This Shelter Dog Refused To Be Adopted Without Taking His Food Bowl

All of us tend to get attached to certain things in life and this shelter dog who just loves to hang onto his food bowl is no different.

The need to carry around things that have special meaning for people goes back as far as childhood and carrying your favorite blankie, stuffed animal, toy, or whatever around with you everywhere you went. There was just something about it that made you feel so safe.

Little Oliver is a puppy who has the same tendency, only his security is found in his dog-dish.

From the moment animal control first tried to pick Oliver up, he has been cracking-up everyone he meets with his silly, hilarious, and adorable antics.

Oliver appeared as a playful stray dog in a Memphis, TN family’s backyard one day. When it was clear there was no way to identify the stray pup, the family contacted animal control to round him up.

Getting Oliver in the van proved to be more difficult than they expected, though.

Due to his playful nature, Oliver thought that he was playing a game with the people trying to collect him. So, he would let one of them get just out of reach before hopping like a deer over the fence outside of the backyard.

If they were ever going to get him loaded up, they were going to have to outsmart this ingenious little dog, so the workers decided to catch Oliver with a trap (completely humane, of course).

Even though he had no collar or information identifying him as a pet, it was immediately clear that Oliver was no stranger to humans.

Memphis Animal Services (MAS), where Oliver was taken, noted that the stray dog’s wits and willingness to obey, not to mention his deep love of food, were all marked signs that he had at some point been under previous ownership.

In an interview with The Dodo, the MAS Community Engagement Specialist, Katie Pemberton, recalls how well trained Oliver already seemed to be.

“I met him the first day he came in, and he sat for me immediately before I even showed him I had treats. Then, of course, as soon as the treats came out, he was even more eager to sit. The more he got to know me, the more he would press himself up against the bars of his kennels to let me pet him.”

It wasn’t long before Oliver started showing the shelter just how much he really loved his food.

Before Oliver was even fully checked into the animal shelter and given a “permanent” kennel, he was showing workers what he could do in hopes of some good grub.

Pemberton recalls how the adorable shelter dog first grabbed the edge of his food dish with his teeth and lifted it from the floor with the sweetest puppy face in the world!

“The very first night he got here, our field supervisor passed by his kennel in our ACO intake room and noticed him with his bowl in his mouth. His cute trick was very effective because she gave him more food!”

Oliver is one smart shelter dog, and he was quick to pick up on the fact that his trick could score him some serious treats.

“when he moved to his permanent kennel, he kept doing it. He had his bowl in his mouth most of the time,” Pemberton continues.

While it could be that Oliver is acting out a learned trick when he holds his food bowl in his mouth, it’s also entirely possible that the sweet shelter dog hadn’t eaten in long enough that he feared he wouldn’t get food again if he didn’t have his dish.

When the charming shelter dog began to tote his food bowl around in his mouth throughout the entire facility, workers couldn’t help but gush over his cute bond to his dish. The team decided to upload photos of Oliver and his dog bowl to social media in an effort to get him adopted.

They had no idea how fast the pictures would work!

“We received a very unusual amount of inquiries about Oliver after his photos went viral — I wish every dog had that many people interested in adopting them,” Pemberton told The Dodo.

It wasn’t long after the photos of this adorable shelter dog were posted to social media that the little charmer got to meet his forever family.

A little less than two weeks ago, on April 16th, Oliver was adopted and now this adorable furbaby is the proud pup of two humans that just love his oddball behavior.

Oliver was totally stoked to get adopted, but he really knew he found the right humans when he got to take his favorite food bowl with him!