A woman has described how a stray who kept breaking into her house around the time her dogs had dinner, became family.
Studies have shown how lost dogs are capable of finding their way home. In 2020, a study published in the journal Ecology saw researchers track the navigation abilities of 27 dogs from over 10 breeds over a three-year period.
As part of the experiment each of the dogs was fitted with a GPS collar and camera before being invited to freely roam around a forested area. At a certain point the dogs were called by their owners, who were not immediately visible, and had to work out how to get to them.
Around 60 percent were able to follow their outbound route by tracing their own scent. However, a third ran 20 meters along a north-south axis in what researchers concluded were “compass runs” designed to help the dogs orient themselves. This was down to an innate ability to detect magnetic fields and explains why canines are often able to find their way home.
But while it’s one thing for a dog to find their way back, it’s a whole other thing for a stray to decide an entirely new place is now home.
Yet, that’s what seems to have happened to Heather DeFrancesco and her husband Rob from Gainestown, Alabama. It all started two weeks ago, when they noticed their four dogs Scooby, Scrappy, Lizzy and Buddy had a fifth canine interloper with them for dinner.
“I would find him in the house at around 4 p.m., which is dinner time for my dogs,” DeFrancesco told Newsweek. “I had no idea how he had gotten there. It happened for four days. My husband gets home around that time, so I thought he was playing a joke on me.”
It was only later, when DeFrancesco investigated further, that she realized the dog was getting in through an open window on one of her back doors. Footage posted to DeFrancesco’s TikTok, heatherdefrancesc, shows the dog literally breaking into her home around dinner time.
“We leave that opening in the door for the cat to come in and eat. I never imagined a dog coming through it,” she said. “I believe he followed Buddy home. They seem to love each other. My pit bull mix Scooby growled at him the first night, he gave it to him right back… and Scooby ran away. He’s definitely got personality! Now, they all get along great.”
Named “Gimpy” on account of his cherry eye and a bad back leg, the dog’s sudden appearance is something of a mystery. “He has no collar or tags and he’s not microchipped. We live very rurally, so someone might have dumped him off. They do that a lot here,” DeFrancesco said.
Initially they were happy to feed Gimpy and send him off on his way, but then something happened: he kept coming back. “He’s fed and then snuggles up with my husband and I in our bed,” DeFrancesco said. “He acts like he’s been here forever.”
The plan now is to keep Gimpy around and take him to the vet to get that leg checked out. It’s a remarkable turn of events but one DeFrancesco wouldn’t change for anything and hopes her story inspires others to give strays a chance.
“Our goal is to start a little non-profit rescue. We’ve rescued 14 dogs since buying our home here,” she said. “Of course we couldn’t keep them all, but that little Gimpy has Gumption. He just stole our hearts.”
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