Guess what? After seven long years, this dog is finally getting his home.

Stevie arrived at the Dogtown Shelter in Pretoria, South Africa as a young pup.

He would eventually spend the next six to seven years at the shelter, waiting for his forever family.

Stevie would grow up to be a medium-sized dog who loves to play tag or hide and seek.

And his playfulness is catching.

He is a dog who loves to entertain his humans for hours.

He has that much love to give.

Did you also know that this guy loves to cuddle and have conversations with those around him?

He’s just the perfect dog for families with young children.

Unfortunately, Stevie had to spend years in the shelter.

“We could never understand why he was always overlooked. You can see he’s just the best lil fella,” the shelter said.

Before his life at Dogtown, Stevie used to wander the streets with his human, Christine.

His life really turned around when he and Christine discovered Dogtown.

Stevie’s “true self” emerged.

That’s where he was able to just let his canine personality loose. That’s how the Dogtown shelter was able to discover Stevie’s true self.

And while the Dogtown staff love Stevie, they would love it even more if he found a permanent home with a family who will love him forever.

But why are there dogs that are adopted faster than others?

There are several reasons for that.

One is the black dog syndrome.

Most people have associated black dogs as aggressive and mean, like Doberman or Rottweiler.

Television shows, movies, and pop culture, in general, have successfully portrayed black dogs with this stereotype.

A lot of people believe this and avoid black dogs when adopting.

Another reason it’s hard to get black dogs adopted is that it’s hard to see their facial expressions.

What do you think? Is this really the reason people don’t adopt black dogs?

Thankfully, not everyone feels the same.

Another reason some dogs are harder to adopt is because of the shelter itself and the past lives of the dogs.

These shelters know what happened to the dog prior to living at the shelter.

90% of the time is because they lived an abused, abandoned, and dangerous life in abusive homes or on the streets.

The shelter wants to make sure that these dogs leave the shelter to go to wonderful homes where they will be given the best life.

That’s what’s happening for Stevie.

And one way for shelters to do that is to have strict requirements.

These strict requirements will help them filter out the people coming in because let’s face it.

There are people out there who pretend to be good but will do harm to animals, especially when no one’s looking.

Even though it took Stevie a long time to get adopted, they know he is going home to a great family.

A family who will make sure that Stevie will be loved every day.

Stevie seems to know that.

See Stevie’s sweet send-off as he takes his freedom walk in the video below!

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

@dogtownsa Stevie has been with us since July 2016. Today we all got to cheer him on as he leaves for his forever home ❤️ #dogsoftiktok #shelterdog #adopted #fyp ♬ Love You So – The King Khan & BBQ Show

Source: TikTok – DogtownSA, Daily Paws, She Knows, Dogs and Clogs