Yesterday morning at 9:36 AM, we were contacted about a terrified bull terrier at a shelter in Covington, GA. We were sent a handful of video’s and pictures of him and our hearts broke. We quickly went to work to find a home for him as soon as his stray hold was to end on Friday, August 4th. We were in awe with the volume of messages we received with offers of help. We spent practically every moment since receiving the initial message working on this poor boy. Later yesterday afternoon, we learned that the formerly nameless scared boy was a bully we had been contacted about in October. His name was Zeus and his original owner reached out to us to tell us that she saw the heartbreaking post and recognized him. She had re-homed him to a family in Covington in November. We shared that and some other pertinent information with Newton County Animal Services. After investigating, one of the officers realized that the person who called animal control on Saturday to report a stray bull terrier was, in fact, his owner, the person who he had been re-homed too. The woman was then confronted this morning and was told she could either face a charge of abandonment or go to the shelter, surrender ownership of Zeus and pay a fee. She chose the latter, which, in turn, eliminated the stray hold, opening the door for us to pull him today. Since we now knew who the bully was, we also knew more about his history and background which enabled us to more accurately choose which home would be most ideal for him. The person we felt was best suited is a gentleman named Dan. Dan has had a bull terrier (BT)and a mini bull terrier (MBT) previously. He had to deal with the whole gambit of MBT and BT health related and behavioral issues but on top of that, what we noted most, was his caring and empathetic nature. He is a nurse by trade and just instantly made us feel like he would make Zeus feel safe and taken care of. Although we first were finalizing plans with Dan for tomorrow as soon as we learned that we could pull Zeus today, he made things work with his schedule and headed to the shelter this afternoon. Before getting there though, he messaged to say that he was going to stop and pick up some things for Zeus because a new start deserves new things. Going along with that sentiment, we all feel that Zeus deserves a total reset including a new name. Once Dan has had him for a little, he will let us know what name seems best for him and then we will make a Facebook page for this very special boy. In the meantime, we will share updates on our main page.
We’d like to note that Dan spent about 20 minutes sitting on the floor of the shelter to start to build some trust with Zeus. We saw a few small tail wags, which brought lots of tears for us (in a good way) and saw that no matter how many treats were being offered, Zeus just kept trying to head to the door, as in “get me out of here”. Dan adhered to that and they are now on their way home.
We want to thank everyone for all the care and concern and offers to help in whatever ways they could. We hope that the heartbreak that all of you experienced after seeing how petrified Zeus was at the shelter will shift to warming of your hearts as he builds trust and gets back to being the happy bully he once was.
Special thanks to Officer K. Cave-Bigley and the other staff at Newton County Animal Services for making sure to do everything possible to help Zeus.
