About 7 years ago Lewis Jimenez adopted pit bull, named Titus, when he was 2 years old at the Austin Animal Center,  in the state of Texas.  He admits he fell for the dog once he saw him walking out in the yard with the volunteers.

For the next five years, Lewis and Titus were inseparable, and Lewis couldn’t imagine his life without Titus. “He’s like my big old kid,” Jimenez said. “He’s part of me.”

About half a year ago though, Lewis came to the same center and said he had to return the dog to the shelter, which surprised the staff.  But it turned out the issue was with his current household management.

“The management company told him that he had to get rid of Titus, or he was going to be evicted,” Jennifer Olohan, communications and media manager at Austin Animal Center, said.

The shelter also thought that Lewis won’t come back for his dog, as this is usually how it works when owners bring their dogs back – they never return, although they claim to and promise to take their pets back.

Lewis had no other place to live with Titus, neither had he someone who could care for Titus temporarily — so he had no alternative choice but to take him back to the pet shelter.

It was obvious how difficult it was for Lewis to leave Titus in the shelter and Titus, in its turn had extreme difficulties in getting used to live in the shelter without his owner

“The shelter is a really, really stressful place for dogs,” Olohan said. “Some dogs handle it better than others, but Titus wasn’t one of them. He was really stressed out. When you got him out of his kennel, he was great — super playful and really sweet. But in his kennel he was sullen and really sad.”

The staff & volunteers  of the center were doing their best to keep Titus entertained and taking him for walks, but he would turn sad all the time after returning from his walks.

Lewis though kept the promise and was visiting Titus frequently. Their meetings were all emotional.

The hardest part was the end of each visit. “The staff would see them in tears as they were leaving,” Olohan said. “So the whole situation was just heartbreaking.”

Finally the happy day came — Lewis & his family finally found a  living place where they could keep Titus without problems and this house had a big yard to run around in for Titus.

“Everyone was really, really emotional,” Olohan said. “Titus was thrilled and so was Lewis. We had some staff and volunteers there, and everyone was crying. Some people knew about their story already, and knew that Lewis was kind of waiting in the wings for Titus.”

The photos of the final reunion of Lewis and his dog were captured on the camera and after being posted by the shelter, went viral at once.

Lewis is holding his dog tight and Titus’ face glows with a smile.

Titus  settled back into his life with Lewis at once.

“He said that Titus is lounging on the couch, even though he’s not supposed to, but they’re giving him a break since he’s had a rough go at the shelter,” Olohan said. “But they said he’s doing great. They’re beyond happy to have him back.”

“He loves Titus,” Olohan added. “We can see now that not coming back from Titus was never an option — he was doing everything he could to make sure that he got Titus back.”