After more than 3 years in a shelter, Capone gets a home of his own
An older black dog named Capone lived in an animal shelter for 1,134 days. Some might say the Labrador retriever mix languished there for more than three years. But it would be more accurate to say he thrived at Animal Friends. Although he didn’t have a home of his own, he won the hearts of staff and volunteers, who taught him to walk nicely on a leash and be a good boy. They loved him and made him a happy and affectionate dog.
So there was great excitement — and a news release — when Capone, 11, finally was adopted shortly before Christmas. Though everyone was thrilled that Capone had a real home, tears of joy were mixed with tears of sorrow, because when you love and care for a dog for 1,134 days, it’s a loss, and you hurt when he’s gone.
In his North Hills home, Capone’s favorite activities include daily leash-free runs in a safely secluded field.
“He is good. He is a happy dog,” said Denise, who adopted Capone with her husband, Bill.
“He really listens. He wants to please. He loves to cuddle. He has the energy of a puppy. He is a true pleasure,” said Bill. The couple asked that their last names and their hometown not be named.
“True pleasure” would not describe the dog that arrived at the Animal Friends Ohio Township shelter from a hardscrabble out-of-state shelter. The
76-pound dog had many behaviors and issues that made him hard to handle and difficult to adopt out.
“Someone started calling him Big Al Capone,” said volunteer Anita DeBiase, of Moon, a retired preschool teacher.
He wasn’t an outlaw or a thug, but he had never been taught how to walk on a leash, and he pulled so hard, smaller women couldn’t handle him, at first. He jumped up on people. He knew no commands.
Capone has a voracious appetite, and he’s smart and eager to please, so he was easy to train when rewarded with copious amounts of treats.
Veterinary exams revealed he was slowly going blind, so it was decided he should not go to a home with children. He didn’t like other dogs, so he couldn’t go to a home that has other pets.
“I would have adopted him in a minute, but I have three dogs and a cat,” Ms. DeBiase said.
The real deal breaker, for potential adopters who came to the shelter to meet Capone, was what the Animal Friends news release calls “some very specific behavioral challenges.”
Simply put, “Capone humped everything,” said Bill. He humped the legs of people, the legs of furniture and many other objects. Bill said that at the first meet and greet, “I thought he was unadoptable.”
Staff and volunteers surmised that the unpleasant behavior was caused by anxiety. Capone was anxious around new people, said volunteer Nancy Williams, a retired physical education teacher from Hampton who headed up the eight-person team that worked with Capone.
Capone was given antianxiety medications. Trainers and volunteers put him in enrichment programs, including scent work, aimed at calming him down. As always, he had multiple daily walks on the wooded trails in Ohio Township, and there was off-leash play in fenced exercise yards. He got lots of cuddles.
Capone was doing better, but “when Bill and Denise first came to meet him, all the bad behaviors came back,” Ms. Williams recalled.
The couple were looking for a new dog after their Weezy, 18, died last March. (They were told she was rescued from Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005. Her name was a variation of Louisiana, her home state.) They loved her for the last 2½ years of her life.
Getting a new dog during the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a challenge. “Every dog we considered at every shelter and rescue was quickly adopted,” Denise said. “To honor Weezy, I thought we should get an older dog. Capone stood out because he had been there so long.”
Despite Capone’s behavior, Bill and Denise didn’t give up. Over a period of weeks they made eight or nine visits to him. After three unsuccessful encounters, Capone showed signs of being happy to see them. He improved with each visit.
“When we brought him home all the old behaviors emerged, including the humping,” Bill said with a chuckle. “By the third day in our house he was normal.”
And then Capone just kept getting better. Although he is now almost totally blind, “he navigates our house well,” Bill said. Initially afraid to go up and down stars — not unusual for a blind dog — he now traverses them regularly.
“He is so brave,” Denise said.
He walks nicely on a leash, but his real joy is running in the big open field. Exercise has caused him to shed 13 pounds, and he’s down to a trim 63 pounds.
The adoptive couple credit and thank the staff and volunteers at Animal Friends for never giving up on this dog.
Adoption counselor JT Mangan, who worked with Bill and Denise, said that while Capone’s search for a home took far longer than usual, it was worth the wait because, ultimately, it was the exact right match.