People working from all kinds of delivery companies often face animal hazards on their way almost every day (if not every day). These unfortunate cases are inevitable given the nature of their work. They are always outdoors, on the road, delivering parcels, unfazed by the dangers that it might bring them.

On the other side of the coin, they also get the chance to meet new friends, we’re talking about the furry ones – dogs!

In 2016, UPS driver Katie Newhouser met a new friend when she was driving at a condo complex in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

Her new friend is a Pitbull named Leo.

Unlike the common impression of this breed, he was different. Whenever he saw Newhouser driving by the neighborhood, he would always come out 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 told The Dodo. “He just took a liking to me for some reason. He’d always come up and lick me.”

Leo also loved jumping on the delivery truck and it often was difficult to get him off the vehicle when she had to leave.

Newhouser, who has been a driver for more than a decade got to know Leo and his mom Tina Rummel.

It was because she saw them having a walk and she decided to say “hello!”

“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.”

Something happened October of that year that changed their lives.

“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.”

Sadly, Cannon wasn’t pulling out furniture because his mom was moving to a new apartment.

He was moving his mom’s things because she’d tragically passed away.

Newhouser didn’t know it at first until she tried calling Tina to check how things were going but never heard back from her.

Then she got to check Tina’s Facebook account only to find out the devastating news.

Newhouser was worried about Leo, so she decided to take action.

She decided to keep in touch with Cannon. He then told Newhouser that he joined the U.S. Marines Corps and would be off from home soon for training. That only meant one thing, Leo would be left behind – alone.

So, she decided to give him a new home.

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

The fact that she already had three dogs didn’t stop her from taking in her new friend, instead of letting him go to an animal shelter.

“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.”

She then went to pick the dog up – but she was also afraid that Leo might not recognize her.

It’s because she wasn’t driving the delivery truck and the Pitbull might not realize who she was without her big, brown truck. But when she arrived, Leo made her realize that it wasn’t the truck that drew him to her – it was her that he’s endeared with!

It didn’t take long for Leo to fit into his new family and new forever home. He managed to get along with the rest of the family and his new dog siblings. But during night time, Leo would occasionally cry.

He missed his late mom so much.

Though that was the case, he’s still thankful and happy with his new home and family.

The story of their friendship was also shared in UPS Dogs with credits to Newhouser saying:

“This is Leo …. he would always start barking as I pulled into the condo complex……He would always jump into my truck when I stopped…. his owner passed away and now he lives with me.”

This story of friendship between Newhouser and Leo only proves that ENDINGS can

also mean NEW BEGINNINGS.

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Source: Animal Channel, The Dodo