Couple Rescues Great Pyrenees And Ends Up With Something So Unexpected

Sometimes, a scared dog seems to know exactly the right humans to choose as rescuers. That's certainly the case with a Great Pyrenees named Waco. In a heartwarming YouTube video shared by The Dodo, Joel and his husband, Scott, were taking their dog for a walk when they discovered a frightened, malnourished Great Pyrenees in their front yard. A visit to the vet revealed no microchip, and the gentle giant wasn't advertised as missing on any of the pet-finding websites. The couple decided to adopt the dog.

"She had to learn what treats were," Joel said in the video. "Playing with toys and stuff like that seemed all to be new to her." Waco thrived in her new home, and at first her new owners were delighted that she was gaining weight, but then they started suspecting that something besides good nutrition was going on. A second visit to the vet confirmed it: The beautiful white dog was pregnant with eight puppies. "You didn't save one dog, you saved 9. Bless you ❤," one viewer wrote, and another joked, "They saved a Trojan horse 😂."

Many netizens concluded that Waco had run away from a dangerous breeding situation. "I can only think that she escaped from maybe a possible puppy mill. She looks to be a purebred Great [Pyrenees]. And those puppies do not look mixed either," one person wrote. Another stated that Joel and Scott have "likely saved generations of pups by taking her in."

The vet could tell that Waco had been a mom once before. After the great Pyrenees gave birth this time, initially, she seemed nervous that her new owners were going to take away her puppies. "But once she understood that we were all in it together, then she really brought us along on the journey of it," Joel told The Dodo. He and Scott didn't rush to rehome Waco's babies.

Puppies should be at least eight to 12 weeks old before they go to their new homes, so they have time to be fully weaned and go through proper socialization with their mother and littermates. In a puppy mill, however, in order to maximize profits, puppies are usually removed from their mothers at just four to seven weeks of age. Sweet Waco was likely remembering her previous litter being wrenched away from her far too soon. One netizen summed up the thoughts of everyone who watched the story of Waco and her new owners: "Thank you for rescuing this beautiful girl—and then all of her puppies. Feels like a Disney movie. ❤"

Want to read more heartwarming stories about sweet dogs adopted into their forever homes? Grab some tissues and check out this rescue dog who comes home with anxiety — but everything changes when he finds his voice, and this shepherd mix who becomes a "foster fail" and looks so happy he could cry.