North Texas Dog Waiting 1,100 Days to Be Adopted

Harriet, the dog calling a North Texas shelter home for more than three years, may be a little closer to having a forever home.

The 7-year-old Pit Bull is a part of the Rockwall Animal Rescue, an organization that rescues dogs and adopts them into loving homes.

Organization leader Meri-Lou Mahoney says after NBC 5 aired Harriet's story, Rockwall Animal Rescue has received between 250 and 300 calls and emails from people interested in adopting Harriet.

Mahoney said she's been working diligently to sort through all the candidates and has narrowed it down to six or seven homes in Texas.

Harriet has been with the indoor-outdoor rescue in Lavon the longest of any single animal. She even has a Facebook page that they hope will help get her a forever home.

Mahoney first picked up Harriet from a kill shelter when she was just a puppy. Harriet was then adopted by a man for several years, but he was forced to turn her back over to the organization.

“He kept her four years and lost his job, lost his house, and had to go to moving into his car,” Mahoney said. “He realized that wasn’t any kind of life for Harriet.”[[359709931,C]]

Since then, the majority of the time Harriet has called Camp Diggie Bones home.

“It’s her unconditional love, there is no black or white, everybody is the same; she loves big people, small people, young people, old people,” Mahoney said. “There isn’t a mean bone in her body.”

Mahoney believes her breed and age are part of the reasons she hasn’t found a forever home, and the other may be that she needs a home without other dogs.

“She has a couple of quirks, well she has just one,” Mahoney said, “Harriet picks and chooses who her canine companions are just like humans, we don’t love or like everybody and Harriet is the same way.”

Mahoney said she has gotten along with various other dogs, just not all dogs, and she doesn’t want to put her in a home where she has a chance at failing.

“My belief is there is a home and family out there for her. It’s just a matter of turning over enough rocks, kissing enough toads to get a prince, but there is a place out there for her and we’ll find it,” Mahoney said.

Over the past eight years of operating the Rockwall Animal Rescue, Mahoney says she can’t financially afford it anymore, and her goal is to close at the end of December.

She has helped hundreds of dogs in her years running the rescue.

“I have easily, easily spent $350,000 to $400,000,” Mahoney said, and she added that 95 percent of the money spent is her own money.

“It’s Christmas and she deserves a home and a family,” Mahoney said. However, if Harriet doesn’t find a forever home by the end of December, Mahoney said she will raise funds and do whatever it takes to continue helping her.

If you’re interested in adopting Harriet, please contact Meri-Lou Mahoney with Rockwall Animal Rescue at 469-698-8898.

Mahoney said she was still taking adoption offers and promised to keep the public updated on Harriet's adoption.

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