You always hear the saying ‘adopt, don’t shop’ when it comes to picking out a new dog to bring into your home. Even when most people adopt from a shelter with the best of intentions, though, more often than not they still end up “shopping”. It’s hard for shelter dogs to get adopted under the best of circumstances.

So, when you’re just a small pup with loads of baggage and the scars to show, getting adopted can seem next to impossible. Unless, of course, you’ve got an angel looking out for you.

That is exactly what happened for little Jake, the dog that no one wanted.

Last summer, 72-year-old Galt, CA resident, Melanie Andrews, had a talk with her grandkids about being alone.

The brokenhearted grandma had just suffered two of the most major losses in her life. First, she lost her long-loved husband. Then, a short while later, she had to say goodbye to their precious Staffordshire terrier, Lola. Needless to say, Melanie’s grandchildren were incredibly anxious and worried about their grandma. They didn’t like the idea of her being completely alone after so many years of tight companionship.

So, one day her family was visiting and convinced her that she needed to make a new friend and that there were plenty who could use her help.

“I was feeling down and a little depressed. My grandkids came over one night, and they said, ‘Grandma, you need somebody to keep you company. You can’t just sit around here all by yourself,”

After her visit, Melanie decided that maybe they weren’t wrong about her needing some company after all.

The compassionate grandma made her way to Sacramento to visit the Front Street Animal Shelter. When she got there, she had only one goal in mind; to help out a dog the way that Lola had helped her all those years.

“I wanted to help somebody — a dog — like Lola helped us, and so I told them I wanted the oldest dog they had, the one that everybody was passing up, and that I wanted to adopt him. I don’t care if he’s sick, I don’t care if the shelter can help with bills. I don’t have a lot of money, but I’m sure I have enough to take care of a little dog,” she recalls her conversation with shelter staff in an interview with The Dodo.

More than happy to appease her, the shelter led Melanie to a kennel with three small dogs in it.

That’s when she met little Jake, a small, elderly terrier that had been brought in as a stray. The poor 12-year-old dog had been there for over 3 months already, with no prospects for getting adopted.

“Jake’s two friends ignored me, but Jake perked up and started howling. So I said, ‘It looks like he wants to go, and I’ll take him,’” Melanie remembers how she met Jake.

The shelter staff was thrilled to see Jake finally get a home. Still, they knew they had to be honest with Melanie. Jake was suffering from terminal skin cancer. He still needed a forever home, but forever had an expiration date for the small dog.

When they gave Melanie the news, she took it with unprecedented optimism.

After all, we all have a limited time here. Knowing Jake’s would be shorter than most, Melanie took it as an opportunity to help him live it to the fullest.

“They informed me that he had cancer and he had a limited amount of time and I thought, ‘We’re going to make his time as good as we can make it,'” Andrews says.

The shelter staff was elated that Melanie meant what she had said. She came there to rescue a dog that day, and that’s just what she did.

“It was amazing because she was one of the few people who actually gave this dog an opportunity, and you could just tell from that picture of how excited that dog was to have an opportunity to get out of the shelter. He was one of our longest-standing residents. We were hoping that someone like her would come along, and give him the life that he deserved,” explains Bobby Mann, the shelter’s PR coordinator.

Before the happy new pair left the shelter, one of the staff asked to snap a photo. Little did they know it would turn out to be so iconic.

In the photo, it looks like she and Jake are cracking up at something. Melanie explains that it was all just sheer luck and timing, though.

“He’s really barking, and saying goodbye to the caretakers who’d had a soft spot in their hearts for him,” she says.

As for Melanie, the laughter was 100% real.

“I was laughing because he was barking out to him. I said, ‘Well, we’ll see how it works out,’ and it ended up looking like we were both laughing at the same time,” she continues.

Once Melanie got Jake home, it took him less than five minutes to make it his own. He knew that his new human was truly his forever mama.

In fact, Jake is doing so good with Melanie that she’s been told she may get some extra time in with him.

“The way he’s taken a turnaround here, I may end up having him for a year — maybe two if I’m really lucky. But when he goes, I’ll know he went happy,” she says.

As for Jake’s effect on Melanie and helping her through her depression? Well, let’s just say it’s the best decision she’s ever made. At least, that is if the photos are any indication.

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“Every day I laugh a little bit more. It’s not so lonesome. I think [Jake] knows that I love him because he’ll come over to me and he’ll rub up against me and ask me to rub his backside. And then he’ll nose me with his nose. And a dog that doesn’t know that somebody loves him wouldn’t be doing anything like that,” Melanie says.

Isn’t that the truth! We’re so happy Melanie turned her loneliness into an opportunity for a dog like Jake to get a second lease on life. The time he has left may be short, but one thing is certain. Melanie made it a whole lot sweeter for him.

Please, if you’re looking to add a furbaby to your home, consider being a hero and rescuing the one that needs it the most.

Source: Animal Channel