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Some people treat their dogs more like children than pets. Lee and Michael Parker were some of those people. So when their dog ran off, they were devastated.

Soup has been in the Parker household for three and a half years. The dog is incredibly special to Lee and Michael.

He’s named after Michael’s dad’s nickname, was born on Lee’s birthday and is an incredibly loyal companion.

But something tragic happened recently.

Michael often takes Soup with him to go bird hunting. One day, they went out to hunt. And Soup became curious to a smell in the distance. So he wandered off while Michael was shooting at birds.

Michael didn’t notice that the dog had gone missing for some time. When he did, he kept on calling out Soup’s name. But there was no sign of the dog.

When it got dark, Michael drove home with a heavy heart. He couldn’t believe that Soup was out in the wild on his own. He and Lee both prayed that the dog would be safe.

“Worst case scenarios kept going through our minds. It was terrible.” – Lee Parker.

After two days, the couple began to give up hope.

They thought that Soup was gone forever. But then the next day, they saw a post on Facebook that made them incredibly happy.

Soup had been found. But he was in a strange place.

The dog had somehow got into Kilby Correctional Facility, a prison. A prison guard, who was also looking for his lost dog, had seen the Parkers post about Soup on Facebook and recognized the dog in the prison.

The prison officers took good care of Soup until the Parkers were able to rescue him.

And even the prisoners were overjoyed at seeing a dog in their facility. Soup, being a friendly animal, loved saying hi to everyone there. In fact, the prisoners were so taken with Soup that they gave him plenty of their food.

In fact, the dog had never been so pampered!

“He’s had roast beef. He’s had chicken fingers, chicken nuggets, lima beans, had steak one night and peach cobbler.” – Michael Parker.

Soup was enjoying the prison so much that he didn’t want to leave.

Instead, he wanted Michael and Lee to live with him in the facility. Sadly, Michael and Lee are law-abiding individuals, so they couldn’t stay.

Luckily, Soup made peace with the idea of going back home with his owners. He soon settled back in. The only difference is that the Parkers have decided to feed him better from now on!

But if Soup does go missing again, the Parkers will be sure to check on the prison to see if he’s made his way back there!

You may not have thought this at first, but it turns out that prison is the ideal place for a lost dog to end up. Prisoners are humans just like anyone else, and many of them love dogs.

And dogs in prisons are more common than non-criminals may think. In fact, there are programs, like Florida’s Teaching Animals and Inmates Life Skills, (TAILS) which pair at-risk dogs with prisoners so that both the dogs and the prisoners can learn better emotional maturity and life skills.

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Source: WSAV3, Good News Network