A shelter dog is “still waiting” for the people who were scheduled for a meet and greet with him to arrive—but they won’t.
Julie Saraceno, a shelter dog walker based in Pasco, Washington, was the one who first highlighted the heartbreaking plight of Samson, who is residing at Benton Franklin Humane Society in Kennewick.
In a video posted to Saraceno’s TikTok, she explains that a week earlier Samson was “stood up” for a scheduled meet and greet.
He’s “still waiting for someone to recognize how amazing he is,” she wrote alongside a clip of a forlorn-looking Samson staring back at the camera from within his enclosure.
There’s a sadness to Samson’s expression which, given his background, isn’t a huge surprise.
According to the Benton Franklin Humane Society Samson is five and was one of “a lot of littermates” who were rescued from the same house.
“He’s the last of the 20 of his litter mates to go home,” they said. “He has had a lot of interest, but from very far away places like Texas or New York.”
That’s more than likely what made what happened with the meet and greet no-show that much more difficult for Samson to take.
Saraceno, who regularly posts about shelter dogs in desperate need of care and attention, was walking through the lobby of Benton Franklin Humane Society on the day Samson was scheduled to have the meet and greet.
He was there, waiting expectantly, with his foster mom. As the minutes ticked by and Samson began to fear he would be returning to an enclosure, Saraceno said his demeanor started to change.
“He seemed stressed being back at the shelter and was pacing in the room,” she said. “I don’t know if they ever heard from them or not.”
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The shelter can be an intimidating environment for new arrivals and returning dogs too for that matter.
According to research published in the journal Physiology and Behavior researchers found that dogs entering the shelter system had three times the levels of the stress hormone cortisol as dogs in standard households.
Having left only to then return, it’s difficult to know quite how much cortisol was in Samson’s system when he returned to his enclosure but, judging by his behavior in Saraceno’s video, it’s likely to have been more than a dog in a normal domestic environment.
Despite this setback and Samson’s ongoing struggles in the shelter, Saraceno has not given up home of the unhappy pup finding the home he so richly deserves.
“He’s a very sweet dog,” she said. “Hopefully it can help him to find a new home.”
