No dog should have to spend its life in the shelter, but it’s a reality that many pups face. For a dog named Bonita, her lucky finally turned for the better after spending more than a year living in a kennel at the SPCA.

Poor Bonita spent 500 days at the Niagara County SPCA, but she finally got to go home.

In an interview with The Dodo, the SPCA’s event coordinator, Kimberly LaRussa, said that Bonita came to them as a stray. They had no idea what her background was like or where she came from, but they quickly noticed that no one was interested in adopting her.

Everyone who came in searching for dogs simply walked past her cage, not giving her a second glance. Days turned to weeks and then months. Eventually, a whole year passed and poor Bonita hadn’t seen a single prospective family.

The staff at the RSPCA in Niagara County became like her family, but after a long 500 days in the shelter, Ray Kinz walked in.

While many people are interested in puppies or the most popular breeds, Ray had a different approach to finding a dog. He wanted to know which dogs had been in the shelter the longest and which were the oldest.