Family Walking by Nativity Scene Spot Stray Puppy Sleeping in the Manger

Families in Inhuma, Brazil enjoy taking in the Nativity Scene set up in the city square. But when Nadia Rosângela and her family walked by it in early December they spotted something in the manger that wasn’t part of the original decorations. It was a puppy curled up and sleeping!

“When we went to see the nativity scene, we came across a puppy sleeping in the manger. An image very beautiful…” she told the Brazilian news channel [transl.] Cidadeverde.com. Rosângela and her husband had taken their son to view the Nativity scene display that was nearly completed.

“She [the puppy] was asleep the whole time. Other people arrived, took pictures, kept talking and [the puppy] was in a wonderful sleep,” Nadia continued. The puppy did not open her eyes but continued to sleep despite all the commotion around her.

Rosângela was so moved by the tender scene that she took some photos and posted them to social media, asking if someone could help the stray puppy. She explained that seeing the puppy in the manger was emotional for her: “I imagined how Jesus Christ is present in so many things, in so many creatures, in so many beings. For me, that puppy was Jesus making himself present.”

Rosângela couldn’t bring the puppy home herself as her family already has three dogs and 12 adopted cats! Thankfully, her plea for help received plenty of attention and several people showed up wanting to adopt the puppy.

One of Rosângela’s friends ended up bringing the puppy home. No one knows how the puppy ended up in the manager, but she was likely abandoned by someone in the city as the pup’s mother was nowhere to be seen.

“I feel happy and at peace knowing she’s safe,” Rosângella later told the Dodo in an interview. “I love animals very much, and wish the same for all of them.”

This pup’s story reminds us of Gabriel’s, an injured pit bull who also found shelter in a Nativity scene.