A Good Samaritan Is Paying So These Dogs Can Be Adopted Together. Here’s Why
Published on March 26, 2015
When Hercules, a Pit Bull–Lab mix, and Muellas, a blind Rat Terrier mix, were brought to Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control, the staff separated them, because they thought they’d be adopted more quickly that way. But their time apart didn’t last long.
“Muellas would just huddle in the corner of his kennel. He wasn’t overly social,” Jodi Hamilton, the shelter’s community relations specialist, says. “Hercules was super social but would just lay in the kennel and just whine and cry. We put them back together, and they just were thrilled… They were clearly distressed without each other.”
Now that they’ve been reunited, they have adjusted well to their shelter environment — and the staff has seen why they need to be together. Hercules acts as a guide dog for his smaller sibling, making sure he doesn’t lose his way when they’re out for a walk.
“He stops and turns around and looks at Muellas like, ‘I’m still here waiting for ya,’” Hamilton says. “It’s really cute.”
The 8-year-old pair was reluctantly surrendered to the Indiana shelter last month, because their owner couldn’t afford to care for them any longer.
“They’re really sweet, sweet dogs,” Hamilton says. “The dogs were well cared for. They were not neglected; it was just an owner who ran out of money.”
Hamilton says the shelter has been overwhelmed by the response its Facebook post about the duo has drawn. They’ve gotten national media attention, and “tons of people have come in just to see them.”
But they’re still searching for the right person to give the brothers a loving home, and Hamilton expects it to be a challenge given their age, the fact that they’re different breeds and that there are two of them.
“It really is going to take that one specific, awesome person who will say, ‘I really like this package deal,’” Hamilton says.
And to sweeten that deal, an anonymous donor has already paid their adoption fees. Hamilton says Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control does allow out-of-state adoptions, but the potential adopter would need to come and meet Hercules and Muellas in person first.