LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas — An Arkansas family is celebrating after their dog who escaped through a small hole in the fence, but ended up finding its way back home-- literally coming right back to the front door.
Their doorbell camera alerted them that their dog was sitting right there, right at the front of the house.
"It was just an absolute accident and I forgot them outside not realizing that we had a hole big enough in our fence for one of them to fit through," said Christina Muñoz Madsen.
She was on her way out the door to get her daughters from school. That's when she forgot to bring her dogs back in before she left.
"I take the first kid to gymnastics, second kid to dance, and that's when I realize I don't think I let the dogs back in," said Christina.
It had been about an hour, but as she remembered that the dogs were still out, that's when her phone started to ring.
"My husband calls and says, 'I just saw Dexter on our ring doorbell camera,'" said Christina.
"We get a notification saying there's somebody at the front door, and so I happen to pull it up and here's our dog Dexter sitting on the front porch," said Dave Madsen.
For the next several minutes as Christina made her way back home, Dave stayed on the camera's speaker making sure Dexter didn't leave. You can hear him on the video, calling and whistling to Dexter to sit.
"Parts of it he's very confused. He doesn't know where my voice is coming from, but he can see the doorbell and he jumps up and tries to lick the doorbell a couple times," said Dave.
The family later found out that the hole in the fence led to a back lot that would cause Dexter to walk around busy traffic, outside the neighborhood before circling back to get home.
Dexter was not used to being away from the backyard, and so he wasn't very familiar with the front.
Despite Dexter's short journey, it was the happy ending the family wanted, with Dexter sitting on the porch waiting for Christina as she got home.
"It was a great reunion and I wish we would have had that on camera because he was just so happy. I was so thankful he was safe. I was so thankful he was okay," said Christina.
The social media video posted by the Madsen family has been viewed half a million times.