Leaving our beloved dogs when we have to step out for a bit is already a pain in itself. But just imagine having to leave your furry friend in an animal shelter because of things you can’t control?

This is what happened to Lewis Jimenez and his adorable dog named Titus.

When Titus was just 2 years old, Lewis adopted him from the Austin Animal Center in Austin, Texas.

Adopting a pitbull was certainly not in the plans, but when he saw Titus with the shelter volunteers out in the yard, it was almost love at first sight.

“He was jumping and happy, and I thought, ‘Man, that’s the one I want,” the man fondly recalled.

Since then, Lewis and Titus spent the next five years being absolute best of friends. They were always together all the time.

“He’s like my big old kid,” Lewis said. “He’s part of me.”

One day, Lewis received devastating news. The management company of his residence informed him that he couldn’t keep Titus or else he would be evicted from the place.

At that time, Lewis and his family didn’t have any place to move to. They also didn’t know anyone who could take care of Titus for the time being.

The family was left with no choice but to surrender their lovely dog back to the shelter. Lewis made a promise that he would come back and re-adopt his best friend.

“From our point of view, we’re not able to hold dogs because we hear owners say this all the time—that they’re going to come back, but then they don’t,” Jennifer Olohan, communications and media manager at Austin Animal Center, said.

But when the people in the shelter saw how painful it was for Lewis to surrender Titus, they felt hope that he’d definitely come back.

And as if their souls were one, the poor dog was in absolute misery while in the shelter.

“The shelter is a really, really stressful place for dogs,” Jennifer shared. “Some dogs handle it better than others, but Titus wasn’t one of them. He was really stressed out. When you got him out of his kennel, he was great—super playful and sweet. But in his kennel, he was sullen and really sad.”

Lewis, together with his family, regularly took the time to visit their boy. But once it’s time to say goodbye, it was always difficult to watch.

“He would get overwhelmed and he would be very sad. The volunteers would make notes like, ‘Titus is not himself.’ It just made me even more determined to do what I had to do to get him out,” Lewis recalled.

Every time each visit ends, the whole shelter becomes heartbroken for the two.

But thankfully, after the longest four months of their lives, Lewis came back with the best news ever: they were able to move to a place where Titus is allowed. Even better, the new residence comes with a yard where the sweetest boy could play all day!

“Everyone was really, really emotional. Titus was thrilled and so was Lewis. We had some staff and volunteers there, and everyone was crying. Some people knew about their story already and knew that Lewis was kind of waiting in the wings for Titus,” Jennifer said.

A photographer caught the beautiful reunion in beautiful photos which went viral after the animal shelter posted them on their Facebook page.

For Lewis and his family, abandoning Titus was never an option. Indeed, Titus isn’t just a dog, he is family.

We are just so happy that Titus is back in his family’s warm embrace! With a love like theirs, promises aren’t meant to be broken.

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Source: Positive Outlooks, Facebook