Dog goes home after 1,500 days

I couldn't believe it. I just looked at his kennel card and it said that he'd been there for four years. His owner had, I believe, had been evicted or had to move, wasn't able to take him with him to his next house. So I just brought him in as a surrender, no fault of his own. He's eight years old, has been in the shelter for four years, you know, over half his life. I was like, I'm going to try and do everything I can to try and get this dog adopted. I kind of made it my mission to one, make friends with him and be able to take him out and walk him and give him some exposure to new people. Three or four days a week I would get to see him. There were days he would refuse to eat dinner until I'd come back, take him out, bring him back and then he'd go straight to eating dinner again. There would be days where, because he got so used to us going out, that if I had to be at the shelter for a different reason he would just be staring at me. So the hallway, there's little windows and then a block of wall and then a window again and he would follow me, his eyes staring at me. We did everything from hikes, runs, taking him for pup cups. He's never had a pup cup before. Taking him to the local theater. Just anything we could to get him adopted and show his personality off to the world in the hope of getting him adopted. I'd been visiting Rigo for almost a year in total. Someone saw his video. They were from New Hampshire, six hours away from where we are in Pennsylvania. and decided to drive down to meet him so you know 12 hour round trip just to meet him then he came back two weeks later spent three days with Rigo stayed in a local hotel came to the shelter three times a day and he took him for a drive around town they went to the park and then this morning he finished the paperwork and started the long drive back with Rigo I think it's going to be a weird feeling going back to the shelter and his kennel will be empty this afternoon but just knowing that he's gonna be so happy he loves a couch he loves rolling around in the grass so he's definitely gonna be doing all of those things and just not having to worry about being in his kennel anymore it's amazing he's home now