WATCH: Dog hops over shelter wall to be with canine crony

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A cement wall at a Minneapolis animal shelter wasn’t enough to keep a pair of pups apart.

Madison Weissenborn, an employee at Minneapolis Animal Care and Control, says she and another employee were walking through the kennels when two pit bulls came to the front of one kennel to greet them.

“We had to triple take, like, ‘What’s going on?’” Weissenborn said.

Security camera footage cracked the case. It shows one of the pit bulls, Brenda, climb over the shelter wall, so she could be with her friend, Linda, in the next kennel over.

“We rewatched the video that we have, and I about died. I was like, ‘This is truly magnificent,’” Weissenborn said.

Brenda and Linda came into the shelter as strays two weeks ago, and now, they’re inseparable. Shelter staff hope the pair will leave together, too.

“We knew that they had to be together,” Weissenborn said. “We know it’s not going to be easy to find them placement together, but we would love it if we could.”

The shelter has been near capacity, with Weissenborn saying adoptions are down and surrenders are up 20% from 2022, which was a record-setting year. She says housing issues – people moving away, moving into places that don’t allow specific breeds or people experiencing homelessness – have caused the majority of cases.

There is also a shortage of veterinary technicians, meaning the shelter can’t help the same number of animals as it did pre-pandemic.

Large dog adoptions have slowed some, too, which is part of a trend seen nationwide.

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