A Dog is Adopted After 7 Years in Shelter After An Emotional Discovery

One pet shelter in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, has been the home of a darling rescue dog named Ella for 7 long years. But the long wait for a happy ending is finally over – as Ella was recently adopted, and under very special circumstances at that. 

The staff at  Bloomsburg Animal Resource Center have titled this “an extremely special adoption”, and advised readers that “they might want to grab a tissue real quick for this one”.

Ella had been at the shelter for the last seven years, making her the center’s longest resident. But recently, things took a turn for the better, when Ella was spotted by Kaitlyn, a resident who quickly fell in love with the rescue pooch. When coming to the center, Kaitlyn said that her long-time furry friend, Jo, recently passed away, and now she was ready to meet a new dog.

And as soon as the two met, the match was made. It was obvious that they were meant for each other. Ella quickly made everyone know that Kaitlyn was her “human”. Usually, it wasn’t so. Ella was a victim of abuse and had a long history of fear and aggression. It would take several visits for her to get relaxed around strangers. But with Kaitlyn, this was not the case. The bond was near-instant. 

“She immediately walked over to Kaitlyn with no hesitation, allowing her to give Ella scratches and pets right away,” the staff of the adoption center said.

At the end of the adoption meeting, when Kaitlyn was about to leave, she suddenly noticed something that made her overwhelmingly emotional. What she spotted was the bandana that Ella was wearing around her neck. Her eyes welling with tears, Kaitlyn said to the staff that it was the exact bandana that belonged to her recently passed away dog, Jo. She said that after the passing, she donated all the bandanas to the center. 

“This bandana that Ella is wearing, it’s Jo’s. I donated them all here when he passed,” Kaitlyn said, quickly showing a picture of Jo wearing it. The symbolism and the connection were incredible. It was a sign that the two were meant to be together. 

When they realized what happened, the staff was moved to tears: “Out of the 20 dogs in our shelter right now, this bandana. This specific bandana. Jo’s bandana. It was on Ella.”

Later, Kaitlyn said that the bandana is a sign: “I like to think of it as Jo’s stamp of approval.”

And so it was, that after 7 long years of waiting, the kind and gentle Ella found her new forever home, and a human friend who would treat her right.

“Every morning, Ella used to pop up off her bed and greet you at the door of her kennel right away,” the staff at the Animal Resource Center said. “We’ll miss that tomorrow, it’ll be such a bittersweet moment realizing that as we pause to reflect on a few of our favorites times with Ella — but my goodness the amount of pure happiness we will feel every day knowing Ella finally got what she deserved: ELLA GOT ADOPTED.”