Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/rescue-story-gancio/

This story was originally shared on The Animal Rescue Site. Submit your own rescue story here. Your story just might be the next to be featured on our blog!

I started volunteering at the local dog shelter with no idea I’d become a proud dog mom. I just happened to have some spare time and thought it’d be a good idea to spend it surrounded by animals in need, trying to “give forward,” as they say.

Shelter dogs don’t bark, they scream. They cry so loud you can hear them from far away, as I recall driving away from the shelter with that horrible sound still clear in my ears.

Then one day I met him. He didn’t bark nor cry. He was giving up. A four-year-old pit mix with no hope. He was well-educated, could sit and give his paw, but his eyes were so sad, they broke my heart. I couldn’t understand how such a well-behaved dog was homeless and, to add to my concerns, he had already spent 21 months in the shelter as “people don’t like pit bulls and stuff…”

I went back home that night and cried out loud, my then-fiancé trying to comfort me, still unaware of the plan unfolding in my mind… I knew I’d take Chopin – now Gancio – home. No matter what…

We have two cats and my biggest fear was his incompatibility with them, as he wasn’t a pup anymore and definitely mixed with a hunting dog. Not the ideal scenario! However, they tested his cat-friendliness at the shelter and he passed it with flying colours.

It didn’t take me long to convince my fiancé to join me at the shelter and meet Gancio, and we took him home straight away. His eyes looking out of the car window and wondering what was going to be of him, after almost two years in a cage.

Once home, he showed a level of maturity beyond my comprehension and never once had a fight with my senior cats, who still look at him suspiciously but don’t mind stealing his bed from time to time.

Adopting was one of the best moves of my life and I’d do it again, a million times.

Story submitted by Ari N. in Rome, Italy. Gancio’s story was originally shared on theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com. Share your very own rescue story here!

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog