Today’s Feel Good Fur-Day is quite the tail, er, tale about recent adoptee Billy’s journey to his new home. Billy is a now 3-month-old German Shepherd mix. Let’s hear it from one of his new humans:

“I was there on a Sunday night, five minutes to closing. Yep, that person.” Having recently said goodbye to a beloved pet two weeks prior, she continued, “My daughter had been wanting another dog, but neither my husband nor I felt ready. We talked about what we’d look for when we were ready: between 2 to 4 years old, maybe a German Shepherd or one of those wiry Benji-looking dogs, ideally with a snaggle tooth or something. I’d been on Petfinder, various rescue sites, and your website. There were a few adults I was interested in, but they couldn’t go to a home with either cats, dogs, or kids, or they were older than my heart could handle. We’ve said goodbye to three senior dogs in the span of four years, and that was hard! I had them all for 10 to 12 years, and that wasn’t enough time.

A girlfriend and I were in St. Cloud on Sunday running errands. She asked if I wanted to see some dogs — just to see how it felt. We would only have five minutes. I said sure, five minutes, in and out. In Kennel 3, we saw Billy, the last of his litter. He seemed shy, scared, and sweet. The amazing kennel worker there let us sit in a room with him — just to see. He crawled right into my lap. He didn’t romp around; he just snuggled in.

Years ago, that’s what my Annabelle did. She was my heart dog. I was working at AHS when she was part of a cruelty case. No one would adopt her, so I wanted to sit with her for socialization. The second I set her on the floor in the visitation room, she curled right into my lap. I was not in a space to adopt, but obviously, I did anyway.

That’s when I knew Billy had to come home with us. He needed us, just like we needed him.

He has been enjoying sleeping in bed with us, helping me work, playing with our resident dog, Paul, and taking naps with my husband. We are working on his socialization. He goes everywhere with us and meets everyone.

Thank you for staying late so we could bring him home. He is coming out of his shell every day. Today, he had his first case of the zoomies.

We did change his name (sorry to the person who named him there); he is now Gustav Matthias Hanson, aka Gus, Gussie, Gus Gus, and Fuzzy Gussie. And he is perfect. And we are so happy he is now our family.”

We are so happy, too!