Meet Karine Ribeiro, an English teacher at a high school in Brazil. In early August of this year, her students got a surprise lesson, and it wasn’t in their school curriculum at all. Their teacher taught them what it looks like to be a kind human being.

On the last Tuesday of August, when she walked into the classroom where her students were assembled, she noticed there was a new member in the classroom. It wasn’t a child, but a random dog. Understanding that the dog was not in her classroom to learn a new language, she asked the students whether they owned the pup or if they knew who did. In an interview, Ribeiro says: “They answered, ‘No,’. When I saw her, looking lost, my dog-mom instinct kicked in.”

The teacher didn’t have the heart to expel this class-crashing pup. The woman did the opposite. As the pup was looking scared, to comfort him, she just picked him up and cradled him in her arms and without missing a beat, she started her day’s lesson. She also went on to say: “I thought, ‘What if this was one of my dogs?!’ I would like her to be embraced! She was very quiet, looking like she was loving the situation.”

A student in the class had taken a few pictures of their teacher holding the pup, and had shared them with her later on. When the bell rang at the end of the class, Ribeiro took it upon herself to solve the mystery of the lost dog, and she finally was able to solve it. The pup had accompanied a student from a different class, and had wondered into the wrong classroom. The pup and the rightful owner were soon reunited.

Ribeiro’s students would surely remember the day a puppy joined their class as a funny memory from school, she also hopes that they would also be parted with something more impactful. Finally she had this to say: “I adopted two dogs who lived on the street as soon as I moved here. I always like to teach that we should show care, empathy and respect for pets, especially homeless ones.”