We Did It! We Found Patton the (deploying soldier’s) Pooch A Happy Home!

Yesterday I told you about Matt and his pup Patton. Matt’s a Tacoma soldier deploying to Afghanistan next Thursday and he has spent the past three months trying to find his Shar Pei Pitbull mix a home.

“The condo I live in with my girlfriend doesn’t allow pets, so he’s been kind of illegally staying there the last four or five months. The landlord found out about it so he’s going to evict her if I don’t move him. I deploy next week for Afghanistan so that’s why it’s such a rush, all of a sudden.”

We had 24 hours to find Patton a new home, since the landlord said the dog needed to be out by today. So we put the call out to you and Matt was quickly flooded with emails from dog lovers.

“Mine started going crazy. I can’t give you an exact number, well over 100 and they’re still coming in this morning.”

Out of 100 emails, he met with four people and this morning Patton found a new home with Johanna, her husband and 12 year old daughter in Spanaway.

“It went really well!” Johanna said. “Actually, he was a little timid at first, which is understandable. I’m pretty sure he knows that something’s going on. But he warmed up really quick and he was running around in my backyard. By the time that Matt was ready to leave, Patton was looking out the backdoor, looking like he wished he could go back outside and play.”

“They had a good yard and no other pets and somebody in the family was going to be home pretty much all day,” said Matt. “Patton likes that. He likes people. They liked him right away. In fact, when I was walking out I told them I’d let them know and they said, ‘Well, don’t break our hearts!’ So they liked him right away.”

Matt’s happy that Patton will be close to Tacoma so his girlfriend and sister can visit from time to time. The placement is definitely a win-win situation.

“We recently lost our dog in 2011, in August, and have not had a dog since,” said Johanna. “A Pit was the next dog on our list, that we wanted to get. So when I saw the article, I thought if we fostered one first, then we would know by the end if were really ready to get another dog. Plus, I just thought that it would be good to help one of our soldiers.”

Matt’s only concern was that Johanna wouldn’t want to give Patton back.

“I think it will be a little tough,” Johanna admits. “But, like I told Matt, I said, I’m going into this to help you in your situation and to help Patton and make sure he has a comfortable place to stay while he’s off serving our country. I got into this understanding that in a year, Patton is his dog and he will come back and he will get him back.”

Matt can’t believe that in less than 24 hours, he found his pup a new home.

“Grateful. Grateful to you, grateful to Linda from Dogs on Deployment who put me in contact with you. Just amazed at the response. I was expecting five or six people, you know. That was just crazy.”

Now Matt can focus on other important things like being a Black Hawk pilot in Afghanistan.