Every time shelter volunteers put a puppy or dog up for adoption, they do so with the hope that the animal will finally find the love it so desperately needs, but sadly it doesn’t always happen that way.

As hard as it is to admit, more than one adopted furry animal does not receive the love they need from their adoptive families.

This is what happened to Sadie, a dog whose heart and trust were broken. Sadie was just a puppy when she arrived at the Harris County Animal Shelter shelter in Texas in 2014. At just weeks old, the litter was a real cutie and so it wasn’t hard to get homes for each one.

At the time, none of the volunteers imagined the future that awaited the puppy in that home.

To everyone’s surprise, the dog was surrendered to the same shelter 3 years later. When the family felt they no longer wanted her, they decided to surrender her to a place where euthanasia was allowed.

Ashley Roberts, who volunteers at the Harris County Animal Shelter, witnessed the moment Sadie’s family surrendered her and was amazed at the change.

The little dog looked very different now.

“[Sadie] was in a little ball. Honestly, I thought she was a stray puppy and they had found her, and that’s why she was so scared. She didn’t even really seem comfortable with the people she was with,” Roberts said.

According to the volunteer, no one suspected it was a former local dog until Sadie’s chip was scanned and a photo of the canine as a puppy came up.

The difference overwhelmed them.

“[The staff member] was almost in tears. He couldn’t even function when he saw her original photo and her return now…being surrendered back to a shelter to euthanize her.

It was a big difference between her picture as a trusting puppy and the little dog we saw in front of us. She was almost crying. She was already crying,” Roberts said.

The affair outraged everyone and more so because of the fact that the family claimed Sadie was like Hurricane Harvey and that they didn’t want her. “But they didn’t seem to regret turning their backs on the shelter at all,” Roberts explained.

A week after that bitter episode, a family took an interest in the puppy and seemed to fit the profile to adopt her.

When they took her in, everyone thought the rough patch was over.

“I wasn’t there the second time she was surrendered, but [the new family] said she kept having accidents in the house. What we think actually happened was that she was so nervous, it was like nervous urination,” Roberts said.

After that the puppy’s spirits were destroyed, so the shelter thought they could find her a temporary home.

Through Facebook, a volunteer took an interest in Sadie’s home and received training from shelter staff on how to deal with this furry double reject.

Everyone thought the puppy would finally be safe.

Things seemed to be going well, but the young woman took the initiative to invite her sister and her pet to share with Sadie and the other dog ended up hurting the poor dog. At that moment, the furry dog returned again to the shelter but now with painful marks on her neck.

Our little girl had been very unlucky, but they could not allow any more misfortune.

To put an end to all the bad luck, the shelter arranged for Sadie’s temporary care with a veteran volunteer from Down South Rescue.

“Sadie is with an experienced foster and is working with her. She is still very scared and doesn’t trust people. However, she has become very attached to her foster mom. It will take time for her to heal mentally and physically. And we will be very picky about who we allow to adopt her,” said Sharon Fanning, director of Down South Rescue.

At the moment this little dog is not up for adoption as volunteers struggle to get her to regain her confidence and put all the bad stuff behind her. It’s unfair what Sadie has been through, so we urge anyone applying to adopt any animal to be responsible and committed.

These dogs deserve to receive lots of love and not be discarded like junk, let’s respect their lives and take care of them.