Woman Never Planned To Adopt Abandoned Dog Until 'Her Eyes Locked Mine'

A woman who went to the local animal shelter never intending to adopt a dog immediately changed her mind when the pair locked eyes.

Animal lover Katie Graham has gone viral for showing the moment she realized she had to adopt a dog who had been abandoned in the Georgia summer heat.

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She told Newsweek: "Someone left her tied to a bench, off of a busy road."

"The past few days temperatures reached up to +97 degrees [Fahrenheit] with intense humidity. She had no shade, no shelter, and someone, we assume her owners, who dumped her, left her a bowl of water. That was it. She was terrified and didn't know why she was suddenly alone."

A friend of Graham instantly rushed to rescue her, and she was brought to a shelter on stray hold. Graham, who owns a dog training company, went to the shelter to try to analyze her behavior and communication efforts.

"I had no intentions of adopting her," she said. "And no clue how much she would need me."

A video shared to Graham's TikTok account @hope.you.like.dogs showed the moment she met the terrified pup in the shelter. It has had a huge reaction, with over 1.6 million views and over 1880,000 likes.

In the clip, Graham stays behind as the kennel door is opened, and the dog immediately locks eyes with her and doesn't stop watching her. As the dog is brought up the corridor, she keeps turning around and staring at Graham with sad, confused eyes.

The pup had been at risk of being euthanized, as the Cobb County Animal Shelter is at capacity and left with no choice but to euthanize to "allow space for the ever-growing numbers," Graham said.

"Due to her fear, she was unlikely to be adopted. Adding to the fact she is a black dog, which are known to not be as wanted as the other flashier colors, her odds were not very high," she added.

And, as she wrote in the video: "I couldn't leave her."

Graham, owner of Total Focus Canine Academy, told Newsweek: "Once I was led to her kennel, her eyes locked mine and I felt a sense of peace that I had not felt in a long long time."

She explained that she herself had been struggling, having suffered a loss and living with chronic disabilities. Once the dog looked at her, "I immediately felt a sense of relief from the pain I had been going through."

"All I wanted to do then was ensure she would be safe, loved and taught to trust again. I knew in my heart, something led us together that day and together we would help each other."

Graham has now taken in the dog, which she has named Roo after the Winnie-the-Pooh character, and she is settling in brilliantly, getting along with Graham's other dogs and wanting "nothing more than to curl up next to me."

"She slept and slept. I gave her a bath, and she thoroughly enjoyed being pampered, realizing she would never have to be so scared again."

TikTok users were left emotional by the viral video, commenting in their thousands to thank Graham for saving the abandoned dog. One wrote: "She'll be your forever bestie. 30 years from now you'll think of her and remember. Then a tear will fall."

"You chose each other, the moment she looked at you," another wrote, and one said: "I don't understand how someone can dump their pets. My pets are my family members to me."

And as one person put it: "Ye found each other. Fate brought ye together. It's incredible. You are her person. Furever."

Incredibly, as Roo's video soared in popularity across TikTok, someone reached out to Graham claiming they previously owned Roo and her littermates. Two months later, after being taken by a new owner, the dog was tied up and left on the side of the road.

"Her old owner claims she is 7 months old, and is a husky-Lab cross, but I believe there is other breeds also mixed in," Graham said. "She resembles more border collie than anything else. Her mannerisms also point to the border collie."

Graham, who trains service dogs and also has one of her own to help her, said: "If Roo starts showing signs of wanting to work, then maybe one day she will be able to help me too."

Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.