For too long, Cutty knew the pain of being unwanted.
But after three years in a shelter, the lonely 7-year-old pit bull finally found his forever home last week.
“Everyone was so excited he got adopted,” said West Columbia Gorge Humane Society dog shelter manager Sara Bertrand. “We’re all very happy that he is out of here. We miss him, but it’s a good miss.”
Dumped in the woods in December 2011 when his owner went to jail, Cutty was rescued by the Humane Society. A year after arriving at the nonprofit, no-kill Washougal shelter, a family adopted Cutty. Six months later, however, they brought him back, saying the situation just wasn’t working out.
Month after month, visitors came to the shelter to adopt dogs and cats. But nobody picked Cutty, whose skin allergies and hip deformity require a special diet and ongoing veterinary care.
Two more years passed. Kind-hearted shelter staff members doted on the sweet, goofy dog, taking him out for ice cream, car rides and overnight slumber parties to give him a break from the stress of shelter life.
“We did what we could to make him comfortable and happy,” Bertrand said. “We were sad that he never got looked at, but he was kind of like our dog. Everybody loved him. We all spoiled him.”
By the time Vancouver resident Avery Kennedy showed up at the shelter in October, Cutty had been there more than three years, longer than any other dog. A friend who volunteered at the shelter had sent 45-year-old Kennedy a photo of Cutty.
Still grieving over the recent death of her pit bull, Linus, Kennedy didn’t feel ready for another dog, but she couldn’t get Cutty out of her mind. It broke her heart thinking about how long he’d been waiting for a home.
When Kennedy went to meet Cutty, he was hanging out in a crate in the shelter’s office.
“He came out of the crate and he was just wiggling all over the place and kissing on me,” said Kennedy, a psychiatric nurse practitioner.
She adopted him Oct. 27. The staff threw Cutty a farewell party, and everyone signed his crate with well-wishes.
Kennedy, who dressed her new dog as a bride for Halloween, vowed Cutty won’t ever be returned to the shelter.
“He’s going nowhere,” she said. “I think dogs are a lifetime commitment.”
