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When Brad Roop was asked what he wanted for Christmas, he said he wanted a chihuahua. And seconds later, he was handed one.

Roop said he was excited, but was generally quiet while in the Cubby’s convenience store on South Burr Street in Mitchell, where he and his chihuahua met for the first time on Monday night.

“I’ve never seen him speechless. Ever,” said Larissa Donaldson-Miiller, who decided to find a dog for Roop.

Donaldson-Miiller has worked at Cubby’s for about eight and a half years, and she said Roop had been coming in to get coffee for as long as she could remember.

Until recently, his chihuahua, Sweetie, would come inside with him, tucked inside his coat.

“His dog passed away three weeks ago. He told me, last week, ‘I cry every night since my dog died,'” Donaldson-Miiller said.

Roop asked Donaldson-Miiller to let him know if she happened to hear of anyone who was looking for a home for a dog, but as she thought more about Roop’s situation, she decided to take things a step further.

“I kept thinking about it all day. And so I got home, and I posted on Facebook,” she said.

The post, asking for help finding Roop a dog for the holidays, was soon seen by Andrea Forkert, who told Donaldson-Miiller that she had a friend in Mount Vernon who breeds chihuahuas.

At first, Forkert’s friend, Eric Kobernusz, told her that he would sell a chihuahua for a low rate. But he soon changed his mind, deciding instead to donate the dog, a black chihuahua named Toby.

Just after he said there was nothing he wanted more than a chihuahua, Forkert handed Toby to Roop, wrapped in a plaid blanket. Roop promptly got Toby settled in his coat.

“I think Toby needed you as much as you needed him,” Forkert told Roop.