Shelter dog can't stop smiling when he realizes he's finally being chosen

When Eugene arrived at Best Friends Pet Resource Center in Arkansas in December, he was more than ready to find his forever home. Since it was almost Christmas, the shelter searched for someone who would be willing to foster him for the holidays, and Jason and Nikki stepped up.

The situation was only supposed to be temporary — but the couple soon found themselves falling in love with Eugene.

“Eugene is the sweetest dog with both people and other pups,” Michelle Logan, executive director of Best Friends Pet Resource Center, told The Dodo. “He is 100% cuddle trained! When Jason and Nikki first brought him home, they told us that he would follow them all around the house, wanting to be near them all the time.”

Eugene happily celebrated the holidays with his foster family and basked in the glory of having a home for one week. When it was time to bring him back to the shelter, Jason and Nikki were deeply conflicted. Should they bring him back or make him a permanent member of the family?

As they dropped Eugene back off at the shelter, the couple made him a promise: If he wasn’t adopted within a day or two, they would come back for him. Once they got home, they realized Eugene belonged in their lives, and that evening, they kept their promise and went back for him.

“When Nikki came to pick up Eugene on December 28, he started wiggling his whole body as soon as he saw her, and the smile came out,” Logan said.

As soon as Eugene saw Nikki and realized that she had kept her promise, he got the biggest smile on his face. He couldn’t stop smiling at and cuddling with his new forever mom, and she and her husband immediately knew they’d made the right decision.

“We got a text soon after from Jason saying, ‘Eugene has found a home with us. The smile at pickup last night solidified everything for us,’” Logan said.

Eugene, now named Louie, is thriving in his new home and has become inseparable from both his parents and his brother, Ruger. It’s the perfect happily-ever-after, and he still can’t stop smiling.