A rescue dog labeled aggressive and one to attack proved he was quite the opposite after a spat broke out between him and the family cat.
A family welcomed home an overlooked shelter dog, Charlie, last year after the daughter pleaded to bring him home even after the animal shelter tried to talk her out of it, Newsweek previously reported. He came from an abusive background where he was locked in a shed, getting eaten by flies, with a skin infection and severely malnourished.
“My daughter saw him and would not give up on him,” mother Brittany Briscoe told Newsweek via email. “The shelter told her that he may be aggressive towards other animals and children because of what he’s been through.”
Charlie officially became her daughter’s dog, and since adopting him, the family quickly discovered he was the opposite of an aggressive dog. Briscoe said he is “very patient and gentle.” He protects the newborn and gets along with her 2-year-old.
When her daughter left for the weekend, Charlie spent more time with Briscoe, begging to become friends with her new cat, Genesis. However, the cat wanted “no part of him most of the time.” Briscoe said it depended on her mood.
Despite the shelter saying Charlie is “likely to attack” if they owned a cat, Briscoe saw a different incident unfold in a video she posted to the TikTok account @faithfloats_ on May 12. She started filming the dog and cat as they were cuddling on her bed. She thought it would be a cute video, but instead, the cat’s mood took a 180 turn, and she went after Charlie.
Briscoe immediately separated them, yelling at Genesis for going after Charlie. She wrote in the comment section that she thinks she reacted strongly out of concern for the dog. She felt bad and responsible, especially after she thought they were finally getting along.
“I was completely not expecting it,” Briscoe said. “I had about 0.2 seconds to think. The comments seem to be upset that I shouted at her, but it was more so out of fright and I was more joking than anything.”
With over 6.8 million views on TikTok, users flooded the comment section in defense of Charlie.
“Did they mean to say that Charlie is likely to get attacked by a cat??? lol,” wrote one viewer.
A second person added: “Poor Charlie was scared.”
Another commented: “The cat was scared, but I’m glad the dog remained calm. The situation could’ve been a lot worse.”
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