Big Mac came to the McKamey Animal Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with the knowledge that he would have a difficult time finding a family. The huge dog was apprehensive around new people and was struggling in the shelter.
“We’re not sure what his living environment was like before coming to us, but it was quite clear that he didn’t trust everyone straight away,” Lauren Mann, the shelter’s advancement manager, told The Dodo. “He warmed up with goodies and in the play yard when he got out of the crate.”
According to Mann, Big Mac’s owner surrendered him in December of last year because they “didn’t have time for him and they were relocating.” The shelter needs someone patient and loving to convince the abandoned puppy that people aren’t all awful.
But as time passed, Big Mac became the shelter’s longest-staying inhabitant.
Then, 260 days later, a miracle occurred: Big Mac walked out of McKamey Animal Center for good.
One of the shelter volunteers agreed to foster him in her house and fell in love with the once-frightened dog, opting to adopt him as a permanent member of her family.
“When my coworker took him home to foster, she said the first night he slept like 12 hours straight and just really opened up and wanted to play with her other dog and even the cats,” Mann said. “[He] did a complete 180 and was a fantastic dog altogether.”
Mac was even taught to trust again by the shelter worker’s dog.
“Her resident dog took him under his wing, and if they went on a stroll and he was a bit nervous, her dog would be like, ‘No, it’s OK,’” Mann explained. “And he’d teach him that everything was OK and that people could be trusted.”
Mann and her crew wanted to do something special to honor Big Mac’s last departure from the shelter to go home with his new mom.
The shelter employees gathered at the entryway to give the building’s oldest tenant a standing ovation as he went out for the final time.
You may see the endearing video here:
“His new mom was astonished that he handled it so well,” Mann said. “It demonstrates that he’s doing a lot better with stranger danger.” “He was almost about to go… He was uninterested in treats, pets, or anything else. He was just eager to go home.”
Big Mac is now a member of a loving household and has a new family that will never abandon him.
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