If you’re a person working in the delivery service, being aware of animals when making a delivery is very important and can be quite scary.

For UPS worker Katie Newhouser – she didn’t have any animal worries on her route.

In 2016, Newhouser had made a new friend at a condo complex in Rancho Cucamonga, California. It was a pit bull by the name of Leo.

Every time she would pull into the complex, the faithful dog would be there to greet her.

“Whenever I’d turn up at the complex, he’d apparently go crazy, and he’d want to come down and see me,” Newhouser said. “He just took a liking to me for some reason. He’d always come up and lick me.”

Leo also wanted to go with Newhouser and would jump into the truck and wait.

Of course, she couldn’t take him with her – but he was adamant and it would be challenging to get him out of the truck. You could imagine how strong he is.

“He would sit there and sniff around,” Newhouser said. “When I had to leave, he didn’t want to get out.”

Leo’s owner, Tina, became friends with Newhouser as the bond with Leo allowed them to have banter.

In the 15 years Newhouser has been working for UPS, she says that’s how she has met everyone along the way.

“I saw Tina walking Leo and stopped to pet him,” Newhouser said. “That’s how I started talking to Tina. That’s actually how I’ve started talking to most of my customers. If they’ve got a dog, I’m stopping.”

This routine lasted for over a year, and the three of them had created a solid bond.

Then in October everyone’s lives would change forever.

“I was on vacation, and when I came back to work, I went to the complex,” Newhouser said. “When I was pulling in, I saw [Tina’s] son Cannon pulling out with furniture in the back, and I thought, ‘Oh that’s weird.’ I just waved to him and he waved to me. And I didn’t think anything of it, because she was looking to move because the association of the condo was giving Leo a hard time because he was a pit bull, and they didn’t really want him there.”

Newhouser had logically made sense of what she had seen and decided to try and give Tina a call, but she didn’t answer. So she reached out to Tina via Facebook, and that’s where she learned what had happened.

Tina had passed-away.

Newhouser was now concerned about what would happen to Leo.

She knew that Tina had a son named Cannon that was going to the Marine Corps soon and contacted him on Facebook. Newhouser offered to help by watching Leo until he got back from his training.

“I said [to Cannon], ‘I’ll take Leo until you can come back and get him from your training,’” Newhouser said. “And he said, ‘That’s fine.’ And then I picked him up that following Saturday.”

“I knew he had nowhere to go, and I didn’t want him to end up in a shelter, and with somebody who was not going to be good for him,” Newhouser added.

When she went to pick up Leo, Newhouser didn’t drive her regular UPS truck, but Leo still recognized her and showed his enthusiasm.

“He ran up to me, and started barking at me, just like he does when I’m in my UPS truck,” Newhouser said. “Then he immediately hopped into my truck. He loves going in the car, so I think he just thought he was going for a ride. But you could tell that he was confused.”

Newhouser had three other dogs at home already and was a little worried as to how they would react to Leo. She introduced them one by one in the backyard.

She quickly realized she had nothing to worry about as they all played together.

Leo really missed Tina – a lot.

He would whine at night, and it made Newhouser very sad for him.

Leo lives full-time with her now, and although he still cries at times, he’s adjusted to his new life, and Newhouser couldn’t be happier about it.

“He’s a big baby. He’s one of the most gentle dogs I have ever met,” Newhouser said. “He’s big and he looks like he could be mean, but if you look at his eyes, you can just tell that he’s just the sweetest dog.”

While Leo is most definitely blessed to have found a guardian angel in Newhouser, we have zero doubts that this UPS driver is just as blessed to have him as part of her family now.

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Source: Animal Channel, The Dodo, Katie Newhouser