When Breanna Gilliam arrived for work at Yadkin County Animal Shelter one morning, she thought she saw something next to a sign at the end of the shelter’s driveway. She didn’t think much of it at first — until the something in question started barking at her.

“When I walked out there, the poor girl was tied to our sign,” Gilliam told The Dodo. “She was very scared to start with and wouldn’t come to me.”

The dog, later named Millie, was tied to a sign that read, “Abandoning an animal is cruel and illegal. Please do not leave animals unattended at this location at any time.” Unfortunately, whoever left her there blatantly ignored the sign and abandoned her anyway.

Gilliam worked to gain Millie’s trust, and it didn’t take long for the sweet pup to know that she was safe. Her rescuer noticed that she was very clean and in great condition — meaning that at some point, someone had cared for her. Cameras show that Millie had been tied to the sign for about two and a half hours before Gilliam arrived, and thankfully nothing happened to her during that stretch of time.

“She definitely appeared to be an indoor dog by the looks of it,” Gilliam said. “Very potty trained and calm and had such a sweet and submissive demeanor.”

The shelter posted about Millie and her plight on Facebook, and almost immediately, someone noticed her.

“I had seen their Facebook post about her being abandoned and left tied to their sign, and it literally brought me to tears,” Kathy Culler, Millie’s new mom, told The Dodo. “Something about her face and her eyes really reached into my soul. I immediately reached out to them about adopting her.”

Culler and her family had just lost a rescue pup of their own, and the time felt right to welcome a new one into their lives. When she saw Millie in the lobby of the shelter, waiting to meet her, it was love at first sight. Millie had found her forever home, and her new mom promised to give her everything she’d never had.

“As soon as we got in the car, she made her way into my lap for the ride home, and as we passed the sign that she had been tied to, I promised her she would never be abandoned again,” Culler said.