Strange dog in bed gives Tennessee couple pause

OCOEE, Tenn. — An eastern Tennessee couple is used to waking up and finding a friendly dog in their bed. After all, they own three of them. But a strange dog in bed? Now, that’s really odd.

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Julie Johnson, of Ocoee, told CBS News that she got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom on May 1 and noticed a dog was in her bed.

“But our dogs are always in the bed, so I didn’t panic about that, or think anything about it,” Johnson told the network. “I just went back to bed.”

But when the sun came up, what Johnson saw gave her some pause. The paws she saw in her bed did not belong to one of her pets.

“I roll over and me and my husband I lock eyes -- and sure enough, it is not our dog,” Johnson told CBS News.

Johnson posted about the strange visitor on her Facebook page.

“It is absolutely normal to wake up in our house with one of our dogs in the bed with us,” Johnson wrote. “One small problem, this is not our dog, nor do we know how she got in our house.

“This is the weirdest post I have ever had to make,” Johnson added, posting photos of the contented canine. “Is this your dog?”

After posting the pictures to Facebook, Johnson learned the dog’s name is Nala and she lived two miles away, WATE-TV reported.

Johnson told the television station that a storm had moved through the area overnight, possibly frightening the dog. She believes the dog entered her home between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. EDT.

“Why my dogs didn’t bark at her? No clue. They bark at everything,” Johnson told WATE. “Maybe they knew she needed help too.”

Since returning Nala to her home, Johnson said her family has kept in touch. On Tuesday, the Johnsons’ dogs met with Nala for a play date, WATE reported.

“We had ice cream and treats and had a fantastic time,” Johnson told the television station.

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