Hallee Fuqua from Oklahoma loves dogs so much that she had been volunteering at a local dog shelter during the thanksgiving break. She instantly formed a close bond with one of the dogs there, so her dad decided to surprise her at Christmas with a truly special gift — that very same rescue dog. She had been asking for a dog for years, but until now, her wish had never been granted.
Her dad records the moment when she first lays eyes on her canine friend, and it’s a truly beautiful moment.
From the minute she began volunteering at the Humane Society in Stillwater, Hallee fell in love with rescue dog Rambo, a Plott Hound and Mountain Cur mix. The pair formed a close bond and Rambo was always the first that Hallee would go and visit.
“She would come in and just sit with him,” Jackie Ross-Guerrero, the shelter’s director, told ABC News. “They connected from day one.”
Hallee knew that she wouldn’t get to be a part of Rambo’s life forever.
Before long, a family would come to adopt him and she wouldn’t be able to care for him anymore. She was really intent on enjoying every moment with him until then.
But Hallee’s father Lance had a plan. He decided to secretly adopt Rambo and set the whole thing up as a beautiful Christmas surprise for his daughter. As Hallee worked in the shelter, their secret adoption mission was going to be hard to pull off and involved a few little white lies.
“We pulled a little white lie when she would come in so she would think he was still under adoption,” Jackie said.
When Hallee found out through social media that Rambo had been adopted two days before the surprise on Sunday, Dec. 16, her father said that she was absolutely ‘broken’.
Little did Hallee know that the dog actually belonged to her!
The day he was due to gift Hallee with her surprise, he managed to capture her reaction on video, which he shared onto a now-viral Facebook post. Her reaction is so pure that we can see how the post racked up over 12k likes and 4k shares since being posted. It’s such a beautiful moment!
Lance is sitting holding Rambo as Hallee opens the door, completely unaware of what she’s about to see. As she takes in the sight of her dad with her favorite dog, she simply stands and stares, evidently in complete shock.
Then as Rambo bounds over to greet her, Hallee breaks down in tears as she cuddles up with her new dog.
She seems to be in a state of disbelief and asks, “is he mine?” and, “are you joking?” But when she realizes that Rambo is all hers she simply can’t stop crying tears of joy.
In his Facebook post, Lance used his newfound internet fame to encourage people to donate to the shelter. The caption reads:
‘So, here’s the story. Our daughter Hallee Fuqua has been asking for a dog for Christmas for years. We told her she should wait until after she graduates college. She began volunteering at the Humane Society of Stillwater. She fell in love with a dog named Rambo and visited him often.’
‘My wife and I decided to secretly adopt him 3 weeks ago. With the help from the Humane Society we kept it a secret. She found out this weekend that Rambo had been adopted and she was broken. So Sunday night we surprised her with her early Christmas present. We captured the moment on video. Merry Christmas Hallee! #onehappygirl #onehappydog’
He then asked for donations to go towards the shelter. What an amazing dad! We bet this is a Christmas that Hallee is never going to forget.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
