“Nobody wanted to adopt Cooper,” she told The Dodo. “And then we got an applicant. I think I broke down every other hour. I was like, ‘Andy, I don’t know what we’re going to do!’ I couldn’t imagine just handing him over and saying, ‘Ok, now be Cooper’s family.’”

They decided to adopt Cooper themselves.

Although he struggled in the beginning and still encounters some hiccups, Cooper is living his life to the fullest and helping his new forever home do the same.

“With our other rescues, there was no getting-to-know you period,” Elly said. “It was a family from the beginning.”

“Many dogs with conditions like Cooper’s are euthanized which makes me so, so sad,” she told Fox News. “They have so much living to do and Cooper is a real example of that. He has a happy, normal little life now and is a key member of our family.”

You can keep up with Cooper’s adventures on his Facebook page. If you can’t get enough of this sweet pooch who is “short on spine, big on love, share this article with your friends.