Working from home outside of Dallas during the pandemic, Carly D’Eliseo decided it was time to adopt a dog.
“Growing up in my family in Florida, we always had dogs — I’ve always been a dog lover,” she tells PEOPLE of fostering and rescuing during her childhood.
And when she saw a Panda puppy on Petfinder in 2020, “I knew: this is my dog,” she says, adding that real pandas “have always been my spirit animal.” She drove 90 minutes to meet the puppy – and the rest is history.
In the months that followed, D’Eliseo, 32, became more involved in rescues and adoptions, eventually meeting another panda-style dog named Dallas.
“I started getting tags on all the videos of dogs that looked like pandas,” she recalls. “The rescue flagged me down at one in Dallas, and I said, no way. I’ve never seen a dog that looked like a Panda before, and now there’s a little dog that looks exactly like a Panda!”
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After agreeing to adopt Dallas, “I said again, ‘This is my dog.’ There’s no way I suddenly moved to Texas, I’ve never seen these types of dogs in my life, and then two of them show up about two years apart.”
Panda and Dallas by @packofpandas.
@packofpandas
“The moment I brought Dallas home, it was like it was meant to be,” she continues. – They are always by each other’s side.
Panda, now 7, is the “more relaxed and calm” of the two, while Dallas, 2, is “full of energy,” D’Eliseo says. “But they’re attached to the hip. Dallas doesn’t really know much about life without Panda.” She also continues to foster, joking that it’s “a revolving door of dogs coming in and out of my house.”
The rescue and foster work helped her feel more at home in her new state, easing her “homesickness and really making me feel like I was meant to be where I am – in the right place at the right time,” she shares. D’Elyseo. “There is a greater purpose in moving and stepping out of my comfort zone: what was always meant for me found me.”
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Panda and Dallas have become a sensation on TikTok and Instagram @packofpandas, and D’Eliseo is grateful that their story is inspiring others to adopt. “You can find your dream dog at a shelter if you just give it a chance,” she says. “I want other people to feel the way I feel about my dogs and to know that rescue dogs can give you that feeling – they’re out there!”
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Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education