When a couple decides to take a road trip, it’s to be expected that they might come back with a trinket or two as a souvenir. One couple decided the best souvenir they could ever get, though, was a new best friend who lives and breathes.

The couple was rolling through Montant when they pulled off at a gas station. It doubled as a shopping center and they went inside to have a look around. Once they came back to their car, though, they found a visitor patiently waiting for them beside it.

At first, the couple naturally assumed that the stray dog had broken free from an owner somewhere nearby. They began asking around to see if anyone would claim her. While they waited to see if anyone coming out of the store owned her, they began looking her over a little more closely.

What they found made their hearts sink.

“Our initial thought was that she was the pet of someone else using the gas station. 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. Nobody did, and 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,” Emily explains in an interview with The Dodo.

The couple stayed with the stray dog, thinking that surely someone would eventually come looking for her. When it became apparent their random new buddy didn’t have anyone to claim her, a woman rolled by to confirm it.

She said that she regularly feeds the strays in the area. The woman pleaded with the couple to take the dog home with them and said the sweet girl deserved a loving family and home. With that in mind, Emily and her boyfriend decided that they should take the dog to a shelter, at the very least, to see if they could find her a nice forever home.

What they didn’t plan on, though, was the pup to charm the pants off of them before they could make it to a shelter.

After letting the stray dog into the car and taking off, the couple realized that they’d just met their furbaby.

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

Seeing as how they found her in the great open state, they named their new bestie Montana.

While Montana was most likely just hoping to get a few treats and a bit of attention when she loitered around Emily’s car, she got something far, far more valuable instead; a loving, devoted family.

“The morning after we got her was the best. 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,” Emily explains.

Perhaps the best part of Montana’s rescue story is the fact that she met her new humans during a road trip!

What better way to get to know someone, human or animal, than being stuck with them in a car for days on end?! According to her parents, the then 7-month-old pup spent the first few days with her family in a mild state of shock. Recovery involved lots of rest and TONS of snuggles with her new people.

After a few days passed, though, Montana showed her parents just who she really is, which is the best dog anyone could ever hope to meet! She’s not only whipper-snapper smart, but she is fun and overflowing with goofy energy and loads of love to give, also.

Her parents said she savored every single moment of her road trip with her new fun family. Emily and her boyfriend absolutely adored how Montana made sure to show off her obedience skills to them that week as if to prove they made the right choice.

““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” Emily says.

When the time had finally come to end their trip and head on home, Montana finally got to know what it feels like to even have a home, and she reveled in it.

Emily and her boyfriend drove back with their newest addition to the family in tow, to the surprise of the couple’s other dogs. All was well after the dogs had a chance to sniff each other out, though.

Montana is a smart dog, and while she can still be stubborn at times, according to her parents, she continues to grow in the knowledge that she is loved and always has a home to turn to each and every day.

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Montana may not have known it, but when she decided to lay down next to her humans’ car she was just walking in the steps that fate had laid out for her.

We are so happy that Montana has finally found her forever home, and we’re grateful for people like Emily and her boyfriend for having enough room in their hearts to make enough room for stray dogs like Montana in their homes.

H/T: The Dodo