Meet Brindle, one of the sweetest dogs you could ever hope to meet. He is a friendly boy, but if there is one thing he loves more than anything else in this world, it’s being close to his humans, JD and Rachel Aument. Brindle’s parents rescued him when he was just a pup. The cute little dog was thrilled from head to tail to be going home with his forever family.

It turns out that Brindle isn’t JD and Rachel’s only dog, either.

They also have their beloved dog Xander. While both dogs are devoted to their parents and equally loved by them, each of them is closer to one parent than the other. According to Rachel, Xander is more bonded to her whereas Brindle is more of a Daddy’s boy.

The only problem with this is that Brindle’s Dad was deployed in the Army Reserves as a firefighter, and he was sent very far away from Brindle. JD was deployed overseas last year, and his dog had been having a really rough time with it. The poor dog missed his dad beyond words.

“He’s so sad without him here. He loves me, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not his person. He has days where he just sits at the front window, crying,” Rachel shares in an interview with The Dodo.

This past March, about 9 months after being deployed, Rachel let JD know that his poor dog was having an exceptionally hard time dealing with his absence. Brindle was missing him something fierce, and JD wanted to do something to make things easier on him.Wondering how to comfort a dog from overseas, JD thought of the perfect plan.

JD mailed his dog a “stinky”, unwashed shirt that still had his smell on it.

Rachel presented Brindle with the shirt, and the heartsick dog immediately started jumping with joy.

As his tail rapidly whips back and forth, Brindle puts the shirt on the floor and proceeds to rub his whole body against it over and over again. Brindle obviously knew exactly whose shirt he was given.

“He immediately knew that it was JD’s shirt. There was no doubt about it. I was crying so hard while recording his reaction,” Rachel recalls.

Brindle wasn’t the only one to take comfort in the smelly present from his dad. Rachel said she, too, was emotional when she saw what was in the package.

“I miss JD so much and it was the first time any of us had smelled him in almost 10 months,” Rachel said.

Before she was able to hand her husband’s shirt over to his beloved dog, Rachel admits she stole a brief moment with it herself.

“I had to take a minute with the shirt for myself before I could share with Brindle,” she admits.

Rachel recorded the dog’s heartwarming reaction to the shirt and uploaded it to Facebook.

Everyone was touched by how overjoyed the sweet pup was to have something of his Dad to cling to. The video quickly soared to nearly 900,000 views.

Brindle pridefully carried his Daddy’s shirt around in his mouth for days on end after he first got it. Then Rachel decided to make it easier for the dog to feel close to JD, without dragging the shirt along in his mouth. She dressed Brindle in the shirt instead, and he seemed to revel in being wrapped up in it.

Being able to wear JD’s “smelly” shirt helped Brindle feel like his Dad wasn’t so far away, and that made everyone happy.

Little did the dog know that he wouldn’t have to wait long to cuddle up with the real-deal. His Daddy was scheduled to return a little over a month later, in May of this year.

When JD did finally return home, his devoted dog couldn’t stop jumping on him with excitement. He refused to leave any space between he and his dad, and that is just how JD prefers it.

Of course, Xander and Rachel are elated to have JD back home and safe with them again as well. JD’s thoughtful gesture got his whole family through his long absence, furbabies and all. If you would like to see Brindle’s priceless, tear-jerking reaction to getting a stinky shirt from her dad, check out the video below.

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H/T: Animal Channel