Justin and his wife moved into their new home in Austin, Texas. The couple started hearing noises coming from the roof of their new home. They thought the noise comes from something like squirrels. When they check outside, they surprisingly met with the face of someone familiar: Huck, their golden retriever.
Justin said, “He was standing there above me, tongue out and wagging his tail.”
The roof of their new house slopes down at the back and Huck climbed up in one swift motion to get a better look at his new neighborhood. After his first trip to the roof, he came back down soon after but felt so alive and in love with being up there that he kept going back.
The worried neighbors and passersby started getting in touch with the family to see if Huck is okay perching atop the roof after a month. Justin explained, “We had people knocking on our door multiple times a day asking if we knew there was a dog on our roof. Of course, we know! He isn’t very quiet.”
To assure people that their dog is safe and loves being up there, Huck’s parents made a sign to post in the yard. “When the weather is nice, he’ll be up there for hours. During the summer, it gets pretty hot so he’s only up there early in the morning for a little while. I think there’s a nice breeze.”
The neighbors are used to the high-flying pup after five years of seeing him peeking down at them, and he loves getting attention from them. “He’s like just about every golden, where he needs constant attention, so when he sees a walker or jogger, he barks at them until they look over. Our neighbors know him now so they will wave at him. New people usually see the sign and take pictures.” Justin said.
Because of Huck’s popularity, Justin sells designed custom Huck T-shirts to sell as a fundraiser for Austin Pets Alive. The family was able to donate the proceeds to help shelter-displaced pets after Hurricane Harvey hit the area.
Now that the famous Huck has gone viral, people from all over town come by just to spot him in his favorite place.“We actually had a neighbor drive up looking for him saying ‘My 90-year-old mother is in town and I told her about Huck — could you get him on the roof?. We did and she told us we had made her week.”
The family recently built an addition onto their house that was going to take away Huck’s access to the roof. But knowing how much he loves it up there, they made sure he could still get out through another side by adding a little ramp. Huck is pleased by the decision they made.
Justin said, “It was a no-brainer. It will be much easier on his hips with the ramp — and he makes so many people happy that we didn’t want to take that away. We’re doing our best to keep Austin weird.”
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