A year or two might not seem very long to most people but for a dog, it can feel like a decade. Our furry, four-legged pals only have so much time here. Though that’s true for all of us, the time they are alotted is a whole lot shorter than our own. That’s why it’s so important to make every day count. If a pup happens to end up as a shelter dog, though, they can end up missing out an awful lot.

That’s what happened with Bonita, a sweet shelter dog who spent over 500 days in her kennel.

Bonita is a healthy mixed-breed pup that’s only 6-years-old. She showed up at the Niagara SPCA shelter nearly a year-and-a-half ago in 2018 in the middle of August.

For the life of them, workers couldn’t figure out why no one was adopting the lovable shelter dog.

“Bonita came to us as a stray. We didn’t know her background or what she had been through. Everyone was passing by her kennel, but no one would adopt her. We became her family because she was here for so long,” explains the shelter’s event coordinator, Kimberly LaRussa, in an interview withThe Dodo.

Bonita wasn’t able to go to a home with other dogs and small children, but that isn’t so unusual in shelter dogs. It didn’t explain why she had been overlooked for so long. As it turns out, though, her long wait in the shelter may have been an act of destiny.

One day a man walked into the Niagra SPCA and everything changed for the shelter dog.

Ray Kinz showed up at the rescue looking to adopt a furbaby, but he had a particular one in mind.

“That day I went down to the SPCA and I just asked them, ‘What dog was the oldest and which one had been there the longest?’ That’s when they introduced me to Bonita. She had been there 500 days and she was six years old,” Kinz recalls.

According to Kinz, he knew from the moment that he met the adorable shelter dog that he would be taking her home with him.

“When we had our meet an greet, I pretty much knew right away that she’d be coming home with me,” he tells The Dodo.

The very next day, on December 12th of 2019, Bonita saw her new human come back to her kennel so he could hook a leash on her and make it official.

The shelter was so thrilled for their longest-standing resident that they organized a small parade to see her off with her new family.

Staff at the Niagra SPCA clapped and cheered as Bonita joyously jumped through a shower of confetti on her way to take her freedom ride.

Bonita took to her new dad right away, even cozying up with him on the bed that night when it was time to go to sleep.

She also seems to understand that she really has finally found her forever home.

She is comfortable roaming around the house and ripping her toys to shreds as she plays innocent. It’s clear that she knows she’s going to be well-loved from here on out.

The best part is that we get to share in all of her upcoming adventures.

Wasting no time at all in documenting all of Bonita’s sweet, silly antics, Kinz has already created her an Instagram page that’s quickly filling up with pictures and videos of the two loving life together.

She looks like she may just be the happiest pup on earth, and she’s making sure her dad knows how thankful she is for choosing her. To learn more about Bonita’s heartwarming story, watch the video below.

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Source: The Dodo/Instagram @bonita_rk