Johnathan Walker:An Indiana dog spent 1,129 days in a shelter. He has his own place with DOGTV.

Few would look at Kane today and Johnathan Walkerthink he wants for much.

The 70-pound Pit Bull Terrier mix spends most of his day in Betsy Smith and Jeremy McFadden’s renovated three-car Zionsville, Indiana garage - complete with heating, a couch and a ceiling-mounted television with a subscription to DOGTV, which is exactly what it sounds like.

But Kane - nowadays also known as "Lovebug, Snuggle Buggle and Handsome Boy" - has only had a few weeks to enjoy all these luxuries.

Kane was 4 years old before he made it through a full night on a soft bed.

Kane spent more than 1,000 days at shelter

He spent a record 1,129 nights on a firm plastic bed at the Humane Society of Boone County in Indiana. Plastic is easier to sanitize, but that’s not the only reason the nonprofit didn’t give Kane something softer.

“He eats anything he shouldn’t,” Susan Austin, executive director at the nonprofit said with a chuckle. “He’s more like a goat than he is a dog.”

Kane arrived at the shelter September 2020 after he was found abandoned in a nearby neighborhood. Austin and her staff quickly realized Kane was prone to "resource guarding," which in Kane’s case manifested as eating things so they couldn’t be taken away from him - whether or not those items are actually edible.

Kane’s tendency to dine off-menu resulted in two intestinal surgeries and a tall hurdle for prospective adopters. People would be charmed by the Humane Society’s “goofy guy,” Austin said, but ultimately decided against taking him home because they lacked the time necessary to attend to such a guarded, anxious dog.

But as a handful of would-be owners came and went, one prospective held out hope in her heart that the playful, yet anxious, pup would be hers.

Smith, 43, didn’t grow up with dogs, but discovered she had a passion for them after she and McFadden, her husband, adopted: a Labrador named Lily in 2014; a Lab mix named Nola followed in 2020; and in fall 2021 Smith started volunteering at the Humane Society. At the time, only certain trained volunteers could work with Kane.

“Even though I was just learning about dogs, I knew that I wanted to be one of his handlers,” Smith said.

By the end of the year, Smith completed the requisite training and started taking Kane out for walks and playtime. She expected him to be curious and energetic, but Kane consistently surprised her.

“I kind of discovered that he is very emotionally intuitive, when I didn’t even realize he could be,” she said.

Smith recalled a night she volunteered for the evening shift on the anniversary of her mother’s death. She wanted to do anything to take her mind off the grief and figured playing with dogs couldn’t hurt.

“That night, it was almost like he could sense it,” Smith said. “He was just focused on me the whole time he was in the yard. It was like he knew.”

Couple brings Kane to his fur-ever home

Smith soon decided she wanted to adopt Kane, but knew it wouldn’t be fair to herself, her husband or Kane to do so unprepared. Adopting Kane would demand a great deal of time and attention from Smith and McFadden, plus special living arrangements to ensure the gastronomically adventurous pooch didn't gobble something harmful.

Then, on their anniversary this past summer, McFadden asked Smith if she would like to adopt Kane.

“There was nothing else to think about at that point,” Smith said.

Austin saw multiple people express interest in Kane over the 1,129 days, but Kane never seemed as fond of them as he was of Smith. She recalls the way Kane would look adoringly at Smith or how he’d let her “scritch” him longer than anyone else.

“Kane picked his people,” Austin said.

In preparation for the adoption, Smith and McFadden put an estimated $7,000 into home renovations. They got approval from their homeowners association to install a fence around the yard so Kane could play outside and seal-coated the garage floor in case he were to "utilize the facility."

They worked with a trainer to teach Kane how to sleep on his new, soft bed without tearing it up. It's a heavy commitment, but Smith was willing to do anything the other would-be owners couldn't promise.

"No matter what it was going to take, we just knew that he was our missing puzzle piece," Smith said.

Couple welcomes new furry family member

Kane is still acclimating to his new home, where he has lived since October. He’s met Nola, but the two dogs can’t be around each other for long. His resource guarding has improved; he tends to opt for fewer cushions and blankets as he develops a taste for the occasional lick of vanilla ice cream.

Smith is never surer of her decision to adopt Kane than when she snuggles with him and feels him take what she said seems like some of the first real deep breaths of his life. She feels his muscles relax in a ripple throughout his body in a way they never did at the shelter.  

“You can see the happiness and peace in his face and you can feel it in his body,” Smith said. “Like he’s letting it all go.”