A shelter dog who has struggled to drum up much adoption interest has been given a boost after making a four-legged friend at the facility.
Link is a special dog. Boasting two different color eyes and a set of adorable ears that stand up, underneath his brown coat beats the heart of a survivor.
By the time Link arrived at Providence Animal Center in Pennsylvania, he had already overcome so much in his young life.
“We pulled him from a local high kill shelter called ACCT in Philadelphia,” Giana Sabatino, a shelter worker at Providence Animal Center, told Newsweek.
“When we pulled him from ACCT’s shelter, he was pretty underweight. We had to put him on a multiple feeding schedule and today he is looking much healthier.”
Even so, Sabatino said that Link has struggled to adjust to the shelter environment due to a “lack of a good routine.”
It’s not uncommon for a busy shelter environment to negatively impact a dog arriving from the outside, especially one with a past experience that’s entirely alien to everything they encounter at the facility.
A study published in the journal Physiology and Behavior found that dogs entering the shelter system had three times the level of the stress hormone cortisol in their system than those residing in standard households.
Link has been at the Providence Animal Centre for 120 days now and the worry is that if he continues to struggle to find a home, his well-being could worsen.
Sabatino said: “We think Link hasn’t been adopted yet because he needs a certain home where they will give him a good routine and for his future adopter to understand his behaviors to help him thrive in the home environment.”
Link enjoys plenty of the things you would expect a dog to enjoy.
He’s easily led by treats and enjoys playing with stuffed toys whenever he can. Something else he especially likes, however, is being around dogs.
That’s how he ended up striking up a friendship with Stryder, the dog in the video Sabatino uploaded to TikTok.
Link (left) meets Stryder (right). Staff were testing whether Link would be okay around other dogs. The answer was a resounding yes.
@giana_sabatino
In the clip, the two dogs can be seen happily playing together while an onscreen caption notes that while Link has been “overlooked at the shelter for months” the good news is that he has “made a friend.”
Sabatino said their playtime together came about as “kennel staff was doing dog testing to see if both dogs were dog friendly!”
The answer was a resounding yes. “When Link and Stryder were introduced to each other, they seemed to hit it off pretty well with each other! Romping around the pens outside and chasing each other around,” she said.
Sadly, however, the blossoming friendship between the pair has been cut short after Stryder ended up being adopted. Now the hope is that Link will be able to do the same.
“Link is best off in a quiet adult-only home with not a lot of commotion! He is required to go home with a resident dog in the home,” Sabatino said. “He would also thrive in a home where they will be patient and are willing to give him a good routine!”
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
