Proving that the loyalty of our fur friends knows no bounds, a video of a Boxer dog huddled in a staircase has gone viral after it was revealed he waited there patiently for his family to return after they moved out and left him behind.
Alone for almost two weeks, the footage shows the moment Freon was rescued by Donna Lochmann from Stray Rescue of St. Louis and has been viewed more than 700,000 times since it was shared back in July.
Lochmann first learned of Freon’s plight after a local landlord called the animal shelter to report that a dog had been abandoned in one of their properties.
A week after his tenants had vacated the home, they called their former landlord to let them know that their new residence didn’t allow dogs and that they’d left Freon locked in the staircase.
After receiving the call, Lochmann got straight in her car and headed over to the address the landlord had given her.
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“When I cracked the door [open], I saw him huddling on one of the landings,” Lochmann explains. Making her way gently down the stairs, she was surprised that Freon let her put a leash on him without any objections.
“He was a little hesitant to come with me,” Lochmann said. “But after just a little bit of coaxing with Vienna sausages, he walked up the steps and right out the front door.”
While he didn’t have a name at the time she rescued him, Lochmann was quick to give him one after he took a shine to the air conditioning vent in her car.
“He kind of stood up front with us and pushed his face against the air conditioner vents,” Lochmann said. “That’s why he got the name Freon, because he liked the cold air on his face.”
Upon arrival at the shelter, Freon immediately stole everyone’s hearts, kissing everyone he came into contact with. While he required some medical attention due to the time he’d been on his own, he had been left with several bowls of food and water which meant he was in relatively good health.
While Freon may have been abandoned by his first family, it didn’t take him long to find a new forever one. The shelter says he is thriving in his new environment and even has a doggy sibling to play with.
“We love you, buddy,” the shelter wrote in a post announcing Freon’s adoption. “[There’s] no looking back.”
