Formerly-Abused Rescue Dog Has Hard Time Adjusting Until Mom Gets Him Foster Kitten to Love

When you welcome a foster or rescue animal into your home, you may not know what they have been through before coming to live with you. Some animals adjust quickly to their new environs. I’ve had foster dogs who were ready to join the family within a few hours. Others take a longer time to warm up. When we rescued our cats, it was a whole year before we were able to catch them snuggling with us while we slept.

All of which is to say, it very much depends on the animal how long it takes for them to open up and be their true selves. And sometimes they need a little help, like this formerly abused rescue dog whose heart opened when he got the opportunity to care for foster kittens of his very own.

A woman in Houston chose Chapo from the shelter when he was on the list to be euthanized. She described the pit bull mix as “the saddest dog in the shelter” and the many scars on his beautiful brown face were a testament to the terrible times he had been through before coming to live with her. But despite the fact that Chapo was now in a safe, loving home, he still seemed depressed.

“For months, progress was slow, and I was beginning to worry about him,” she writes in the captions. “Until I fostered a kitten.”

It seems like the key to making her rescue dog happy was letting him rescue kittens.