Princess arrived at the Humane Society for Hamilton County in Noblesville, Indiana, when she was 10 weeks old. A family adopted her when she was a puppy, but it wasn’t her furever home. They returned her upon getting a new puppy. She had a couple other temporary gigs before she ended up back at the shelter waiting on her prince charming. She waited seven years.
Cpl. Justin Growden returned from deployment a changed man. He heard about the Pets Healing Vets program at the Humane Society, which pairs qualifying veterans returning from active duty with PTSD or traumatic brain injury. He decided to give it a try.
It was love at first sight when he met Princess. Princess set the record for the longest stay at the shelter, and the staff was ecstatic to see her dreams finally coming true.
“She’s just been in and out of homes to give her a break but not that forever home that she’s been waiting for all of this time. And so we could not be more grateful and feel incredibly blessed to have met Justin and have him walk in the door that day,” said Rebecca Stevens, the shelter’s executive director.
Growden says Princess has brought so much joy to his home and they are on the road to being the healing each other needed. And like the ending to any good princess furry tail, they lived happily ever after.

