A woman returning home from a six-week business trip didn’t get the reaction she was expecting from her rescue dog.
Caroline McKenna, from County Down in Northern Ireland, had just come back from Australia, where she previously lived and worked, and wanted nothing more than a cuddle with her beloved dog, Bondi.
“I thought I had built a great enough bond with him that he would instantly remember me,” McKenna told Newsweek. Their reunion didn’t go entirely to plan though.
Bondi came into McKenna’s life following the loss of her previous dog.
“Toby was 18 and a springer spaniel,” McKenna said. “We were heartbroken to have to put him down. We said we would never go through it again.”
But everything changed the moment McKenna saw Bondi. “Bondi came up on my news feed in a local kennel,” she said. “He was a rescue dog and his sad eyes just caught my attention.”
McKenna didn’t know all that much about Bondi’s life before he was rescued, but what she did know painted a grim picture. “He was one of several puppies bred to be Christmas presents,” she said. “He had never left his cage.”
When they first brought him home, Bondi struggled. “He had had very little interaction with humans,” she said. “We had a huge project on our hands. He was a very anxious dog.”
TikTok/acountydownunder
A little love and care can go a long way with a rescue dog though.
As little as 15 minutes of one-on-one petting was shown to provide a measurable boost to the overall well-being of a shelter dog, according to a 2018 study published in the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science.
Over time, the focus and care McKenna was able to provide helped Bondi to come out of his shell and realize he was safe and had finally found the loving home every dog deserves.
Now there’s so much about life that Bondi enjoys. “He loves to cuddle and he loves small walks, but he also loves to walk back home,” McKenna said. “He doesn’t like to leave home for too long.”
Unfortunately for Bondi, McKenna had to travel to Australia for work, leaving him behind. McKenna had lived in Sydney, Australia for seven years. Bondi was even named after her favorite beach. She’d had the business trip booked in long before Bondi had arrived on the scene and, in truth, felt confident he would be “well looked after” with her family back in Northern Ireland.
That proved to be the case and while McKenna was happy to see her family when she got back, one of the reunions she was relishing most was seeing Bondi again.
So much so, in fact, she decided to film a video for her TikTok and Instagram acountydownunder showing their first encounter after so long apart.
In the video, McKenna admits she doesn’t know how he is going to react. Crouching down in the doorway of her house, she waits to see if Bondi will notice she is back before gently calling his name a few times.
The response isn’t what she was hoping for though. Bondi, who is off camera in this part of the video, can be heard growling, evidently unsure about who the person in front of him is.
McKenna’s video then cuts to them out in a courtyard with Bondi, now onscreen, remaining standoffish with his human friend and, at one point, cowering by a bench.
McKenna was initially heartbroken at this response. “I was really gutted when he didn’t [go over to her] and I was worried if we were back to square one,” she said. “I had spent two months prior making him feel reassured that this was his forever family and home.”
But if caring for Bondi had taught her anything, it was that time and patience are both crucial when it comes to rescue dogs. Eventually, there was a breakthrough, a simple sniff of McKenna’s leg changed everything. Suddenly Bondi realized who it was and what followed was the affectionate welcome home McKenna had been hoping for.
“I nearly cried,” she said. “He jumped into my arms and he didn’t stop hugging me for 10 minutes. It was beautiful.”
Now back in the good graces of her four-legged friend, McKenna has never been happier to be home.
