In an emotional and surprising twist of fate, a family preparing to say goodbye to their little dog rescued, Moonwitnessed a miraculous moment when, just before being subjected to euthanasiathe little one toy poodle mix He got up and asked for food.
Adopted at a decade old thanks to the organization Best Friends Animal Societythe dog lived with her owners Dr. Melo-Jean Yap and Taina Brown, in addition to her other rescued loin, Foxyfor seven years. Already suffering from health problems typical of old age, her situation worsened until her caregivers were faced with the difficult decision to sacrifice her.
“A year ago, this happened,” Brown said in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE. “The emergency vet recommended Euthanasia for Luna as she hadn’t eaten or gotten up in days, even after spending the night at the emergency vet hospital. We finally agreed and even picked up her urn. But while we were waiting for the injection, she stood up and started looking for food – it was her dinner time.”
It all started when Yap took the dog to the veterinarian while his partner was out of town. “We thought they were just common stomach problems for older people, but he had a fever and barely moved,” he explained to PEOPLE.
Upon arrival at the clinic emergencieswhere she was transferred to revive herLuna was treated with warm blankets and intravenous fluids, however, there was no significant response. “They said he didn’t respond the way they wanted him to,” the woman recalled. “They told us, ‘You can keep her here longer, but she can’t live alone like this.’ She could barely stand for three seconds before she fell.”
The couple signed the documents for euthanasia with tears in his eyes. “We were in a little private room, holding her, crying a lot,” Brown shared. “One of the vet techs took our last family photos; our eyes were swollen, we were exhausted, and we felt like it was the end.”
That’s when the unexpected situation. “He started doing the same thing he always did at dinner time: sniffing around and moving around like he was looking for food,” Brown said. “Since he hadn’t walked for days, we were shocked. We told the veterinary technician and he asked us if we wanted to offer him food.”
“She inhaled it as if she had turned 180 degrees,” said the dog’s owner. “It was so different and we were left thinking, ‘What just happened?’” Yap added: “They checked her vital signs again and she just got better. Apparently she was just motivated by food!”
Due to the sudden recovery, they both decided cancel the procedurethey returned the urn and took Luna back home. “It was surreal,” Taina said to PEOPLE. “The first thing he did was go straight to his plate.”
In the following days and weeks, the dog showed signs of improvement and was completely transformed. “He started jumping like a bunny,” Yap said. “Not just once in a while, but every time I took her out to the yard.” Brown added: “I have never seen her so active in the eight years we had her.”
Although some veterinarians warned that this type of behavior could represent a “last push”it was not like that. “We thought maybe that was it, but months passed and it kept running,” said one of its owners. “She just wasn’t ready to leave.”
Luna had come into their lives already old, with barely two and a half kilosand in poor condition. However, the couple did not skimp on care for their older loins.
“We wanted them to have a really good quality of life,” Brown explained in the aforementioned interview. “The secret is thousands of dollars in pet expenses and hundreds of dollars in very good quality, human-grade dog food.” Yap added, “We even made bone broth for them because they both had arthritis”.
Finally, the toy poodle passed away in 2025, months after her miraculous recovery, but she left an indelible mark on both women and the digital community, as Yap shared her story on social networks to commemorate the anniversary of that “little miracle”. “I got into TikTok because I was still grieving,” she said. “I didn’t expect it to go viral.”
“People were commenting about their own pets or how they were inspired to adopt an older dog,” Brown said. For both, the experience strengthened their conviction about the importance of take in elderly pets. “We took care of her for eight and a half years. Some dogs don’t even have that long since they are born,” Melo reflected.
In this regard, Brown concluded: “When you bring a pet home, you commit to creating a happy home, for them and for you.” For her, loving a pet means adapting: “It’s a commitment, like any relationship. If you’re not ready for that, don’t do it.”
Thus, Luna’s story is more than a miraculous recovery that went viral on digital platforms, it is a story of commitment and unconditional love. “She was a good dog. She was our miracle,” they concluded.
