In January Apollo’s owner passed away. This precious pup was brought to Young-Williams Animal Center. After giving him some time to adjust, it was time to get to know him. We could tell right off, that he wasn’t coping well with his new environment. Anytime someone would walk by, he would bark and retreat to the back of his kennel crouching to the floor. Staff members worked daily to get him accustomed to strangers… eventually trusting them enough to allow walks. Now that he was building trust in people, it was time to see how he would do with other dogs. This would soon bring on lots of new challenges for Apollo. Even though he previously lived with another female German Shepherd (who was adopted to someone who knew the owner, but unable to take on two large dogs) he was not comfortable meeting new dogs. Upon interacting with other dogs, he would bark and sometimes growl, then hide behind the nearest object or person until the other dog left. We knew that it was just going to take time for Apollo to be the happy, friendly, outgoing dog we knew was hiding inside. After placing him on our adoption floor, it was soon obvious that he wasn’t happy. He soon reverted back to barking at anyone walking by, and retreating to the back of his kennel. That’s when we decided to try something different. We went through a list of people willing to foster large dogs and asked them for their help. It wasn’t long until he found his perfect foster match! His foster dad really worked to get him comfortable with meeting new strangers and other dogs! Apollo’s true personality started to shine through. His foster dad told us that he had a family who was interested in adopting Apollo! Through Young-Williams ‘Adoption Ambassador’ program, this new family had another German Shepherd boy at home named Diesel who they felt could use some companionship. Through a couple weeks of trial visits and play dates, the family knew they wanted to give Apollo his forever home, so on April 13, 2017 Apollo was adopted by the Smith family!