Story for DR TCB that I hope helps:
When Boo-Key was in 8th grade he wanted a puppy. We went to the Humane Society and he picked out this adorable, little female part German Shepherd and some other mix puppy, but a young college student wanted her, too. Well, they had the rule that since she had just come in, they had to wait the 72 hours to give the original owner the chance to claim her if indeed she were lost and not just dumped. So we and the student were told to come back after the weekend if we were still interested. Yes, we all showed up after the deadline, so they then followed their other rule, a drawing/raffle. Case drew a number and the other boy drew a number, the other boy won and he got the puppy. We were bummed, especially Case, so we told him are you sure you don't want to look at the other dogs and see if you can find another one you like. He did look, and he did find one:
Our beloved, adorable, doofy, nutty, pound puppy Deuce, who is now going on 9 years as a Murphy (he's some kind of mutt with black lab, border collie, etc., and we kid "coyote" cause he has a wild streak -- he looks like he's wearing a tuxedo with his markings -- his spats saved him, cause his little white feet/paws made him look so cute happily jumping at the side of the cage that day)
(so there were two happy endings that day cause two puppies got placed in loving homes, not just one -- Perfect Kitty is out there, you'll see)