A dog, tethered to a fence with a heart-wrenching note, overflows with joy upon being rescued, embracing a newfound freedom and happiness.

It takes strength to smile through heartbreak, but 2-year-old Goose didn’t know any different. Even though he had just been tied to a fence and abandoned by his owners with nothing more than a brief note around his neck, the lovable Great Pyrenees-mix still mustered up a tail wag when a stranger in the neighborhood approached him.

“He really likes people,” Lindsey Hawkins, Goose’s new mom and friend of the Good Samaritan who approached him, told The Dodo. “When he saw someone coming up to him, he was just hoping to be loved on.”

According to Hawkins, the note around Goose’s neck said, “Don’t have time. Just take the dog,” which is exactly what the Good Samaritan did. And, although he was dirty and covered head to toe in ticks, Goose smiled through it all.

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Goose’s compassionate vet team treated the dog’s illnesses and gave him a thorough cleaning over a couple of days so as to not stress him out too much — but Goose’s gentle spirit never wavered.

“He never once showed an ounce of aggression during all of that,” Hawkins said. “I think he knew we were really just trying to help him out.”

Goose’s smile got even bigger when he was ready to be released from the vet clinic.

Hawkins took him home with her as a temporary foster, but Goose had already made his decision. “The whole ride home, he kept trying to climb from the back of my SUV to the front seat and eventually to my lap,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins believes that Goose had been an outside dog his entire life. The dog’s reaction to being inside Hawkins’ house for the first time broke her heart.

Goose was too scared to get on any furniture and avoided all spaces with hardwood floors. “He essentially confined himself to the rug in the living room or the carpeted hallway,” Hawkins said.

After sleeping for a couple of days, though, Goose started warming up to his new home and his new siblings, which include a flock of chickens and a senior therapy dog named Zeus.

And it was not much longer before Hawkins knew that Goose would stay for good. “After a short four days with us, he was ours,” she said.

“The day we decided that he was going to be a permanent resident,” she added, “[Goose] stood up on his hind legs, put his front paws on my husband’s shoulders, and buried his head into my husband’s chest, as if he was saying, ‘Thank you.’”

It’s been two weeks since Goose first entered Hawkins’ home, but the change in his demeanor is already night and day.

“He has changed from a very mopey, slow-moving dog into a goofy, playful, fun-loving dog,” Hawkins said. “He loves being a house dog now!”

According to Hawkins, Goose not only jumps up on his human’s bed “like it’s his” with a big smile on his face, but he now loves to run all over the house — hardwood floors included.

“One of his favorite things to do is roll around in the yard,” Hawkins added.

Goose has also developed a love for toys, thanks to his new sisters.

“The girl dogs showed him how fun toys are,” Hawkins said. “He loves to roll around on the floor going belly-up while holding the toy in his mouth and grabbing it with his feet.”

Goose’s smile continues to grow bigger and more infectious by the day. So much so that Hawkins thinks he could follow in his brother Zeus’s paw prints as a therapy dog in the future.

“Who knows,” Hawkins said. “Maybe one day Goose might just make a great therapy dog, too.”