Presto's Story: from Forever Foster Dog to Forever Home

Presto is a gentle giant who is impressive in size, stature, composure and is such a sweet guy overall!

He arrived at MHC in June 2020.  Because of his size and a few other issues, we had some challenges trying to find the right home for him.  

Presto had been with another rescue since he was a young pup. He stayed up at the MHC  Adoption Center for 229 days, but we transferred him over to a foster home because we thought he'd do best outside a kennel environment.

After a grand total of 2,302 days as a rescue, shelter, foster, MHC dog -- Presto, who is a little over 6 years old, has finally found his perfect forever home!  

All it took was time, patience and a lot of love! 

FUN PRESTO FACTS:

• Presto is 6+ years old (born October 5, 2014)
• Presto is actually American Staffordshire Terrier (pit bull), Boxer and Akita as per the DNA test.
• He’s 81 pounds.  Fun fact – he's gained a few more pounds since he went into foster care! 

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The story below was written by Jonna Smoot, MHC Board Member, Presto's former Foster Mom and new Forever Family 

Falling in love with Presto didn't take very long. In fact, it was almost love at first sight, except Presto wouldn't come to me so that I could actually see him.  Instead, he ran and hid under his bed at the Adoption Center, curled up in the tightest ball in the furthest corner. At that point, having come from another rescue to MHC, Presto had spent just under 6 years being a "homeless" rescue dog and he was just under 6 years old. I didn't think I had it in me to have a dog who had spent so long not knowing the comforts of a home and not having a "person" to love him. So, I fostered Presto in mid-August 2020, thinking I'd help prep him for his furrever home.

From the minute I got him home, Presto was truly the sweetest dog ever.  I even kept a journal of all of his comings, goings and doings for the person who would eventually end up with him. Presto had some issues with eating (wouldn't), being in the house (wouldn't) and greeting guests (couldn't).

​Over the next several months, I worked with MHC on tips to best acclimate Presto and how to let him properly decompress.  Each time, they were so helpful and welcoming with information. When it became apparent that Presto had severe trust issues with guests in my home, I turned again to MHC and they assisted me with getting Presto the paws-itive reinforcement training that he so desperately needed to be able to live a calm and happy life. I was still fostering Presto at that time and didn't want to not be able to assist him on his journey of getting to his "person" at his furrever home, wherever that might have been.

A few more months went by and the paws-itive reinforcement training provided by Teresa Tuttle and Ricky Bedient allowed for a huge event to happen both in my life and in Presto's that I initially did not see coming when I went to MHC's Adoption Center to "just foster a dog" last August.

On January 23rd of 2021, I happily signed the MHC adoption papers to give Presto a furrever home where he would always be loved, properly cared for and comforted.  It turns out, he had already promised the same to me back in August when we started our journey.  


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Thanks Midland Humane Coalition and PetSmart for my Happily Furr-Ever After story.
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Midland Humane Coalition is honored to be a recipient of the  PetSmart Charities Adoption Preparation Grant for 2021.

With the help of this grant, we are able to prepare rescues for their new homes!  

Thank you, PetSmart Charities!

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