NEED TO KNOW

• The Lehman family began fostering dogs after losing their 17-year-old Jack Russell terrier mix, Lokey, in 2025

• Sunny, a foster puppy, quickly bonded with the family, leading to a unanimous decision to adopt her

• Danielle Lehman tells PEOPLE that they plan to continue fostering dogs despite adopting the 6-month-old puppy

When Danielle Lehman and her family lost their beloved Jack Russell terrier mix, Lokey, in November 2025, their house felt uncomfortably quiet after over 17 years of hearing the pitter-patter of nails on hardwood floors and the distinct jingling of dog tags.

While they “weren’t quite ready to adopt” another dog, Lehman tells PEOPLE they “thought fostering would be a great way to have a pup in the house without a long-term commitment.”

In January 2026, they began fostering through Pawsitive Tails in the Kansas City area, helping find homes for six dogs before getting a call in March 2026 that would forever change their family dynamic.

As Lehman, 41, was packing up the car to pick up a foster puppy, she got a message saying the dog had already been adopted, so the shelter asked if they’d be open to taking another dog instead, a mixed-breed puppy named Sunny.

Looking back, Lehman calls the moment “fate.”

The second she brought Sunny home, it was like she was already part of the family.

“After the first week, my husband started dropping hints that he wanted to adopt this one,” Lehman says. “They had a really special bond from the beginning.”

It wasn’t just her husband, Ethan Schachter, who fell in love, but also her 9-year-old son, Oliver. The mother of one tells PEOPLE that just two weeks into fostering Sunny, they knew they couldn’t let her go.

“Although we weren’t planning to adopt another family member until after some summer travel, I think we all knew it would be hard to find a dog that fit into our family as well as she did,” she shares.

Still, the family decided to hold a “vote,” which they captured on camera and later shared on TikTok. In the video, each of them wrote down whether or not they wanted to keep Sunny, and then shared a short reasoning behind their vote.

In the end, they came to a unanimous decision to adopt the 6-month-old, each writing on their respective ballots, “She’s home.”

Lehman insists that they wouldn’t have “held a vote if there were any question” about whether or not they wanted to adopt Sunny, noting that she had “been checking in with my husband and son all week” leading up to making the viral video.

“I just wanted to find a special way to document the adoption process and surprise the boys with the outcome,” she shares. “Even though I had a strong feeling about how they were both going to vote, it was really special to see them share in their own words why they wanted to adopt her.”

Lehman says she has been “touched” by the response to her video, which has since amassed nearly two million views.

“There’s something special about connecting with strangers over a shared love for dogs, and I’m glad our video brought so many people so much joy,” she says.

Despite adopting Sunny, Lehman says they are excited “to continue sharing our fostering journey with the world.”

She says one of the reasons they felt like Sunny was such a “great fit” for their family was because she is “so friendly with other dogs,” meaning they can continue fostering in the future.

“We are starting training this week and hope she will be a great big sister role model,” Lehman shares. “A lot of people say, ‘I could never foster — I’d just want to keep all of the dogs.’ While it’s true that we have loved — and felt some heartbreak — over every dog we’ve fostered so far, it has been the most rewarding experience to find them a forever home.”

“With each dog we say goodbye to, we get to save another, often times from a horrible situation,” she adds. “We set out to find Sunny the perfect forever family… but the universe had other plans. Sunny was already home.”

Read the original article on People