Two Shelter Dogs Won’t Sleep Unless They’re In The Same Bed

Hansel and Gretel, the two dogs were found as strays in late March by Rick Tunison, the kennel manager at the Mahoning County Dog Warden’s Office & Adoption Center in Youngstown, Ohio. The dogs were difficult to catch since they had been running free for a very long period.

At first, Hansel, the tan dog, entered Tunison’s van when he discovered an open can of food waiting for him inside. But Gretel didn’t fall for the can of food trick. However, she was unwilling to let her brother go off without her, so she jumped in the van and lay right next to him.

Shelter staffs tried keeping the young dogs in separate kennels. But they kept busting through doors. They wanted to be together. Folks at the shelter then housed Hansel and Gretel in one kennel. They walked them at the same time.

They decided that even if it would be harder to find a good home for a pair of dogs, that’s what had to be done. But finding a home for even one blocky-headed dog can be difficult. Two, who have to be adopted together — that’s a serious challenge.

The challenge grew slightly more manageable in late April, when shelter worker Devon Carr snapped a photo of the cuddlebugs sharing a bed. The photo was posted online, and set off across the internet. And thanks to that, Harries got to know the dogs.

When Harris phoned the shelter, they informed her that a different family had called for Hansel and Gretel. That adoption fell through, but Harris still had to convince an Ohio shelter that she was the perfect home for canines.

Harris had friends who work in animal rescue call the shelter to vouch for her, and Tunison grew convinced that she would be able to take good care of this special pair.

Rachel Harris had been thinking about adopting a couple of dogs, but wasn’t quite yet ready to do it. She had moved from the Chicago area to Dallas, and thought she needed a little time to settle into her new situation.

But that photo — as well as another, of the dogs wearing festive neckwear — spoke to her, moved her. “I had to have them,” Harris said

Harris’s rescue friends handled the logistics of getting the dogs to Texas. Hansel and Gretel arrived at their new home just about two weeks ago, and quickly got comfortable.

They are sweet and curious and smart, and “kiss everyone who comes in,” Harris says.

Harris says the two have gone from being glued at the hip to each other, to being utterly attached to her.

“They could be sound asleep, I get up and they wake up and follow me wherever I’m going,” she says. “They are on me all the time.”

She just feels fortunate she happened to see Hansel and Gretel online. That the shelter was willing to adopt to her. That they are so happy at home.