A few months ago, Honor Bisagno and her husband moved to Lincoln Park, Illinois. Just a few days after they settled into their new place, they heard a strange noise coming from the top of their stairs.
Bisagno and her husband rent a renovated garden unit
that sits directly below someone’s home. The only thing that separates Bisagno’s unit from the house above is a staircase with a door at the top that doesn’t fully close. They knew that the neighbors upstairs had a golden retriever named Biggs, and realized that the sound they’d heard coming from behind the door was their pup.
“He heard us talking downstairs and … he really wanted to come down, and it was so sweet,” Bisagno told The Dodo.
Bisagno didn’t know whether her neighbors would be comfortable with her letting Biggs in, so she didn’t open the door for him. But Biggs wasn’t going to let that stop him. Because the door doesn’t fully close, Biggs used all his strength to break through and make his way down into Bisagno’s home.
“He was able to push the door open, so I was like, ‘OK, it’s not me letting him in, it’s him breaking in,’” Bisagno said.
Unsurprisingly, Biggs was incredibly affectionate and excited to meet his new neighbors. Bisagno and her husband instantly fell in love. They ended up telling Biggs’ owners what had happened, and they were totally fine with it — in fact, they were happy that Biggs had made new friends.
Biggs ended up “breaking into" Bisagno and her husband’s home the next day … and the day after that. For the past few months, Biggs has been visiting every single day, multiple times a day.
“[W]e just leave the door open and his owners and I are completely fine with him coming in and out,” Bisagno said. “They were worried that we wouldn’t like it, but I was like, ‘Please, we need to have him down here. It’s so fun.’”
Now, through their shared love of Biggs, Bisagno and her husband have grown closer to their neighbors and frequently share dinners. Because the couple is new to the area, it’s been nice to feel like they’re part of a community — and they have Biggs to thank for it.
Nothing can stop Biggs from wanting to go down and visit his extended family — not even getting neutered. Just hours after his procedure, while he was still feeling the extended effects of anesthesia, he wandered down Bisagno’s stairs, wearing his cone, looking for affection.
“[H]e was a little confused … I feel like there was nothing going on behind his eyes,” Bisagno said.
Bisagno never would have thought that a loose door at the top of her house would have brought an adorable pup into her life, or that she would look forward to someone breaking into her house every day. Now Biggs is undeniably a member of her family, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
