The Fuqua family has pleaded with Hallee Fuqua to get her a puppy for Christmas for some years now. Despite this, she was told “no” on an annual basis. As a result, the college student from Oklahoma decided to put her love of dogs to good use by helping at the Humane Society of Stillwater, where she is currently enrolled.

For her parents, Christmas came a little early this year because they felt she had waited too long.

Instead of just giving her any puppy, they gave her the shelter dog that she had been caring for and had fallen in love with over the course of several weeks.

Rambo was the name of the dog in question. Rambo is a 2-year-old Plott Hound mix who lives with his family.

Hallee was heartbroken when she learned that Rambo had been adopted; she had no idea that it was her parents who had made the decision.

Lance Fuqua posted the entire story on Facebook, with the following message:

What transpired was as follows. For years, our daughter Hallee Fuqua has expressed a desire to receive a dog as a Christmas present. We urged her to defer making a decision until after she had completed her college education. It was at the Stillwater Humane Society that she first volunteered. She developed a strong attachment to a dog named Rambo, and she visited him on a regular basis. Three weeks ago, my wife and I came to an agreement to adopt him in secret. We were able to keep it a secret thanks to the assistance of the Humane Society. When she found out that Rambo had been adopted over the weekend, she was devastated. As a result, on Sunday night, we surprised her with an early Christmas present.”

When Hallee sees her father with Rambo, who is wearing a headpiece made of reindeer antlers, she busts out laughing.

“What?” “Are you sure this isn’t a joke?” she inquires.

It wasn’t, and now Rambo is a full-fledged member of the family, and everything seemed to be falling into place. “Hallee continued texting us photographs of her and Rambo at the shelter,” Lance said in an interview with PEOPLE. Then my wife Jessica said something that made me laugh: “I know that seems strange, but I think Rambo belongs in our family.”

The surprise had been arranged months in advance by the couple, who had already made plans to adopt the puppy from a shelter in late November. Despite receiving the news she had been expecting on December 14th, her regretful tears were soon replaced with joy when Rambo appeared on her doorstep less than two days later.

Take a look at the video below to see the wonderful moment.