Gambit's Year-Long Journey Into Adoption

ISLIP, NY - It's been a long wait for one of Islip Animal Shelter's long time resident, but one sweet dog finally finally found his forever home.

After a year and a half of staying at the shelter, located in Bay Shore, Gambit was finally adopted last week by a local family.

The now 2-year-old dog was first rescued by the shelter in May 2017. It was a rough start in the beginning. The pitbull mix came in from the street as a stray.

"He's a very friendly dog but his cage behavior wasn't the best so people really didn't show much interest in him, he wasn't really good with other animals when he first came in," Jessica Abbate, assistant supervisor at the shelter, said.

However a lot has changed in the year and a half since Gambit first moved into the shelter.

"Since then he's calmed down a bit and has been with other dogs so that's good," she said.

While Gambit's behavior was improving, he still wasn't getting adopted. Abbate says that while it is possible for a dog to be at the shelter for over a year, it's not a very common occurence.

"That all depends, but it does happen sometimes. He's a friendly dog, he didn't have any issues other than the cage behavior, but yea it does happen usually little bit quicker than that," she said.

However that all changed last week when he finally found his forever home. It was faith when the family came in to see Gambit and connected with him from the start.

"They liked him immediately," Abbate said. "He's a big sweet mush and he loves toys more than anything."

His family says he's doing great and they already love him. He's settling in wonderfully.

Image via Islip Animal Shelter