Jill was found as a stray when she was only a year old, but now after all these years she will finally be a part of a family in her new home outside of the animal shelter.
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Every dog’s shelter stay is different. Some are adopted as soon as they are listed on the website, while others have to wait years. However, few dogs have spent as much time in a shelter as Jill, the white Pit Bull.
Jill was found as a stray puppy, and she spent the next ten years of her life waiting for someone to adopt her. She was well-liked at the shelter, but she yearned for more. Some dogs may have given up hope, but Jill always believed her ideal home was out there. As it turns out, the wait was well worth it!
Ten Long Years
When Jill was only a year old, she was heartworm positive and wandering the streets of Texas. The Clay County Animal Shelter took her in and promised to keep her until she was adopted because they are a no-kill shelter.
However, Jill’s adoption date turned out to be much later than they had anticipated. Jill had been waiting for ten years. She had a few people interested in her over the years, but it never worked out.
“We’ve had several applications put in on Jill before, but because she is a pit, a lot of landlords wouldn’t allow them to have her. “Because she couldn’t find a family and because this is a no-kill shelter, it became her home, and the workers became her family,” said Bonnie Stone, the shelter’s manager.
In 2019, one person even brought Jill home for a few months, but they returned her. Jill was a fence-climber, and the shelter had warned them, but they continued to leave her outside unsupervised. So, when they couldn’t handle her daring spirit, they returned her, and her search continued.
An Adoption Worth the Wait!
Keelie Blassingame decided she wanted to adopt a dog in July 2022. She has a soft spot for senior dogs, so when she met Jill, she knew it was a match made in heaven.
“Even though the other dogs were all very sweet, Jill just naturally gravitated towards me.” “I just knew that senior dogs don’t get adopted very often, and that was one of the main reasons I wanted to adopt an older dog,” Blassingame explained.
It’s a bittersweet ending for the shelter staff. They’re thrilled that Jill has been adopted, but they’ll miss her terribly. She had been at the shelter for ten years and had become like family to them.
Blassingame hopes adopting Jill will help remind people that senior dogs can be amazing companions. Jill appears to be content and at ease with her new human. She can now spend the rest of her days being as spoiled as possible!
“My thing is she got adopted July 4, Independence Day. Jill has gained her independence!” Stone stated.
