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A hound that spent the last seven years in a North Carolina animal shelter is finally adopted. Back in 2016, Mitch, a Treeing Walker Coonhound, was brought to the Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society as a stray. Assistant shelter manager Jodi Henkel says he was thin and terrified, but after lots of care and attention, he mellowed out. But as the year passed by, no one came to adopt Mitch.
In 2019, Mitch was featured in a WLOS Pet Pals video, but still no one showed interest in a then-eight-year-old hound. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago, when the shelter put up a video of their longest-term resident on social media, that Mitch’s luck changed. Retired elementary gym teacher Teresa Shular saw that video and made a connection with Mitch right away. “I cried when I watched it the first time," she recalls. "I cried when I watched it the second time.” After giving it some thought and talking it over with her husband, they decided to make Mitch part of their family.
Already, Mitch is settling into his new home. “Likes to lay on the porch," Shular says. "We have plenty of property he roams through, do whatever he wants." Some people have questioned why she would adopt an 11-year-old dog who probably doesn’t have much longer to live, but Shular sees it differently. "It’s not about me,” she explains, “It's about Mitch. He needed a home and thankfully we can provide that for him." Shelter director David Stroud says there's a lesson in Mitch’s story: “I believe that if Mitch has a message for all of us, it's just that: never give up.”
Source: WLOS