A woman has revealed how a seemingly ordinary trip to the grocery store became “the luckiest day” of her life because it gave her the forever friend she’d always wanted.
On December 17, 2020, Amy Campbell went to her local grocery store as normal, but she never could have expected what was about to happen. She stopped to give a homeless man some money and he informed her that he had a tiny puppy that he didn’t know how to care for.
Campbell, of Vancouver, Washington, told Newsweek that the puppy was so small that she “clearly should not have been away from her mom.” The man didn’t know the whereabouts of the mom, the rest of the litter, or anything about the dog itself. As a result, Campbell offered to buy the puppy and gave the man $50, to which he agreed.
“I was not planning on keeping her. I had never had a small dog before, and my Rottweiler had passed away just three weeks earlier, but I fell madly in love with her immediately,” Campbell said.
She took the tiny puppy to the vet the next morning to get her checked. She was so small that she weighed just 12 ounces at the time, so vets estimated that she was only around four weeks old. She likely wouldn’t have survived much longer outside in the cold and rain.
The dog, named Olive, is a Chihuahua mix who also has some Poodle, miniature pinscher and dachshund in her DNA. After taking Olive in, Campbell fed her puppy formula to help her grow, and she spent most of her time either on a heating pad or inside Campbell’s shirt. When it was clear that Olive was struggling to gain weight, Campbell also introduced some high calorie gels into her diet.
“It was round the clock infant care, just much fuzzier,” Campbell said. “Despite being only four pounds now, Olive is very healthy overall. Her only issues are being extremely tiny and having some sensitivity to certain vaccines.”
Olive may be small, but she certainly has an almighty personality. Campbell likes to joke that the chihuahua mix is a big dog in a tiny body as she has “very strong opinions” that she’s not afraid to convey.
Now at five years old, Olive has attended puppy school and accompanied Campbell on numerous hiking and kayaking trips. While the family sadly lost their pit bull mix, Riley, in 2023, Olive now has a golden retriever sibling named Sunny and they’re inseparable.
Campbell said: “Olive is a hilarious little clown and incredibly affectionate. She takes her role as household supervisor very seriously. If my cat starts scratching my baskets, Olive immediately scolds him. She wants to be with me at all times and sleeps under the covers with me every night.
“Despite starting life so fragile, she confidently tackles trails most people would never expect a dog her size to handle. My life revolves around Olive, and I cannot imagine life without her. She changed my life in ways I never expected and gave me a tiny buddy to explore with. She is the best thing that ever happened to me,” Campbell told Newsweek.
Olive has her own dedicated social media accounts (@olivethetiny on TikTok and @ruffdaydogs on Instagram) where Campbell shows just how far she’s come since her adoption. A video posted in December explains how her life has “never been the same” since that visit to the grocery store in 2020 because it gave Campbell the greatest love of her life. The video has gone viral with over 127,300 views and more than 33,800 likes on TikTok at the time of writing, as many people praised Campbell for taking a chance on Olive.
The online reaction to Olive’s journey has been overwhelmingly supportive, and Campbell loves showing just how strong and resilient tiny dogs can be.
She continued: “It has been incredibly sweet to see how many people were touched by Olive. I feel incredibly blessed to have this dog in my life. I grew up in foster care and do not have a human family, but I am so lucky to have the best little animal family.”
Since the TikTok video went viral, many social media users took to the comments to share their reactions to Olive’s rescue story. This has led to more than 600 comments on the post so far.
One comment reads: “’Not gonna keep her,’ famous failed words!”
Another TikTok user wrote: “Girl melt my heart why don’t you?”
While another person replied: “I’m so glad you kept her, she’s been on so many adventures.”
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