Dog Besties Meet in a Shelter, Live Happily Ever After

Get ready to cry. I’m serious, I warned you, if you don’t have a tissue box handy, go grab, like, toilet paper, or get one of your sleeves ready because the tears, they are coming whether you are ready or not.

Two pit bulls, named Ares and Zeus, entered a Central Florida shelter within a few days of each other and basically became instant besties. Because when you know, you KNOW.

Ronda Chewning saw the dogs listed together on the Second Chance Rescue Facebook Page. Their situation was described as “urgent,” which, anyone who has ever been involved in dog rescue (or just anyone who can figure out what words mean through context) knows means that the best friend pups were scheduled to be euthanized shortly thereafter unless they could find a home.

Chewning already had two pups, a miniature pinscher named Chanel and a Maltipoo named Princess, and was not planning on expanding the family anytime soon. “I had no plan to get any dogs, let alone two,” she told The Huffington Post. “We live on a tight budget, and two dogs weren’t in the budget.”

Still, Chewning felt what she describes as a “divine sense” that she needed to help these dogs out (because if the spirit world is ever going to get involved in human affairs, it SHOULD be for the sake of cute animals), and ended up both fostering Ares and Zeus as well as raising over $2,000 for the dogs’ medical bills through Facebook. Being a shelter dog is no joke, both boys needed tests and antibiotics, and one of the buddies has tested positive for heartworm, a dog disease that is no joke times ten thousand.

The dogs quickly warmed up to their new family. “They stand on their hind legs and almost hug you and give kisses. They even come to you and like to be held,” Chewning explains. There was one chewed-up-sandal incident, but seriously, if you expect to bring a dog home and see 100% model-citizen behavior, you are living in a very beautiful and very unrealistic fantasy world.

The deal is, while being sheltered or fostered, there are dogs who do bond hard. When I was looking for my dog on adoption and rescue websites, I saw a fair share of pups pictured together with an explanation in the description that these dogs had fallen in love and the people taking care of them couldn’t bear to tear them apart so the little dudes or ladies or dude/lady combos were now a package deal. One dog is a LOT, two dogs are A LOT A LOT, but if you’re going to be out of the house a ton, you know you’re not leaving your dogs alone because they HAVE EACH OTHER and watching dogs cuddle and play together in real life is a hundred-million times better than watching cute animal videos on the regular, so if you’re looking to become a dog household and you think you could handle it, maybe keep your mind open to those dog bestie ads on rescue sites?

As for Ares and Zeus, they’re still acting like BFFs, even out of the shelter. “They are still connected at the hip. They walk side by side,” Chewning told the Huffington Post. “They even eat side by side.” They also enjoy napping together, like, a lot. Hey, that’s what friends are for.

(Image via)