It was an inspiring story that captured the hearts of many: A 12-year-old dachshund, named OJ and his best friend 6-year-old pit bull Blue Dozer were adopted together from a Virginia shelter.
The two dogs share a special bond, OJ, being blind pooch, relies on Blue Dozer as his guide wherever he goes. The woman who first introduced them to each other adopted the pit bull about four years ago and already got the dachshund. Unfortunately, she became homeless and couldn’t keep them anymore so she decided to bring them to the shelter but insisted that they’d stay together.
They were adopted together but not for long, as OJ was found on the side of a rural road 100 miles away from his BFF Blue Dozer, who was safe in their new adoptive home. It’s not clear how OJ ended up stranded, but luckily he was brought to the Shenandoah Valley Animal Services Center near Staunton by a man who said that he found the dog on the road and he seemed stray to him. The shelter scanned OJ’s microchip and found his new owner and when they called her, she said the shelter can keep OJ, but wouldn’t give up Blue Dozer.
“A day after their adoption (Monday) I received a text with a picture of OJ from a volunteer that works with the Shenandoah shelter,” Christie Chipps Peters, director of Richmond Animal Care & Control (RACC), the shelter that adopted out the dogs, told People. “We confirmed that this was, in fact, OJ, and set a time to retrieve him from their shelter the following day. Staff reached out immediately to the adopter to find out what had happened and confirmed that OJ had been given to a friend and somehow ended up at the shelter and that she had, in fact, relinquished ownership of him to said shelter.”
Peters contacted the original adopter, asking her to allow the dogs to be together. Eventually, the adopter agreed to give Blue Dozer back to RACC to be reunited with OJ. The shelter shared a photo of the two dogs after their reunion, which she captioned, “I am very glad to announce that both OJ and Blue Dozer have just been reunited and are safely back at RACC.”
