Some things are just meant to be, and the against-all-odds story of MacBeth’s adoption is a prime example.
It started a couple of years ago, when Cathy lost her family dog to in her divorce. She promised her daughter, Emily, a new dog when they had a home of their own again. Fast-forward a year and a half, and Cathy has her new home, so she and Emily start looking for a dog to make their family complete. They headed to the Adopt-A-Thon at PetSmart the first weekend of May to find a small dog.
They had plenty of choices, as 26 dogs were there, awaiting their chance to find their forever home. As Cathy and Emily walked through the tent, where all those dogs were barking and playing, they spot a medium to large shepherd mix named MacBeth. This wasn’t exactly the small dog they were planning to adopt, but it was love at first sight. They asked the volunteer holding MacBeth if the dog is cat friendly, as they have two cats in the family already. A quick search for MacBeth’s paperwork, where that information would usually be recorded, turned up nothing. So, since no one knew how he was with cats, MacBeth, Cathy, Emily and the Heart of America Humane Society volunteer went to visit the adoptable cats to see how he reacted.
MacBeth did well on his “cat test” visit, so they all went back to the screening table. Volunteers quickly discover that they dog they were calling MacBeth was not matching up with “his” paperwork from the shelter. The MacBeth Cathy and Emily fell in love with at PetSmart is an unaltered adult male Shepherd mix; the MacBeth on the paperwork is a 5-month-old female Coonhound puppy. Apparently, it was MacBruce, not MacBeth, who came to the Adopt-A-Thon ! Cathy and Emily didn’t really care about the paper work issue, because they just knew this dog needed to become a part of their family. To the average observer this would be the happy end of the story, but this is where MacBeth’s story takes an unexpected turn.
The wrong MacBeth had to go back to the shelter to be neutered before joining Cathy and Emily at their home. At the shelter, staff and HAHS volunteers got to talking about how lucky it was that this “MacBeth” got on the van that day and found his way into a forever home. We were completely shocked when the shelter staff told us that “lucky” is an understatement. This MacBeth, the one Cathy and Emily fell in love with at first sight, was scheduled to be euthanized within days. Had he not somehow been lucky enough to get on the van that went to the Adopt-A-Thon, then been spotted by Cathy and Emily, he would have, sadly, become another statistic. In addition, one of the reasons he was turned into the shelter was because he was killing cats on the farm where he had been living. We started asking ourselves, “Just how many more obstacles does this boy have to jump to get into that forever home?”
In order for him to have gotten on the van that day, he passed by three different shelter workers, and no one realized he was the wrong dog. But now the cat issue was a problem, so we called Cathy to tell her about it. She thought about it and just knew that he would be fine, but she had a plan to keep the cats safe if there were to be any issues.
There are a lot of reasons that make every adoption a success story, but this is one of the luckiest dogs around. We’re now calling him Lucky MacBeth because, well, he earned that one.
He is currently living with Cathy, Emily, and the two cats. Everyone is happy, and there have been no problems with him and the kitties. Cathy and Emily liked the name so much that they decided to keep it, so he is officially MacBeth now, and getting all the love and attention this lucky dog deserves.