After spending almost three years waiting to be adopted, a couple who work at Dogs Trust Ireland pulled out all the stops and moved into a new house just to give a nine-year-old Belgian Shepherd his forever home.
The dedicated dog-loving couple recently moved into a new home, so they could adopt their favourite long-term resident Max, who came into the charity’s care in 2018, after his owner sadly passed away.
Having spent his life in an isolated area, Max was very worried by strangers, but those he took a shine to were rewarded with "lots of affection and lots of slobber as he displayed his penchant of squeaking toys".
As his personality began to slowly emerge, he became very attached to two staff members in particular.
Kim Murphy and Jason Seagrave, both employees at Dogs Trust Ireland explained: “We formed a really strong bond very quickly with Max and fell in love with him instantly. We fostered Max for a period but unfortunately where we lived at the time wasn’t suitable, so we moved!
“As soon as we had settled in, we went about bringing Max home to our eleven guinea pigs who he adores and is so gentle with. In fact, Max is often found on the floor with a doleful face while one of our guinea pigs is sitting on his large bed!”
Max recently celebrated his ninth birthday with an outdoor birthday party which his favourite former canine carers attended, and he even got a gift-wrapped tyre as a present as he loves to play with them.
Sandra Ruddell, administration assistant manager, Dogs Trust Ireland said: “We couldn’t be happier for Max, he’s a big dog with a big booming bark so, people can be easily intimidated by him, but really he’s a big softie. He had struggled to settle in previous homes due to his fearfulness of strangers, so we are delighted that two of our experienced team decided to adopt him.”
While Dogs Trust has rehomed 785 dogs so far this year, the charity has several dogs who are looking for quite particular homes.
They are seeking adopters with an interest in dog behaviour or dog training, who can really put time into helping some of their special long-term dogs who may need that extra bit of support to settle into a new home.
