When Doug and Michelle Christian heard about Mary, a Malinois mix who was in desperate need of a home, they immediately agreed to become her foster parents for a while.
The couple have two permanent dogs at home and both have failed foster homes in the past, so they were confident he would stay alone with them until he found a loving forever home.
Security dog
The couple made it clear multiple times that Mary would only be a foster.
“Doug said, ‘Listen, we’ll foster her, but it’s just going to be a foster,’” the founder of Foxy and the Hounds, Terri Fox, told The Dodo.
To their surprise, as soon as Mary arrived at their home, she immediately clicked with her new doggo siblings.
And, even though her dad, Doug, didn’t want to seem interested in her at all, the rest of the family accepted her as if they knew her their entire lives.
“I pretended I was keeping emotionally distanced. But all I really wanted was to adopt this dog,” Doug told The Dodo.
Within just a few weeks, Mary became an essential part of the Christian family.
Secret Plan
Having Mary around, Doug soon realized that he did not want to live life without her, so he started dropping subtle hints to his wife about adopting her, hoping that she would be on board with the idea.
However, he was totally oblivious to the fact that Michelle was already going through adoption papers with Fox.
“She texted me, ‘Doug loves Mary, and Mary loves Doug. I’d like to surprise him for Christmas,’” said Fox.
As soon as she found out that Mary was officially theirs, Michelle decided to wrap her adoption papers, along with a new tag, in a red box, placing it underneath a tree and marking it with “Doug”.
When it was Doug’s turn to open his gifts on Christmas morning, he was brought to tears as soon as he realized what he had gotten.
“As soon as I saw the adoption papers folded over with the tag that was customized with her name on it, I just came apart. It’s the only thing that I really wanted for Christmas,” said Doug.
Doug got tears of joy all over Mary as he gave her a big celebratory hug, but this pup didn’t mind one bit as she was overjoyed herself.
One couldn’t really tell who was hipper, Doug or Mary.
Final Word
Even as time passed, these two were as happy as they were on that Christmas day.
Mary now enjoys her days spent in a warm and loving house surrounded by people who cherish and adore her, and Doug now has three furry babies who make his life so much better.
Now, that is life!
