01:34 I knew that the minute he got home, I would be so thrilled.
01:37 Of course, that's what I wanted for him, but selfishly, I knew I would miss him.
01:41 I remember that his family, they were about to take him home and they realized that they
01:45 couldn't have him where they were living.
01:47 He went back into his kennel and I took him outside right after that.
01:50 I made it a daily ritual while he was in the shelter that I still go as frequently as
01:54 possible, but when he was there, if I had something from 9am to 7pm, I would be there
02:00 at 8am just to get him out quickly.
02:02 I think about it and I get emotional because I just loved him so much.
02:06 My entire family, extended family, my boyfriend, my boyfriend's family, all my friends knew
02:10 about him.
02:11 Everybody would come and meet him.
02:13 My mom would joke around and call him a sweet potato.
02:16 The more I got to know him, the bigger his personality became.
02:19 I'll never forget two months into knowing him, I took him outside and it was like after
02:23 a rainy day.
02:24 So the play yards were kind of muddy and he got the zoomies and he accidentally ran and
02:30 he sweeped me off my feet.
02:32 I landed straight on my back and I was so embarrassed.
02:35 I got up and I'm like looking around, making sure nobody saw it, but it was just, he was
02:38 just so happy.
02:39 He came out of his shell.
02:40 I was going to adopt Otis for the longest time, but I couldn't have him at the place
02:44 that I had lived at the time and I was moving in June.
02:47 So the whole thing was if he didn't get adopted by June, I would take him home, but he got
02:52 adopted in May.
03:00 (upbeat music)