When a couple decided to volunteer at an animal shelter, they established one simple rule: they wouldn’t adopt any of the animals. Little did they know, they would meet a face that they just couldn’t resist.

When Logan Lay and his girlfriend, Hayley Jost, first got together, they adopted a sweet Doberman/German shepherd mix named Ty, who’d been kept outside and abused for most of his life. Ty had a handful of issues because of his past, and his new parents figured he should be their only dog, so they could focus on him and help him overcome his fears.

About a year and a half later, Ty had improved so much, and his mom decided that she and Lay should go and volunteer at the shelter that saved Ty’s life.

“He’s grown out of a lot of his old triggers and now he’s the biggest 105-pound cuddle bug you’ve ever met, and loves to swim and play and do a lot of the things he was afraid of at first,” Lay told The Dodo.

Lay and Jost went to the Austin Animal Center to find out how they could volunteer and get more involved. Before they even went into the shelter, the couple turned to each other and made a promise.

“I said, ‘Hayley, we are not going to come home with another animal; we cannot handle that right now. We’ve got a big ol’ baby at home already.’ She said I was right and that we shouldn’t, but the cuteness of all the puppies around us was slowly starting to creep into our hearts.”

Since the couple hadn’t filled out any paperwork or had background checks done yet, the most they could do was walk the dogs that the shelter had labeled “green dots,” meaning the easiest dogs to handle at the time. That’s when Jost and Lay met Scout.

“We walked to the back and started looking at the dogs on the whiteboard that hadn’t been let outside yet and saw one with a description of ‘Big Scared Puppy.’ I said to Hayley, ‘That’s the one. We have one of those at home,’ and we walked on back to find little Scout. We let him out of his cage and boy he was eager to jump all over us and give us some kisses.”

Lay and Jost took Scout outside for a walk, and he was so excited to finally be out of his enclosure, in the fresh air, with people to love on him. After running around for a while, the couple found a bench and Scout climbed into their laps, begging for belly rubs.

After about half an hour, the couple started to take Scout back inside – but as soon as he realized what was happening, he immediately tried to object.

“When he realized he was going back to his cage, he panicked and let out the softest cry. I turned to Hayley and said, ‘I don’t think he wants to go…’ and in that moment we kind of just nodded in agreement and slowly turned back around to the lady in charge.”

When Jost and Lay found out that adoptions were only $25 that day, they knew it was meant to be. They quickly made his adoption official, and left the shelter having broken the one promise they’d made – so overjoyed that they did.

The couple took Scout home to meet his new brother, Ty, and while the pair took a little while to warm up to each other, they’re now the best of friends. Both dogs started life off as big scared puppies, and now they have each other – and incredible parents.

“Scout and Ty are best friends now,” Lay said. “They both sleep in the bed with us and take up like 80 percent of the space, but we make it work. They both have their routines and one dog doesn’t do something without the other following closely behind.”

Neither Lay nor Jost was planning on coming home with a puppy that day, but as soon as they saw Scout’s eager, loving face, they knew there was no way they could leave without him. Scout is brave and happy in his new home now, and his parents will be forever grateful that he changed their minds.