When Sarah Daugherty’s husband Gary was set to return from his first overseas deployment as a U.S. Navy Lieutenant, Sarah knew she wanted to capture one very special reunion on tape — the one between her husband and his dog, a Labrador Retriever-Blue Heeler mix named Bugaboo, or “Buggy” for short.
Well, it’s a good thing she was thinking ahead, because the homecoming video Sarah captured a priceless memory and a reminder of just how powerful a dog’s love can be.
The video, posted on YouTube shortly after Lt. Daugherty’s return in early June, shows Lt. Daugherty dressed in his Navy uniform, ascending the entryway stairs to his home.
“Where’s Buggy?” he says in the video. “Where’s my puppy?”
When Bugaboo realizes just who it is calling her name, the Lab mix bursts into the frame, eagerly greeting the owner she’s missed for six long months by jumping up and putting her paws on his shoulders.
As Lt. Daugherty makes his way to his armchair to sit down, an extremely vocal Bugaboo — all 72 pounds of her — climbs right up into his lap, her tail wagging wildly. She licks his face, howling and crying excitedly, overcome with delight at her dad’s long-awaited arrival.
Lt. Daugherty says it is a moment he will never forget as long as he lives.
“She was just going crazy, and I was just like, ‘Oh, my baby,” Lt. Daugherty tells ABC News of that happy day. “I was just talking to her a little bit. She didn’t leave my side the rest of the night.”
In the two months since it was first posted online, the emotional video has gone viral; Bugaboo’s reunion with her dad has been viewed on YouTube more than 4 million times by people all over the world who can’t help but be touched by Buggy’s moving display of love for her owner.
“Who says dogs can’t talk!” says one YouTube commenter. “She is saying ‘I love you and I missed you.’”
“What a beautiful animal,” writes another. “And for the record. This old man cried. Then I watched it again, and I cried again. What a bond they have.”
Though he never expected the video to get the response it has, Lt. Daugherty is certainly proud of the strong relationship he shares with his beloved Bugaboo.
“You know, that there were so many people touched by the video means a lot,” Lt. Daugherty says.
“I always want me and Buggy to be used by God to bring joy to people, because my dog — anybody that has ever met my dog, people that don’t like dogs like my dog,” he adds.
As Lt. Daugherty gears up for his next scheduled deployment, preparing to say goodbye once more to his family and his best friend Buggy, he can’t help but look forward to the day he can again surprise his boisterous Lab mix with his return, and he knows his wife will probably have the camera ready then, too.
Source: ABC News
