By Jack Beresford

Copyright newsweek

A shelter dog spent over 3 years watching people pass her by, but now everything has changed.

Deja had been at the Patty Baker Humane Society Naples (PBHSN) in Florida since 2022, having been transferred over from Gulf Coast Humane.

It took time for Deja to adjust to life in the shelter. “When she first arrived, she was very fearful of people,” Stephanie Lewis, from the PBHSN, told Newsweek.

That eventually changed. “While she can still be reserved at first, once she trusts you, she’s goofy, energetic, and an absolute love bug,” Lewis said.

Despite regaining her confidence in the shelter, Deja struggled to attract much in the way of adoption interest.

For the next 3 years, she watched as people and fellow pups came and went, with few visitors, if any, showing interest in adopting her.

Yet Lewis remained convinced that all Deja needed was a chance to show her true personality, outside of the intense shelter environment. “Though she does well in the shelter, her true personality shines when she’s with people,” she said.

Deja spent 3 years being ignored by visitors.

Deja may have learned to cope with day-to-day life in the shelter, but it was undoubtedly taking its toll. The impact of shelter life has been well documented.

A 2021 study published in the journal Animals looking at the effects on dogs who have resided in a shelter for 12 months or more found canines consistently demonstrated stress-related behaviors that researchers indicated were likely due to their living situations.

Deja needed a break. An opportunity to get out and be part of a family. It was a chance staff at PBHSN were determined to help her get.

They posted a video on social media highlighting her plight. “Despite being overlooked for nearly three years, Deja remains full of love and joy, always eager to meet new human friends,” the shelter explained on the promotional clip.. “She truly deserves to be the center of someone’s world—as the only pet in a home where she can shine.”

Lewis dreamed of Deja one day finding a house “with a yard, where she could be their TV-watching buddy one moment and their playful wrestling partner the next.”

Then something remarkable happened. That dream became a reality.

Deja was given the chance she had so desperately deserved, a stay in a foster-to-adopt home. Suddenly she was out of the kennel and enjoying life in a home where she had acres to run around and a family to love and call her own.

It didn’t take long for her to charm her new family, who told Newsweek: “She is the sweetest dog… she listens, obeys, and never runs off. She just wants to be by my side, following me everywhere—even into my wood shop where she’s already taken over! She has such a goofy personality. As soon as she realized she had acreage to run on, she dove right into the weeds.”

Deja has made good on Lewis’s promise now. Having been given the time to show her true self, she’s won her new prospective family over. As of today, Deja has been adopted. After over 1,000 days in the shelter, she can now look forward to a new life as a happy senior dog.