A couple delighted internet users by documenting how quickly their new rescue dog learned to trust them.
Some rescue animals can take months—or even years—to trust their new owners, but Tassu the Romanian rescue dog took just a matter of days to warm to her new parents, Pinja Papinsaari and Tom Knecht.
In just a week, Tassu is seen running through the thick snow outside her new home in Stockholm, Sweden, and enjoying some belly rubs once she’s back inside to warm up.
According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) there are about 4.1 million shelter animals adopted each year, and 2 million of those are dogs. But unfortunately, the ASPCA also estimates that 6.3 companion animals go into shelters each year, so there’s still so many animals in need of their forever home.
Once Papinsaari and Knecht got Tassu back home, she made herself comfortable in a spot on the floor, refusing to move for a few hours after that.
@tinytassu Can’t believe we got to see this side of her so fast ?❤️ #adoptdontshop #rescuedogsoftiktok ♬ Here With Me – d4vd
“We set up camp as a family during her first hours with us. We were all sleeping on the floor, and she was giving us gentle licks, which showed that she was starting to understand that she’s safe with us,” she said. “We worked hard to give her as much positive reinforcement and praise as possible. That paid off, and she accepted us as her pack faster than we could have imagined.”
Speaking about the reaction online, Papinsaari told Newsweek: “We have received so much love from the dog community on TikTok and Instagram, people are rooting for us all over the world.