Little Shelter Dog “Prays” For A New Home…And Gets It!

It seems that Oliver the two-year-old Chihuahua never lost faith when it came to finding a family during his time at the Baldwin Park Animal Shelter in California.

And lucky for him, photography hobbyist John Hwang caught the sweet pose on camera.

“Every time I tried to get up and move away from the kennel, he’d [get] up on his hind legs and kept putting his paws together, as if he was begging me to help him,” Hwang told ABC News.

 

Hwang aims to tell the stories of shelter animals through his work. When heard about Oliver, the little dog found darting between cars before he was taken to the shelter, he felt compelled to photograph him. “I [went to the shelter] hoping I can take photos and tell the dog’s story,” he said in the aforementioned article.

 

At first it took some coaxing, but the shy Chihuahhua eventually emerged from his kennel to see Hwang. That’s when the photographer first saw Oliver “pray.”

“He would just come right up to the fence and he would do it. I said, ‘I got to get a photo of that.’ That can be his story,” Hwang said to ABC News.

 

Soon, images of the praying Chihuahua went viral. Picked up by big news stations and websites, it wasn’t long before Oliver’s prayers were answered…and he got adopted into his forever home!

“I couldn’t believe the response…I was getting people messaging me from all over this world asking about the dog. I’m just really happy that this brings more awareness and can change people’s attitudes about the shelter animals,” said Hwang in the ABC News article.