Tennessee Couple Awakens To Find A Strange Dog In Their Bed

Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to find a large dog snuggled in your bed. In the case of a Benton, Tenn. couple, they didn’t think anything of it at first, as they own three dogs. However, the next morning they awoke to see a strange dog snuggled on their pillows.

Couple awakens to strange dog in their bed

When Julie Johnson first woke up to find a dog in the bed, she thought nothing of it as she and her husband have three dogs. However, the next morning, the couple woke up to find a totally unfamiliar face staring back at them. Johnson said the dog was “big, brown and furry,” adding, that it was absolutely not their dog.

Speaking to As It Happens guest host Robyn Bresnahan, she said she rolled over and stared at her husband, Jimmy, and he stared back at her. “We were like, is this going to hurt us? You know, what do we do? Where did this come from?”

However, after a few seconds, they realized that they were fine and that the dog meant them no harm. In fact, not only was the dog non-threatening, she had made herself totally at home.

However, it was a “weird couple of minutes waking up.” Apparently, the dog snuggled up to her husband and got higher up on the pillows, wanting to be covered up. In fact, she said you would have thought that they were in the dog’s bed, instead of the other way around.

Searching for the dog’s owner

As the dog was friendly and well-cared for, the Johnsons knew she must belong to someone in the neighborhood. Julie went straight to Facebook and put together one of the most unusual posts of her life:

It is absolutely normal to wake up in our house with one of OUR dogs in the bed with us. One small problem, THIS IS NOT OUR DOG, nor do we know how she got in our house.

At first, we thought it was one of ours, but they rarely lay on the pillows!  In pitch darkness, I just assumed it was. Wouldn’t we all?

As daylight began to creep in through our curtains we realized we were snuggling with someone else’s dog.

Johnson added that this was the weirdest post she had ever had to make, asking her followers, “Is this your dog?” and asking them to share.

Owner of strange dog found

After an hour or so, the dog’s owner got in touch with Johnson. It turns out her new bedmate is a Labrador-bulldog mix by the name of Nala. Apparently, she is something of a “Houdini” and regularly makes great escapes.

Later, Nala’s owner, Cris Hawkins posted on Facebook, writing, “Our overly friendly pup, Nala, has hit an all-time record for ignoring personal space and added yet another trick to her long list of Houdini acts.”

Hawkins added that, thankfully, the couple thought it was hilarious and weren’t even made about it. According to Cris, “Thankfully, the couple thought it was hilarious and they aren’t even mad about it.”

So, how did the strange dog get there?

According to Cris, Nala slipped free of her collar the day before, probably to chase a squirrel, and ran off into the woods. She said they searched for her for a while, but eventually figured she would make her own way home.

Meanwhile, later that night, a storm hit and Julie suspects Jimmy didn’t latch the door properly when letting their three dogs out to pee. In the process, Nala managed to sneak in under cover of darkness to get out of the bad weather.

However, Johnson hasn’t figured out why her three pooches didn’t make a sound about the intruder. According to her, if the wind blows the wrong way, her dogs bark.

Nala didn’t want to go home

It turns out Nala found the Johnsons’ bed to be just right for her. When her owner arrived later that morning and called to her, Julie said her tail was wagging “a thousand miles an hour.” However, the pooch didn’t want to budge.

“Nala was happy with my husband in bed. Her mom was standing on our porch yelling, ‘Nala, come here, girl! Mama’s here!” Johnson added. This led to Julie having to let a strange woman into her home and into her bedroom where her husband was still snuggled up with her dog.

However, the story has a happy ending and Nala is back home where she belongs. However, Johnson said Nala is welcome to come back for a sleepover any time, as long as her dogs allow it.

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