When a Texas man was forced to give up his dog, a fire station gave him a home: “You could tell he’s been loved”

Fort Worth, Texas — Fire Station 8 in Fort Worth, Texas, is what is called a “safe baby site,” a place where desperate parents can leave a baby they are unable to care for. 

Earlier this month, a little one was left right at the base of the fire station’s flagpole: a dog named Jake.

Accompanying Jake was a note that read, “His name is Jake…If you really care about helping babies, please help my baby.”

“You could tell he’s been loved,” Fort Worth Fire Capt. Jason Bryant told CBS News about Jake. “Super healthy, super strong. You can tell he hadn’t missed a meal.” 

Jake had been living with a homeless man named Tom Miner. But Miner became homeless a couple years ago after his landlord told him he couldn’t keep his dog.

Miner finally decided to give up Jake, begrudgingly, because he believed his dog deserved a better life.

“I live with that every day,” Miner said. “…It is, hands down, the hardest decision I ever made.”

Miner said he ran from the fire station after dropping Jake off because he “couldn’t look back.”

But then came a bright side. The crew at the fire station decided to keep Jake as their own.

Then, Miner got a new place too when the Fort Worth Fire Department convinced a local business to donate a camper to him.

“This is my home,” Miner said of the camper. “And there ain’t no place like home.”

The fire department also provided supplies and arranged for him to see a dentist, doing everything it could to make sure Miner gets back on his feet. 

And when that day comes, the firefighters plan to fix the hole in his heart as well by returning Jake to him.

“One day he’s coming home,” Miner said.

The fire department stressed that this situation was a one-time exception, because it cannot have the public dropping off dogs at its fire stations.

“If we can hand Jake back over to Tom, I think that’s the happy ending everybody wants,” Bryant said. “…I think there’ll be 30 grown men bawling.”