When homeless pit bull Rush arrived at SICSA Pet Adoption Center in October 2015, he was sad and scared. The adoption center did everything they could to make Rush comfortable. They gave him lots of love and treats, and they also provided him with a comfy bed.
One day, shelter workers walked past Rush’s kennel and saw a shocking sight. Rush was making his own bed!
Rush started making his bed every single day. And so, a shelter worker decided to shoot a video of Rush’s unique behavior. They shot about a minute of footage of Rush carefully moving his blanket around.
SICSA put the video on YouTube. To their surprise, it quickly went viral, receiving over a million views. SICSA posted a cute photo to their Facebook page celebrating their internet-famous pup.
The shelter received tons of requests from news agencies who wanted to feature Rush. The shelter used this platform to talk about why pit bulls make such great pets.
“There are a lot of negative stereotypes about the American pit bull. If we were able to highlight the cute cuddly points of Rush, then we can help people look beyond the pit bull label,” Nora Vondrell, executive director of SICSA, Ohio, told ABC News.
With all the attention, it wasn’t long before the perfect adopters came to see Rush.
In a video, the husband and wife explained that they’d lost their dog earlier that year. They weren’t sure if they were ready for a new dog, but then the husband saw Rush’s story on the news and his wife saw it online.
The wife texted her husband excitedly and said, ‘I think I want him.’ Her husband was ready for another dog too, and so after work, they headed right over to SICSA to see if Rush was still available.
As they were heading to the shelter, they received a sign that they were making the right move.
They passed a Cincinnati Bengals billboard that said ‘Rush to be there.’ However, ‘to be there’ was in small letters, so all the couple saw at first was the word ‘Rush.’ And just like that, they knew they were heading in the right direction.
After adopting Rush, the couple sent a quick note to the shelter saying how happy they were with him.
“They said Rush is just a wonderful dog and they’re very much in love with him,” Nora Vondrell told ABC News.
SICSA hopes Rush’s story will inspire other people to adopt rather than buy a new dog.
“The message we are saying now [is] there are hundreds of thousands homeless animals in your community. We are trying to get past all kinds of labels. People believe shelter and rescue animals are misbehaved, unwanted or have diseases. The reality is they are wonderful and healthy.”
Thanks to a viral video, Rush found the perfect forever home. If you’d like to see the famous video, check it out below!
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