Dog Named 'Jake from State Farm' Hoping to End String of Bad Luck with Forever Home

Photo: Burlington Animal Services/Facebook

“Jake from State Farm” may beone of the most loved commercial charactersof all time. Still, a shelter pup with the same name hasn’t been so lucky — Jake (his nickname is “Jake from State Farm”), an 8-year-old rescue dog, has ended up in a North Carolina shelter four times in the past three months, theCharlotte Observerreports.

In January, first responders found Jake stuck in a crate at home with his dead owner, who passed away before they could let the pet out. Eric Hockenberry, one of the people who rescued the dog, shared in aFacebook postthat “good doggo” Jake was “not happy” when he was found, “but he held everything in until we made it outside where he peed for about 3 minutes straight,”

When Jake first arrived at the Burlington Animal Shelter, he was “stressed, scared and hungry,” Darlene Cox, a Burlington customer service supervisor, toldMcClatchy News. “The (dead owner’s) family could not keep him, so he was brought here for us to find him a new home.”

Jake was adopted not long after his rescue, but his new family lost their home and had to return the canine a few weeks after his adoption, Cox added. Shelter employees nicknamed him “Jake from State Farm” after the happy insurance agent and even began dressing him up in a red State Farm T-shirt.

Burlington Animal Services/Facebook

After getting his nickname, Jake was placed in two foster homes that didn’t work out because he “does not care for cats, and they had cats,” Cox said.

People have also reached out to the shelter to meet Jake, but he’s still up for adoption.

“A lot of times, the older dogs tend to get overlooked,” Cox said, according to theCharlotte Observer. “He is a very mellow guy and is house trained. Just needs a couch to rest his head and retire on.”

Pet adoptions and fosters have soared during the COVID-19 pandemic as people are spending more time at home. According to new research from Porch and Shelter Animals Count, Americans have adopted more than 750,000 shelter dogs and cats during the pandemic. About 54% of shelter animals have found new homes, a 3% increase from last year.

Despite everything Jake has been through these last few months, the pup “has a happy personality [and] seems to keep a smile on his face,” the shelter wrote onFacebook. Jake would love to be a part of your life."

For details on Jake, contact the Burlington Animal Shelter atpetadoption@burlingtonnc.gov.

source: people.com