Dog at Lollypop Farm finds family after viral post

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – If any animal is in a shelter for too long, the animal can develop a depression that can only be cured by getting them out.

Cheeto, a pitbull mix who was dropped off as a stray at Lollypop Farm in October of 2022, needed to get out.

“He was a pretty happy go-lucky guy. Very goofy, just adorable. He was a really great dog,” says Lindsay Brewer from Lollypop Farm.

But, after being there for months, being taken on sleepovers to potential homes, and always coming back to the shelter, Cheeto started to break down.

“The longer they’re here they kind of, what we call shut down,” says Brewer. “They just become depressed or agitated and they just don’t. It’s not their true selves anymore.”

That’s when Lollypop made a Facebook post, pleading with the community to get Cheeto out.

“We don’t want to make anyone sad but he needed to desperately get out and we just needed to tell the truth of what was going on,” says Brewer.

Luckily, Paige and Jake Goodman met Cheeto a little before the post went viral with more than 7,000 shares. They knew they needed to adopt him. The couple already had a dog, Spike, but felt he needed a friend.

“We decided to go to Lollypop because we had seen a post of Cheeto on their Facebook page,” says Paige. “We were like ‘Oh my gosh, we really have to get him he looks so cute and he has the biggest head- he would be perfect to keep up with Spike’s stamina.’”

They brought Spike to meet Cheeto and the dogs play just like old friends.

“They met, they loved each other, and that was the end of it,” says Paige.

Cheeto went from being in desperate need of a family to finding just the right one.

“He was kind of distant I feel like and now he realized this is his home and he’s made it his home now,” says Jake.

Lollypop Farm takes care of thousands of animals each year. If you’re looking to change an animal’s life like Paige and Jake did for Cheeto- you can check out their link here.