A video of this pit bull “crying” in a shelter went viral and helped her find her forever home.
Sarah Sleime regularly volunteers with the Greater Charlotte SPCA, and she was visiting a shelter in North Carolina that Charlotte Mecklenburg Animal Care & Control runs when she came across this dog.
Talking to the Dodo, Sleime explained her reaction to this sweet, sad pit bull:
I was waiting for them to health check a couple of the dogs we were considering pulling, and I was walking up and down the kennels, and I just saw this pit bull sitting there, and she was very humanlike – slumped over and very solemn.”
Sleime felt the need to get closer, so she:
“Bent over and started talking to her.”
When she got a closer look, Sleime realized that this pit bull recently had puppies.
The pit bull was seven years old, and her puppies weren’t with her at the moment. According to Sleime, as she talked, the pooch’s eyes watered and it looked like they filled with tears.
Although experts still aren’t sure whether dogs cry emotional tears like humans, Sleime could tell without a doubt that this pit bull was upset. She had been recently surrendered and was also extremely overweight. Sleime told the Dodo that the workers at the shelter:
“Believe she was confined and used as a breeding machine. She’s obviously had many, many litters.”
Because this pit bull was a big dog, however, Sleime knew that the Greater Charlotte SPCA wouldn’t be able to help her.
Instead, Sleime grabbed her phone and made a video that she then posted on Facebook. It is only 37 seconds long, but clearly shows the sadness of the dog, who was called Cinnamon at the time. You can even see the tears forming in her eyes.
Sleime also included a heartfelt caption, that included:
“Someone dumped this poor mama at the shelter, minus her babies. Every time I stopped to talk to her and say I was sorry her eyes would fill with tears.”
The video was much more effective than Sleime could have ever imagined.
“Little did I know, it would be viewed like 700,000 times on the first day.”
In addition to hundreds of thousands of views, Sleime’s video of the pit bull led to messages from those around the world who wanted to adopt Cinnamon or help in another way.
Out of all those interested, Meghan Shelton, a friend of Sleime, ended up adopting the pooch. Shelton also spoke with the Dodo:
“I have a special place in my heart for pit bulls. I think they’re a very misunderstood dog and misunderstood breed. And when I saw her in that video, literally crying in a cage, I cried. My kids cried. I showed my husband, and he said we would go look at her tomorrow.”
The following day, Shelton and her family weren’t the only ones lined up to meet Cinnamon, but they were first.
Everyone, human and dog, fell in love right away.
“She was super sweet. They had brought her into a room to meet with us, and we just let her relax. My kids were on the floor with her, and she sat on their laps and knocked them over with kisses.”
At that point, Shelton knew Cinnamon had a new home.
They filled out all the paperwork, renaming the pit bull Rosie. After the pooch was spayed, she went home the following day. She got a new brother, as well, a three-year-old pit bull male named Blu.
Shelton initially planned to keep the two separate to see how they would react to each other, but Rosie whined until she could socialize. She explained:
“We just had them walk outside and meet. […] They just kind of sat next to each other with tails wagging.”
Sleime updated her original Facebook post to share the happy news of Cinnamon’s adoption, along with some great family photos.
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Sources: Dodo, Sarah Sleime
