When an animal control officer arrived at Louisiana’s DeRidder Animal Pound one day last November, he found a young pit bull mix waiting outside.
The dog was tied up at the entrance, right in front of a sign that read, “Do Not Drop Off At Gate.”
No one
knew how long the dog had been sitting there. She may have spent the entire weekend there, waiting for someone to find her.
The animal control officer brought her inside, but resources were limited at the small municipal pound, and the dog — later named Snow White — would need someone to step forward if she was going to get her second chance.
Luckily, it didn’t take long for people to notice her.
Volunteers from Seventh Heaven Rescue, a New York-based group that helps at-risk dogs in Louisiana, visited Snow White at the pound and immediately fell in love with her. They knew they couldn’t leave her behind.
“When Snow White first came into our care, she was very dirty, covered in fleas, soaking wet, and had been spayed the day before,” Jana Reiss, president and cofounder of Seventh Heaven Rescue, told The Dodo. “She was not underweight, thankfully, but she was in no condition to be recovering from surgery where she was.”
Snow White went into foster care with a family in Louisiana, and it didn’t take long for her personality to shine through.
“Emotionally, she was surprisingly open,” Reiss said. “Once she realized she was safe, she started settling in and showing us who she really was.”
Snow White quickly learned her foster family’s routine and followed them everywhere. Whenever someone was around, she wanted to be right next to them.
“We figured out she was a cuddler because she made it very clear,” Reiss said. “She wanted to be close to people.”
Soon Snow White was spending her days playing tug-of-war, making friends with other dogs and curling up beside her favorite humans.
While Snow White bonded deeply with her foster carer, her love wasn’t reserved for just one person. Snow White had a way of connecting with everyone around her, including her second foster family in New York, who, in February, took her in with a plan to keep her until she found a forever family.
“If love was being offered, she was happy to receive it,” Reiss said. “She is affectionate and people-focused, and she wants to belong.”
But finding her forever home wasn’t going to be easy since she was a pit bull mix, according to Reiss.
“Dogs like her are often overlooked before people ever get to know them,” Reiss said. “That is the ugly truth. A lot of people make assumptions based on appearance or breed instead of looking at the actual dog in front of them.”
While Snow White waited for the right family, the best possible thing happened — her foster family in New York realized they couldn’t part with her.
“We were holding each other strong to be able to give her up to another home,” Ronna Neal, Snow White’s new mom, told The Dodo. However, Neal said that she and her husband ultimately “could not bear to let her go.”
“She was so comfortable and we knew her little quirks … and we felt it would have hurt her to be moved once again,” Neal said. “She trusted us.”
Reiss was delighted that Snow White finally found her forever home.
“They have fallen head over heels in love with her,” she said about Snow White’s new family. “They can't bear the thought of losing her, so they have decided to adopt her.”
“I am so incredibly happy for her,” Reiss added, “because she absolutely loves her life now.”
