Woman wakes up to dog snuggling with her in bed
But it wasn’t one of her 3 pups.
Just as the sun was rising on May 1, Julie Thornton Johnson’s husband alerted her to the presence of a dog in their bed.
This wasn’t surprising news for Johnson, who has three dogs with her husband in their home in Ocoee, Tennessee, about 180 miles southeast of Nashville.
The surprise came when the couple took a closer look at the animal sleeping peacefully between them.
“We both kind of rolled over and looked at each other and there’s a 90-pound dog in between us that doesn’t belong to us,” she told McClatchy News.
At first, Johnson said she felt concerned.
“Should we be scared?” she said she thought at the time. “What else is in our house?”
But the dog, a 5-year-old pitbull-Labrador mix, didn’t seem threatening, Johnson said.
“My husband just moved the blankets a little bit and she just snuggled right into him like she belonged to him,” she said.
Johnson said she didn’t know who the dog’s owner was or how it had gotten into their house and past the couple’s three dogs who usually bark at anything that comes up their driveway.
So she posted photos of the dog on Facebook looking snug and content in her bed.
“This is the weirdest post I have ever had to make,” she wrote. “Is this your dog?”
Meanwhile, about a mileand-a-half away, Felecia Johnson was pulling up to her parent’s house. (Felecia and Julie Johnson are not related.)
Felecia Johnson’s parents had been taking care of her and her girlfriend’s dog, Nala, and told them that she’d slipped out of her collar while on a walk in the yard the previous night.
While wondering where her dog might have gone, Felecia Johnson said she received a message of a post on Facebook showing a picture of a dog who looked like Nala snuggled up in a stranger’s bed.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh how did she get in their house?’” she told McClatchy News. “I immediately start responding to Julie, ‘Hey, that’s my dog. Where are you located?’”
After the women communicated and confirmed the dog was Nala, Felecia Johnson drove to Julie Johnson’s house to pick her up. But there was still one problem.
“When she came to get the dog, Nala wouldn’t get out of bed,” Julie Johnson said.
Felecia Johnson said she had to do a little coaxing to get her pet back.
“I was like, ‘Nala, what are you doing?’ and she just kind of starts tapping her tail like, ‘Uh-oh,’” Felecia Johnson said.
After Nala was finally back at her rightful home, everyone involved said they were glad the story had a happy ending and helped introduce them to new friends.
“We’re going to try to plan a puppy play date with their dogs and ours,” Julie Johnson said.
But no one could believe how far their story has spread.
Friends and family members have contacted Julie Johnson
as well as Felecia Johnson and her girlfriend, Cris Hawkins, to say that they’ve seen their story on news sites across the U.S. and abroad.
“We have a really simple life, and we’re kind of blown away that this story has made it this far,” Julie Johnson said.
The story with its happy ending and plenty of humor is just what people need right now, Felecia Johnson said.
“There’s so much negativity going on, this is just kind of like a soft spot for people,” she said. “It’s a good laugh. That’s what a lot of people need right now is a mental break from everything going on.”
Do you have a beloved pet that has passed away? You can honor a pet with a Pet Memorial to be printed in the newspaper on
our Pet Spot page. The memorial will include a photo. For more information, call 937-2231515 or email coh.classifieds@coxinc.com.