Imagine waking up to the sound of crashing thunder in the dead of night. Everything’s dark, and the only sound you can hear is the heavy rain crashing down on the roof. You turn over and find one of your dogs who jumped in the bed with you. You think they must have jumped in while I was asleep, but upon closer examination, you find that the dog is in fact not yours – but a total stranger!
This is exactly what happened to Julie Johnson in Tennessee. Unaware as to how the canine entered the house, it could have been that an entryway was left partially open, but all she knows is that a stranger had made its way into her home – and bed!
The sly pup wasn’t attempting to steal anything but instead was there to simply cuddle. An earthy-colored bull terrier with a brilliant heart and ninja-like skills crawled into the Johnsons’ home, bounced directly into bed close to Julie and her husband Jimmy, and nodded off, making itself at home laying her head on their pillow and everything!
“You could see light coming into our curtains in our bedroom and I feel my husband not just roll over, but kind of startled, like almost a jump roll over and it woke me up,” Julie told NPR. “And in a quiet but stern voice, he said, ‘Julie, whose dog is this?’”
In spite of the startling surprise, in such a circumstance, it didn’t take too long before Julie and Jimmy understood the stranger came in peace and was simply “100% content being there.”
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Later, it was determined that the pups name was Nala, but how she managed to sneak her way into the house without being noticed by not only the Johnsons’ but their three dogs Zeppelin, Jupiter, and Hollis – who also sleep near the couple – they will never know, and it probably made for an intriguing topic of discussion the next morning.
Julie took to Facebook to check whether she could find the canine’s owners, posting an assortment of selfies she took with the humble pup. Not long after, Nala’s owners reached out to them to make sense of how she had gotten out of her collar on a walk the day prior to the severe thunderstorm.
She had gotten away into the forest, and between the four canine owners, the hypothesis formed that perhaps Nala had gone into the Johnsons’ home out of fear from the thunder and lightning that night.
“Our overly friendly pup, Nala, has hit an all-time record for ignoring personal space and added yet another trick to her long list of Houdini acts,” Cris Hawkins, one of Nala’s owners, wrote on Facebook. Shame on Nala for somehow breaking into a stranger’s house and invading their personal space. Thankfully, the couple thought it was hilarious and they aren’t even mad about it.”
I’d be surprised if they didn’t spend the rest of their days not checking the doors before bed, but this is one break-in that ended up good, and ever since the occurrence that night, the four dogs now enjoy playdates in the recreation area, celebrating their new fond, yet coincidental companionship!