Armani McKoy was relaxing on the couch with his rescue dog, Bando. McKoy had just given Bando his Christmas gift, a plush dinosaur toy, and promised him a road trip to the beach.
As they watched TV together, Bando rested his head on McKoy’s shoulder. McKoy pulled out his phone to capture the sweet moment.
McKoy, a veteran who lives in Savannah, Georgia, posted the short video on Instagram with the caption: “Whoever lost this dog, thank you for not looking for him. He’s got a good home.”
He didn’t realize the Dec. 26 post also went to Threads — an app he had never used. The clip went viral as thousands of people began adding their own heartbreaking yet triumphant stories of how they rescued their pups that had been left tied to poles in public places, abandoned on the sides of roads or even dumped in the woods.
“Everybody started responding,” said McKoy, 34.
“Found my baby outside in the cold last January,” one person commented, with a photo of a cozy-looking pup wearing a winter coat and boots.
“Someone dumped this lil bean in a parking lot at 8 weeks,” another wrote, attaching a photo of a dog wearing a pink pig shirt.
“Found my dude left chained in a park starved and full of worms,” a man posted along with a photoof him and his pup.
“He was given away and boom, I found my soul dog,” someone else added.
Matthew East shared about his once-abandoned dog, Otis.
“Didn’t want Otis at first but realized I needed him,” he commented. “Found at 2 weeks old at a car wash behind a dumpster and now 11 years later we travel the world together.”
East, who lives in Los Angeles, said a friend found Otis wandering alone at a car wash a few days after East’s childhood dog, Nick, died.
“My heart was in shambles,” East said in a phone interview.
His friend told East she had a new dog for him, but he told her: “No, thank you.”
His mom encouraged him to take in the stray dog — and they’ve been attached at the hip since. East said he brings Otis everywhere, including on trips to Italy and Kenya.
He said he added his story to Threads after reading so many other heart-tugging replies.
“It was so beautiful getting to read these stories and see these images of people expressing and receiving love from their furry companions,” he said.
McKoy adopted Bando — a 2-year-old mixed-breed pit bull — from a shelter in August. He wasn’t sure if he wanted the responsibility of owning a dog, but when he met Bando, whose name was originally Buster, he was drawn to him.
“He was really affectionate,” McKoy said. “He started rubbing his nose on my hand, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s the one.”
Bando’s paperwork indicated that he had been found wandering the streets of Georgia with another dog, McKoy said, noting that he renamed him “Bando” because it’s slang for abandoned house.
Shortly after bringing Bando home, where McKoy lives on his own, McKoy had him trained and certified as an emotional support animal.
“I suffer from PTSD, and he is really helpful for that,” McKoy said. “He does his job very well. … He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
McKoy said Bando is energetic and loves trails, but he is also an expert napper and is calm when they’re home together. At the dog park, “he’s the life of the party,” McKoy said. “He’s flawless, down to his personality.”
When he posted the cuddling video, McKoy said, the last thing he anticipated was for it to blow up. But he understands why it did.
“I’m so tired of social media being political all the time,” he said. “Everybody just came together and were like, ‘Hey, this is my dog.’ … We got to do something positive.”
McKoy said he has scrolled through most of the comments and has tried to respond to as many as he can. The post has been viewed more than 1.2 million times, he said.
“There are a bunch of really adorable dogs all over the place,” McKoy said.
One of those dogs is Joey, Dan Bailey’s rescue pup.
“Someone was dumb enough to dump this girl (and her siblings) in the woods when she was just a few weeks old,” he wrote on Threads. “Their loss, my massive gain. Bestest, most-loyal, smartest dog ever.”
Bailey and his wife live in Minneapolis, and they adopted Joey in December 2023.
“She’s a very family-oriented dog, and she is terrifyingly bright,” Bailey said in a phone interview. “It was fun to share her with everybody else because she’s such a great dog.”
Melonee Gaines, who lives in Memphis, also stumbled upon McKoy’s Thread and shared a photo of her pup, Suudi — a shih tzu. Suudi was abandoned at an animal hospital for six months before Gaines took her home nearly nine years ago.
“They never picked her up,” Gaines said of Suudi’s previous owners. “I hate to see dogs suffer.”
Gaines said she was touched to see so many proud rescue dog owners commenting on McKoy’s Thread.
“Dogs deserve a happy life,” she said.
McKoy said he hopes his social media post encourages prospective pet owners to consider adopting a shelter dog.
“My whole life revolves around him,” McKoy said of Bando. “I honestly don’t know how I made it without him before.”
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