Today we found a dog.

I had just come home for a much-needed break from school. I was ecstatic to see my three little puppies -- three tiny little Yorkies, just FYI, the loves of my life. My whole family was just sitting in the kitchen when my sister pointed out that there was a dog just chilling in our backyard. It was a yellow lab, a little bigger than we were used to, but he was cute, and he was lost.

At first, we had no clue what to do. He could probably eat our little Yorkies and we didn't know where he had been or where he came from. But we took him in, and we decided to call him Hank.

We quickly learned that this lost dog was very well trained. He sat when we said to, he laid down, and he even shook our hands. Impressive. But the poor thing didn't have a collar, and his family could be anywhere.

I'm not going to lie, at first, he was kind of annoying. We had things to do and were now occupied by this dog who was walking all up in our business and had a decent amount of slobber. He didn't seem to be that bothered. All of us were wondering... what do you think was going through this dogs head?

He was just Hank to us. This random dog who had an insane amount of energy. He ate two bowls of food in I think under 20 seconds, and was legitimately bouncing off the walls and rolling all over the floor like he owned the place. Maybe he liked it here, or maybe he'd like it anywhere.

It made us wonder if he was even missing his family, or wondering if they'd ever come and find him to bring him home. It made us wonder if a dog could even think about that. Or what our little dogs would do without us. Would they care if it was another family, or would they forever be missing us?

We posted his picture on our neighborhood Facebook page. I guess that thing has a use after all. And decided if we didn't find his owner that night we'd go around the neighborhood the following day. We got a few comments from some randos. One pretty entitled guy named Don took it upon himself to comment and say, "Please look and talk to residents and find this Labs home. The lab wants to go home with family. PLEASE"

Well no sh**, Sherlock. As if we're not trying to do that.. Thank you, Don, for absolutely nothing.

The night continued. Just us and Hank. I started to like him. I was convinced that he liked us and wanted to live with us instead. I also think I overfed him with bones just because I was amazed that he could catch them mid-air.

Then, we got a response from Hanks real family. They said the landscapers left the gate open, and their dog Cooper had run off. Cooper would make a good middle name I guess. They were on their way over to take him home.

I kid you not, every single one of us jumped out of our seats. We found Hanks family!!! I went running into the room he was in, but this time, instead of calling for Hank, I yelled out Cooper.

His head shot up, he looked me right in the eye, and came running up to me. I can't explain the weird feeling that came over me. It was like this dog had a real identity now. His name was Cooper, he had a family, and finally someone in this random house he was in knew who he was. He had no way of telling us who he was, or how to bring him home. But I called him Cooper, so he knew everything was going to be okay.

I was all wrong. Cooper wouldn't be happy just anywhere. Yeah, he might've been happy that we were feeding him and playing with him at the moment. But none of that compared to his excitement when he saw his family walking up the driveway to take him home. They were thankful that we were taking care of him, and we were thankful that he was found and going back to his happy home.

My short time with Cooper made me think about how under appreciated dogs are. Cooper was a loyal dog. He was happy, and he was smart. He has a great purpose in someones life, and I am just happy I could return him back to where he belonged.

Hank you'll be missed. I hope your family is loving you as much as you deserve.