Adopting a dog is always a heartwarming experience. You feel like you get to give them a better life and show them the love they deserve. Usually, when you adopt a dog, you don’t expect them to come with a hobby! This former stray dog, though, lives up to the name Van Gogh.
Inside Edition’s YouTube channel shared a video about a one-eared former stray dog named Van Gogh who paints — and paints beautifully! Just to make sure everyone gets how amazing this is, Vincent Van Gogh was a famous painter back in the 1800s who cut off the lower part of his left ear with a razor. It’s almost as if Vincent were reincarnated!
The boxer/pit bull mix was a friendly neighborhood stray, and unfortunately, dog fighters picked him up and used him as a bait dog. Van Gogh was found hiding in a drainpipe, covered in scratches and scrapes, with his ear hanging off.
Animal control brought the poor dog to a shelter, where veterinarians had to amputate his ear because the injury was too severe to fix. Van Gogh was on the list available for adoption for four months, but he wasn’t getting any applications to take him home.
Jaclyn Gartner, from Happily Furever After Rescue, got the idea to let him paint. She said, “I thought it’d be a cute little gift to give the potential adopter. We did an art gallery event, and he had made canvases, and we had auctioned them off to do a fundraiser as well as try to help him find a home.”
Jaclyn then showed Inside Edition exactly how she gets Van Gogh to paint his beautiful artwork. She starts by putting a thin layer of peanut butter on top of a large zip-lock bag, then she puts a canvas with different colors of paint on it inside the bag. While Van Gogh is licking off the peanut butter, he creates his masterpieces.
The money received from Van Gogh’s paintings goes back to Jaclyn’s animal rescue and helps other dogs find their forever homes. Sharing his work with the world got Van Gogh adopted by Jessica Starowitz. He is finally living the happy life that he deserves.
To hear about Van Gogh’s rescue story, click the link!
