Ellie’s love for her father spreads far and wide. There’s nothing the 3-year-old English coonhound wouldn’t do to be with him. But when circumstances forced them to leave their home, their father had to make the heartbreaking decision to give it up.

Ellie thought she would never see him again, until fate intervened at just the right time.

“Our veterinary office contacted us in June 2021 to take Ellie to us,” Cara Seiler of Canine Haven Rescue Inc. told The Dodo. “Her owner was a client there, he had just lost his wife and had to moving in with his daughter [who] wouldn’t let him bring Ellie.”

It wasn’t an easy decision, but Ellie’s father made sure she was taken care of.

He entered a foster home where he remained for a year and a half without any interest in possible adoptions, something that still baffles Seiler.

“His previous owner kept in touch and even sent him some toys and a jacket,” Seiler said. “Ellie is a very sweet and loving girl, so we have no idea why no one applied to adopt her.”

Ellie’s father kept a close eye on her the entire time they were apart.

“When we told her she was still here you could hear tears in her voice,” Seiler said. “Then he said he was moving with his sister to South Carolina and that she loved dogs and he could take Ellie if we let him have her back. “So, we arranged [for them] to meet at our veterinary office.”

“She knew who he was the moment he walked up to the door,” Seiler said. “She was very excited to see her dad again.”

The happy puppy went to live with her father in South Carolina and they have not been separated since.

“She was meant to be with [him],” Seiler said. “She had a purpose.”