Life has a way of putting us in the right place at the right time.

One lucky couple got to experience this exciting aspect of life when they set out on a 10-week road trip across the country.

Emily Trost and her boyfriend, Nick, stopped at a gas station in Montana where their lives would be forever changed.

They stopped to refuel, grab some snacks, and stretch their legs. When they came out, there was a puppy resting by their car.

It was as if she was waiting just for them.

But the couple didn’t want to take any chances. Assuming that the puppy belonged to someone nearby, they began asking those around them if she was theirs.

“Our initial thought was that she was the pet of someone else using the gas station,” she told The Dodo.

“My boyfriend and I went around to others at the gas station asking if she was theirs. We also waited with her to see if somebody came out of the gas station store to claim her.”

But nobody did. It was beginning to look more like the little pup didn’t have a home.

They waited with the puppy to see if anybody might come back to claim her. But no one came.

“…as we were waiting, we realized how dirty she was with thorns, twigs, and pricklies all caught in her long hair and our hearts broke for her.”

A woman came by and told them that she normally feeds the strays in the area. She informed them that the puppy with them was indeed a stray. Then, she asked the couple to take her with them.

They had spent so much time with her anyway. Why not give it a shot?

Trost and her boyfriend agreed to take the puppy to a shelter somewhere along the way. But the more they spent time with the pup, the more they fell in love with her.

They decided to skip the animal shelter and keep her.

“Within minutes of driving away with her in the car, we knew she was coming home with us,” Trost said.

They decided to mark the monumental decision by giving the puppy a name. They named her Montana since that’s where she was found.

As they spent more and more time with Montana, it became clear that she wasn’t used to having people stay with her.

“The morning after we got her was the best,” Emily said. “She woke up in our tent and started crawling up to our heads, whimpering and giving us kisses. We could tell she was truly surprised that we were still there with her and that no human had probably ever stayed with her for that long.”

Montana slept through much of the first few days with her new family. As she became more adjusted to the reality that she now had people who provided love, shelter, and food for her, her personality began to show.

It turned out that Montana was full of energy and silly.

“She loved the rest of the trip, always excited to hike and swim with us. She was great in the car and would just lay down and sleep. She even loved sleeping in the tent every night and learned very quickly that wherever our tent was set up was home.”

When they brought Montana home, she was welcomed with open arms!

Today, she is still enjoying life with Emily and Nick!

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Sources: Animal Channel, The Dodo