From Long-Term Shelter Dog to Lifelong Adventure Partner
Once labeled "unadoptable", April’s journey from long-term shelter resident to cross-country companion proves that love changes everything.
Since 2013, Petco Love has celebrated the love that we share with our pets through our annual Love Stories campaign. We’re excited to celebrate the special connection between Andy and April, an adopted dog from Summit County Animal Control and Shelter.
Andy + April's Story
I rescued April in January 2024. After being transferred from a North Texas shelter, she spent a year in the Summit County Shelter. And after volunteering with April almost every weekend for a year, I believed in her despite many considering her "unadoptable" due to fear-based reactivity.
I guess I loved her already.
With exercise, discipline, routine, and love, April morphed into the most amazing, sensitive, warm, cuddly, electric dog you’d ever meet.
She's changed my entire life. Her morning cuddles are the best way to make yourself late for your day.
I have always been active, but April's love and excitement for life give my crazy obsession with outside exercise so much meaning, flavor, and life.
With April, every day is an exciting adventure. Every day she visits the local coffee shop along the river, and the baristas demand I bring her in! They even teach her new tricks!
April even returns with me to the animal shelter to see her old vet tech friends and volunteers and continues to be a good steward for animal rescue.
April adds so much love and companionship to my camper van adventures, too. By the time you see this, she will have crossed the entire United States, been to 23 states, dunked in Lake Michigan as well as the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and even gone international with a trip to Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada.
She’s become the most amazing companion. In this modern world where we have the choice between fear and love every day, she’s a reminder that love is the antidote to fear. Healing her reactivity has helped heal some of my own.
She’s taught me that being of service to animals is one of the best things you can ever do. Being of service to others, especially animals, is an investment that yields infinite dividends.
April reminds me every day that hope is never lost, love can conquer fear, and that we have no idea how beautiful life can be until we walk into the unknown with a heart full of love and courage.
She’s an inspiration, a best friend, and my family. She’s the best decision I’ve ever made.
