{"id":360958,"date":"2025-11-07T00:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T00:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/360958\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T00:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T00:22:10","slug":"fort-worth-family-finds-healing-joy-after-adopting-shelter-dog-he-was-the-missing-piece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/360958\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth family finds healing, joy after adopting shelter dog: &#8220;He was the missing piece.&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fort Worth Animal Care &amp; Control is celebrating a major step forward this year as more pets leave the shelter alive than ever before.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>New data shows the city&#8217;s live-release rate has climbed to more than 85%. That shift means more dogs and cats are being adopted, reunited with their families, or transferred to rescue partners rather than remaining in overcrowded kennels.<\/p>\n<p>Behind those rising numbers are stories of new beginnings \u2014 including one family who believes their adopted dog found them at exactly the right time.<\/p>\n<p>After the De La Cruz family lost their 10-and-a-half-year-old golden retriever to unexpected cancer last summer, their home felt different. Even their senior dog seemed lost in the silence.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s when they came across a photo of Gunnar, a dog who had survived a cruelty case and was posted online during Clear the Shelters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There was just something that all three of us really liked about him,&#8221; said Amy De La Cruz. &#8220;We needed somebody to help us heal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite everything he&#8217;d been through, Gunnar&#8217;s personality shone through.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Volunteers described him as gentle, sweet, and always ready with a tail wag. When the family met him, they felt the connection instantly.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He wiggles all the time when he gets excited,&#8221; De La Cruz said.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Gunnar is fully part of the family. He races through the yard doing zoomies, cuddles on the couch (even though dogs weren&#8217;t originally allowed up there).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s just brought us so much joy,&#8221; De La Cruz   said. &#8220;We talk about him all the time, we laugh with him, and we all feel so loved by him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fort Worth Animal Care &amp; Control says stories like Gunnar&#8217;s are becoming more common thanks to new community-centered programs:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Chip Spot at Winslow&#8217;s Caf\u00e9, where neighbors can scan lost pets for microchips<\/li>\n<li>P.A.W.S. for Patriots, connecting shelter pets with veterans for therapeutic volunteer work<\/li>\n<li>P.A.W.S. and Think, bringing education and hands-on learning into local schools<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These efforts help reduce strain on the shelter while giving more animals a real chance at adoption.<\/p>\n<p>For the De La Cruz family, that chance made all the difference.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He became a part of our family instantly,&#8221; De La Cruz   said. &#8220;He&#8217;s essentially a perfect dog to us.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Worth Animal Care &amp; Control is celebrating a major step forward this year as more pets leave&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":360959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,18163,21202,7371,7372,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-360958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-animal-rescue","10":"tag-animal-shelters","11":"tag-fort-worth","12":"tag-fortworth","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115505565286839422","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}