Stray dog repeatedly escaped from shelter to hang out in a nursing home. Now, he gets to call it his own: 'If it's meant to be, it's meant to be.'

A nameless stranger with a mysterious past found himself incarcerated in a facility in Bellaire, Michigan. While clearly homeless, he nevertheless evidenced a strong sense of belonging. However, he apparently did not feel that he belonged at the Antrim County Animal Control shelter.

The dog, later named Scout — a 65-pound mutt at least 10 years of age about whom little was known except for signs of past abuse and evidence of having been shot in the face — managed to break free of the shelter on multiple occasions, clearing both the shelter's 10-foot chain link fence and a 6-foot privacy fence, then crossing a highway, reported the Detroit Free Press.

"He climbed the chain-linked kennel," Heather Belknap, the shelter's director, told the Washington Post. "There's a six-foot solid vinyl fence around the dog kennels. He jumped over that fence."

This was no mere escape, but a journey somewhere specific: the Meadow Brook Medical Care Facility, a long-term, 82-bed nursing home catering primarily to seniors.

The first time he got out, Scout made his way inside the nursing home and slept in the lobby on a leather loveseat. A nurse found Scout the next morning then called animal control, who acknowledged he had gone missing the night before.

Scout made another great escape just a few nights later. Again, he found his groove on the leather loveseat, and again he slept until caught.

The Free Press indicated that, despite being carted back to the shelter a second time, Scout wasn't ready to call it quits, making his way to his spot in the nursing home a third time just a few nights later.

"He was pretty relentless in his pursuit to be here," Stephanie Elsey, a clinical care coordinator at the facility, told the Post. "He found his home."

Following the dog's third incursion, an employee at the nursing home took Scout home. While the arrangement was not meant to be, it spurred a conversation amongst the nursing home staff concerning the prospect of adopting Scout.

"I’m a person who looks at outward signs, and if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be," Marna Robertson, the facility's administrator, told the Free Press. "He did that one time, two times, three times, and obviously that's something you should pay attention to. And I asked the staff, 'Well, he wants to be here. Would anybody like to have a dog?'"

The staff evidently answered in the affirmative — to the delight of the residents.

Rhonda Tomzack, an administrative assistant at the facility, said, "I think it reminds them of being home. ... When you're home you have your pets, and you don't get to have that here. Having a dog around makes it feel like home."

Scout has reportedly had the run of Glacier Hill, a unit at the facility housing 20 seniors, since 2017.

In addition to visiting various residents, particularly those liable to give him biscuits, he also comforts the elderly, even if behind closed doors, having long since learned to open them.

82-year-old Shirley Sawyer, one of the residents, said, "He'll always let you pet him and lets you talk to him if you need someone to talk to. ... It's very nice."

Sawyer's brother, Bob Shumaker, also in residence, frequently feigns to be asleep while Scout noses him before Shumaker finally caves and gives him a biscuit.

Despite a clear history of abuse, the dog reportedly responds well to the elderly, particularly the most vulnerable among them.

Robertson told the Free Press, "He certainly has a penchant for the elders. He's very in tune with what they need, especially our very vulnerable population. If they have dementia or if they're dying, he knows that, and he will go and be with them and comfort them. He must've just felt like he needed to be here."

Jenny Martinek, the nursing home's household coordinator, noted, "To each and every one of them, it's their dog."

In honor of Scout, the nursing home has once again kicked off a fundraiser for the Antrim County Animal Shelter.

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