Last weekend Baltimore Ravens 1st round draft pick Ronnie Stanley, 6th overall at the 2016 NFL Draft, walked into the BARCS Animal Shelter and pulled the biggest bro move of the off season. Accompanied by his girlfriend and a teammate, Ronnie Stanley walked into the shelter and asked the ONE QUESTION that every shelter worker goes to sleep at night praying that they’ll hear in the morning.
He asked to adopt the oldest dog they had there, the dog that had been at the shelter the longest, the pup that nobody wanted. His exact words were “We are looking for dog that’s been here a long time and maybe not-so-adoptable.” What he ended up going home with was 6-year-old Winter. According to Barkpost.com Winter was “found in mid-May, locked inside a room in an empty home, with no food, water, or fresh air.”
Just look at how happy this new family already looks:
The BARCS Animal Shelter shared the incredible story on their Facebook page along with that picture above:
We have an incredible ‘Happy Tail’ to share! This weekend, Ravens Offensive Tackle #79 Ronnie Stanley visited BARCS in search of adding a pup to his family. He was accompanied to our shelter by his girlfriend, along with his team mate, Alexander Lewis (#72). When they checked into our front desk, they let us know just what they were looking for–and for a superstar like Ronnie…you’ll never guess what requested. “We are looking for dog that’s been here a long time and maybe not-so-adoptable.” Our matchmakers were delighted. “Not-so-adoptable” can mean a lot of things here…senior pets, physically imperfect, on-going medical and more.
Our BARCS staff showed Ronnie and his girlfriend a few pets that fit his (seriously awesome) criteria. Winter was the lucky dog that caught Ronnie’s eye.
Beautiful Winter is a dog who has spent most of her six years of life falling into sad, unfortunate situations. She was found on a vacant property, on a hot day with no electricity, or open windows. She was dehydrated and extremely frightened. Winter has a long, hanging belly, mostly likely a result of over breeding–something we see far too often at our shelter. Due to her age, her belly is not something that will ever tighten up. Female dogs with such characteristics are often passed by in our shelter–but not by Ronnie!
Ronnie’s thought on Winter’s belly, as recalled by our volunteers: “Well, that’s just what happens when you’ve had babies.” He was much more interested in getting lots of face kisses from Winter and falling in love, rather than being worried about the appearance of her tummy. What a great guy!
It was a done deal. Ronnie and his girlfriend signed Winter’s adoption papers and took her to her new home the same day.
Once a discarded pup, now the doggy-daughter to a Raven.
We are so proud to have amazing guys like Ronnie to be role models to the kids in our city. Not only does his single act of kindness make adoption cool, but it makes giving love to an imperfectly perfect dog a ‘manly’ thing to do.
Have a happy, happy life Winter. <3
[Also, a special shout-out to Alexander Lewis (#72), who offered to help our staff members carry large bags of dog food, while his buddy Ronnie was taking our adopter class. Yeah!]
Every little bit counts, bros. This is a 1st round NFL draft pick who came into an ungodly sum of money and could afford any designer dog or pure breed on the planet. Instead he recognized that a life is a life, and he went to the local animal shelter and saved the life of a loving dog that nobody else wanted.
I own a purebred dog myself, a Bernese Mountain Dog, because I spent most of my life unaware of how much of a difference every pet adoption makes. Buying a dog from a breeder means that somewhere a dog that could’ve been adopted spends another night in the kennel with (possibly at a kill shelter). That’s a a dog whose life could’ve been saved, and it took me way too long in life to come to this realization, and for the rest of my life I will ONLY be adopting dogs. I’ll never got to a breeder again when I can find the world’s happiest dog at the shelter, fearing for his life, when all he needs is for someone to take a chance on him. Ronnie Stanley recognized the need to rescue and 6-year-old Winter’s life will never be the same, I love this story, and he just gained a fan for life.
Changing gears a little bit, I want to make sure that ALL OF YOU know about the all new BroBible iOS app that was launched last week. It’s 100% free to download and it’s the latest/greatest way to get all of your BroBible content, so DOWNLOAD IT FOR FREE BY CLICKING HERE!
(h/t BarkPost.com)