Most of the time when someone adopts a pet it’s because they are looking to welcome a furry friend into their home. But sometimes the dog chooses its owner.
Can’t run from fate
Sometimes fate has a funny way of intervening, and instead of the owner finding the pet, the pet finds the owner…
The Jokinen family, who live in Philadelphia, know exactly what it’s like when fate intervenes and delivers an animal directly to your doorstep (quite literally). In their case, they woke up in the middle of the night to discover a stray dog in their living room.
Total confusion
Speaking to The Dodo about the bizarre circumstances that led to them adopting the stray, dad Jack Jokinen explained that his wife had woken him up at 4am to tell him that there was a puppy in the house. He added:
“So confused, I go downstairs, and there is a puppy in our house. The front door is locked, back door is locked, the windows are locked. Kind of this mystery puppy in our house.”
Watching the security camera
But as it turned out, after reviewing their security footage, the Jokinens discovered that their front door had accidentally been left open. CCTV footage showed the puppy limping down the street before climbing the steps to the Jokenins’ home and letting herself in through the front door.
Jack admitted:
“It looks like me just being a tired dad with a one-month old, when I came in from walking the dog, I closed the door and something didn’t catch.”
Anyone who has experienced parenthood will know that mistakes like this in the newborn days are pretty hard to avoid. Jack will be sure to double-check the door has locked in the future, but this time he was lucky that the only thing to enter his property was the opposite of dangerous.
A storm was brewing
There was a storm during the night that the puppy let herself in, which had blown the front door open. The stray pup, looking for shelter, hobbled inside.
About twenty minutes later, in a random act of kindness, a stranger noticed the door was open, yelled inside to check that everything was okay, then shut the door again. This was how the puppy seemed to have entered the Jokenins’ property seemingly without opening any of the doors.
A pup in bad shape
The poor pup was in a bad way. She was limping, malnourished, and nervous. When Jack called animal control, they told him that they could bring the pup in and “surrender it”.
Visit to the vet
Instead, Jack took her to the vet, who discovered there was no microchip, and diagnosed the pup with a whole host of conditions, including infected paws, swelling in her face, and mental scarring.
Thanks to the kindness of Jack and his wife, this poor stray’s story ends happily. He decided to adopt the dog, adding her to their already growing family.
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The pup, who they named Suzy, gained weight and became much healthier after just a week in her new home. Jack said:
“Suzy’s becoming a part of the family very quickly and getting along with George (the Jokenins’ other dog). They hang out, they’re getting closer to each other.”
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Thanking a stranger
Even more happily, Jack was able to track down the man who closed his door for him on the night of the storm. Jack promised that he was going to buy Steve “so many beers” for his smart thinking.
Jack evidently knew he had got off very lucky after his blunder. He said:
“Of all the bad things that can happen when your front door is left open, to end up with a sweet dog who just needs a good home… I mean, wow!”
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Watch the captured footage from that first night when Suzy crept into the Jokenins’ home, where she is now welcomed as a family member, in the video below. You can also find more of Suzy’s adventures on Instagram.
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