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By Jack Beresford
Senior Reporter
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A rescue dog who suffered the pain of being adopted and returned multiple times has realized he's finally found his forever home.
Brutus the six-year-old greyhound has had a pretty eventful life. "He's an ex-racer who ran under the name Supreme York," his owner, Alexandra, from the West Midlands in the U.K., told Newsweek. "He has over a thousand siblings which we think is really cool. We could walk past one and not even know!"
Brutus won several races during his days as a racing greyhound but eventually was put out to pasture at Greyhound Trust Hall Green, a shelter focused specifically on rehoming retired racers like him.
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However, the journey from shelter to forever home was not a smooth one for Brutus. "He was adopted and returned multiple times for different reasons," Alexandra said.
It's hard to know what kind of impact that experience had on Brutus but it's unlikely to have been a positive one. However, his luck changed the day Alexandra and her partner paid a visit to Greyhound Trust Hall Green.
"When we first met him we loved him instantly," she said. "He got adopted before we were available to take him on but was returned shortly after, so it felt meant to be."
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Being taken out of a shelter setting to receive one-on-one care can have a huge impact on the mental wellbeing of a dog. A 2018 study published in Applied Animal Behavior Science found that just 15 minutes of one-on-one cuddles was enough to provide a significant boost, so you can only imagine what being taken home permanently can do.
In the case of Brutus, he's quickly established himself as a character. "He loves his walks and absolutely loves running," Alexandra said. "He's food-obsessed, especially sausages, that's his favorite. He loves fuss and loves ear scratches and belly rubs."
Brutus has now been with them for a year, but it was only recently that Alexandra started to see he has fully come out of his shell with them. In a video posted to TikTok under the handle thebrindlebrutus, she shared footage of the moment a petcam caught him doing zoomies around their living room for the first time since he arrived.
"We got a camera as sometimes greyhounds can have separation anxiety so we set it up and tested the waters by going out for an hour and coming back, and building it up like that so he knew we'd always come back," she said. "It detected motion so we had a look and it was him running around."
The resulting footage had Alexandra smiling from ear to ear. "It made us so so happy as it's the first time we saw him really let loose since we had him and playing with his toys as he hadn't really shown an interest before," she said.
After a long journey with moments of pain and rejection, Alexandra saw something in that moment. A sense of freedom in his surroundings. "I think he knew he was home," she said.
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
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