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Dog Stuck In Shelter For 2,381 Days Never Gave Up Hope

I’m come to transport Higgins to his house.

Why not just put him to sleep, I ask?

Higgins, a long-term member of the shelter who had spent nearly his entire life behind kennel bars, was the subject of much discussion for Leslie Renner, executive director of The Humane Society of Preble County in Ohio, but Renner wasn’t ready to give up on the senior German shepherd.

More significantly, Higgins didn’t want to give up on trying to find a place to call home.

HUMANE SOCIETY OF PREBLE COUNTY

After being adopted right away when he was a tiny puppy, Higgins returned to the shelter in 2012 because living in his original home was anything but ideal.

About a year later, someone came in with a stray dog, and it was he, Renner told The Dodo. “We heard he was nothing more than a dog locked up to a dog house.”

She said, “Nobody ever came looking for him, nobody ever cared.”

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Renner knew she just had to be patient until the right person came along, but time and again, Higgins was passed over. Higgins was most at comfortable when there were no other animals present, which limited his pool of potential adopters.

“When he came back, he was a year old, then two, then three,” Renner said. “People are searching for pups or dogs who are 6 months old.”

Potential adopters felt Higgins had a problem after spending so much time in the shelter; why else would he stay there year after year?

People merely went past him because of the troubled expression he always had on his face when he was in his kennel, according to Renner.

FACEBOOK/HUMANE SOCIETY OF PREBLE COUNTY

Then, after Higgin had been at the shelter for 2,381 days, Brendon Reed entered and announced, “I’m come to take Higgins home.”

Renner gasped in disbelief.

FACEBOOK/HUMANE SOCIETY OF PREBLE COUNTY

“He was simply a lovely puppy,” said Reed to The Dodo. “I don’t know how he didn’t get adopted.” The 22-year-old had just purchased his first home when he came across Higgin’s photo online and heard his story.

BRENDON REED

Higgins is now enjoying napping on the couch, watching TV, running around his own backyard, and rolling in the grass after six and a half years.

Higgins is discovering what it means to have a dad who loves him and who constantly makes him feel safe and wanted, far from the pressures of shelter life.

BRENDON REED