Heartbreaking TikTok shows dog’s 425th day in shelter. See video that got her adopted
A shelter posted a TikTok of a 5-year-old dog on her 425th day at a Pennsylvania shelter. The video ended up getting her adopted.
The shelter named the pit bull and black labrador mix Blackberry, and she spent more than a year in their care before a dad saw the Aug. 27 video and immediately called to inquire about adopting her.
“I was moved by the story. Anyone with a heart would’ve been moved,” the pup’s new owner, Pedro Rodriguez, 45, told McClatchy News in an interview.
Blackberry came from a Georgia shelter that had an overpopulation of dogs, Animal Care Sanctuary’s manager, Haylee Kehler, told McClatchy News in an interview.
“She was transferred to us in July 2022, and because of all the euthanasia that happens daily, we were able to luckily save her from that,” Kehler said.
Rodriguez struck gold as “the shelter was getting tons of calls from around the country after the video went up, even from someone in the U.K. wanting her,” Sylvia Wright, the shelter’s dog adoption counselor, told McClatchy News in an interview.
He made the three hour drive on Aug. 30 from Allentown to Animal Care Sanctuary in East Smithfield to meet Blackberry and “doesn’t regret it because she’s worth it,” he said.
Rodriguez knew he wanted to get another pet with his 12-year-old son after their last dog, Spanky, died of old age, he said.
“The post broke my heart,” he said. “This was the best decision I made. She’s a couch potato like me and has every single quality I wanted in a pet.”
So far, the furry friend hasn’t given Rodriguez any issues besides the occasional hiccup of being a bit too overprotective of him.
“She wants to always be near me and sleep with me,” he said. “My son wanted to get into bed with me one night, and she started growling at him like ‘no, this is our bed,’ but I was stern with her and we’re working through it.”
Rodriguez said the dog’s transition has been seamless, and she’s even been responding to her potential new name, Diva, because “she really is a diva.”
East Smithfield is about 190 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
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