Couple Take a 'Chance' and Adopt Dog Who Was Shelter's Longest Resident

A Pennsylvania couple has adopted an animal shelter's longest resident after falling in love at first sight.

Up until recently, Milton the dog hadn't ever really had a place to call home. "He bounced from a few shelters throughout his life so we aren't sure about his past," Hannah Vance, from Philadelphia, told Newsweek. "He's about two and a half years old and has been in his most recent shelter for about eight months."

For the best part of a year, Milton remained at Providence Animal Center, waiting and hoping that someone would take a chance on a pit bull like him.

The sad reality is that Milton had the smallest of windows in which to attract a potential new owner. A 2014 study published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science found that shelter visitors interact with just one dog per visit and that these interactions last an average of eight minutes.

But everything changed for Milton the moment Vance and her boyfriend Alex laid eyes on him. They had been on the lookout for a rescue dog for a while. "I grew up having dogs and missed them so much," Vance said. "After graduating college, my boyfriend and I had a little flexibility with our jobs so we started looking around local shelters."

She said that while they had looked at "many sweet ones" during their search for a canine companion, they "didn't click with any" until they met Milton.

"We found his shelter through a TikTok and instantly fell in love with his profile, and went straight there from work the next day," Vance said. "Milton was so sweet and he was instantly comfortable with us, so we came back and adopted him the next morning!"

Vance chronicled the journey to adopt the "longest resident at the shelter" in a video posted to TikTok under the handle hannahhvancee. In the clip, Milton can be seen excitedly greeting Vance and Alex, having remembered them from their previous encounter.

The video then cuts to a shot of Milton excitedly prancing around the parking lot outside the shelter before moving on to slides of him playing with his first toy at home and enjoying a well-earned snooze on the couch. His sense of contentment is clear to see: Milton is finally home.

At the time of writing, her video has been watched 2.9 million times on the platform, with fellow animal lovers praising the couple for adopting Milton. "Thank y'all for saving him," one viewer wrote, with another agreeing: "these dogs deserve the world."

A third commented: "So happy for Milton! I hope he enjoys his little life," while a fourth added: "thank you loving and giving my boy such an amazing home! You guys definitely hit the jackpot with him!"

Vance confirmed Milton has been "perfectly content" ever since he arrived home with them. "He's been doing great, excellent in the car, the crate, on the leash, and is house trained," she said. "We definitely lucked out with him! He is a fiend for roasted chicken and tug of war, and is a big cuddly lap dog—although a bit too heavy to be one."

Vance has been blown away by the response to her video and hopes those watching take away an important message. "Give every dog a chance and don't judge a dog by their breed," she said. "Also visit your local shelter."

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