Homeless Teen Reunites With Puppy He Surrendered To Shelter After He Could No Longer Care For Her

A homeless teen who surrendered his puppy to an animal shelter in Mississippi because he couldn’t provide for her has been reunited with his dog.

Senatobia-Tate County Animal Shelter shared the story of the 17-year-old and his dog on April 8, 2022 after he came to the shelter and begged them to take her. Their post on Facebook quickly went viral.

“He is 17, says he lives under a bridge in Tate county. He WALKED her all the way to the shelter and asked us to please take her because he can’t afford to keep her,” the shelter wrote in a Facebook post.

His dog Jada, who is around 4 months old, didn’t know what to do after he left.

“This is where she layed after her owner surrendered her today with her plastic bag of dog food and a blanket. She is devastated,” they wrote of the photograph.

Kris Robinson, the shelter’s director, later told WFLA, “We’re a shelter, so we’re concerned about the dog, but ultimately we were concerned about him and him getting off the street and getting some help. He filled out a surrender form with a little bit of information about himself, and we were able to pass that along to some folks who could help him.”

And those folks did. Senatobia Police Department officers were able to locate the teen with the help of community members. Within a day, the teen had found a place to stay and has been reunited with Jada.

“He’s able to go someone’s house and be with them for a while while he gets his life back on track,” Robinson said. A local Methodist church is also taking donations to help the family who will be helping the pair. The shelter is also working to help Jada get spayed and give the teen flea, tick and heartworm prevention medication for Jada for the year.

“I hope his selfless actions have made people think about the animals in this community – they deserve a chance, they don’t deserve to be dumped anywhere,” the shelter concluded in their Facebook post. “Thanks everyone for your concern for both of them – the response from people everywhere has been touching.”