Texas - At first, Chelsea thought a sick coyote was in her yard. What she didn't know at the time was that the supposedly wild dog would soon change everything for her!

In an interview with Newsweek, the Texan spoke about her first encounter with the animal intruder in June and the aftermath that continues to this day.

"He backed himself up behind our plant in the corner, barking his head off at me," she explained.

"You could tell he was very scared."

The poor thing kept running to another corner of her garden in the 100 degree Texas summer heat whenever she or anyone else tried to approach him.

Apparently, the spaces in between the fence were big enough for the pup – then only 12 lbs – to slip in and out of. Even so, he kept returning to their yard.

Finally, Chelsea and her sister spent an hour and a half trying to get a grip on the situation before realizing that the furry friend was getting tired.

Chelsea's sister then took her chance and threw a blanket over the pup.

Shortly afterwards, the extremely frightened creature was in a crate, and the women took him straight to the vet.

It was quickly clarified that it was actually a regular puppy that only bore a visual resemblance to a coyote. Chelsea ended up naming the dog Yote in reference to its unusual looks.

She was then faced with the next question: what should she do with the dog?

The woman initially tried to return it to its potential owners together with her husband Steven.

But despite an intensive search on social media and phone calls to animal shelters, no one was found, so the couple drew a line in the sand.

"All at once, we admitted to each other, we both wanted to keep him," Chelsea recounted.

"He weasled his way into our hearts," she added.

"Since then, his personality comes out more and more every day... He is 31 pounds now. He has the most goofy, loving personality!"