MENTOR, Ohio (WJW) – It took five years and a village, but a sweet dog has finally found his forever home.
“It was kind of just love at first sight. So, it was very exciting,” said Cindy Sender, an adoption counselor at the Lake Humane Society in Mentor.
She says Spike, a 9-year-old pit bull mix, experienced a traumatic event five years ago that made him a little nervous and caused him to be overlooked by potential adopters.
“His family, their house had sadly burned down,” said Sender.
Spike was surrendered in 2016 and spent more than half of his life in a kennel in Youngstown until he came here to the humane society.
“A lot of the staff, our hearts were just with him so we did take him in and just with, you know, our marketing team, adoption staff, care staff, we all worked together and he did find his home and he honestly wasn’t even here a full week,” said Sender.
In honor of the “Betty White Challenge,” the staff worked hard to find Spike a loving home and their efforts paid off on the actress’s 100th birthday on Monday.
“That really also spoke to people and we had so many generous people make donations, people reach out about just animals and Betty White and the impact she made on their lives with her involvement with animal rescues,” said Sender.
Now that Spike has found a loving home, the shelter is hoping to do the same for another pit bull mix, 4-year-old Luna.
“She was originally abandoned and then found that no one could care for her,” said Sender. “Since coming to us, she’s just been a happy-go-lucky pup, wiggly, she has the biggest smile, she just loves everybody that she meets.”
Sender says Luna may prefer to be the only animal, so they have been looking for a home with only humans for almost two months now.
“That is a little bit of a longer stay for us,” Sender said.
But they are determined to help her and all of the other animals that come through their doors find a loving home all year round.
“Keep in mind that every day there are animals that still need a home and every day you can make a difference in an animal’s life,” she said.
If you want to learn more about adopting Luna or another animal with the Lake Humane Society, you can visit their website.