Rescue Dog Astounds Her Neighborhood and the Internet with Her Strange Climbing Talent (Exclusive)
Nola the rescue dog surprised her pet parents by scaling the 6-foot-tall fence in their New York yard
Nola the dog is a local attraction in her New York neighborhood and is easy to spot.
The canine has the curious (and cute) habit of scaling the trees and fences in her yard, offering neighbors a clear look at her adorable face when they pass by Vanessa and Ryan Marquette's home.
The couple adopted Nola when she was a puppy in 2018 from North Country Pet Adoptions in N.Y. after fostering the dog for several months.
"She was already house-trained and everything, but her sister got adopted, so she was by herself. We think that because she is blind in one eye, people overlooked her. So we fostered her and then ended up adopting her three months later," Vanessa tells PEOPLE.
"We could tell right away she felt so at home, and she quickly became part of the family," Ryan adds.
Shortly after making Nola an official family member, the couple began to hear about the dog's strange behavior. First, their pet sitter mentioned that Nola managed to jump the tall fence surrounding their home.
The couple had difficulty believing Nola could scale a fence in a single bound, mainly because the dog rarely jumped inside the house. Then, the Marquette family moved to a home in Syracuse, New York, with a larger yard surrounded by a tall fence and numerous trees. Not long after the move, a neighbor told the family they had seen their dog "jumping" on top of the fence.
"I didn't believe that she was jumping the fence. That's a four-foot jump. That's significant. She's not the biggest dog in the world. So I remember going out and walking the entire fence perimeter, looking for holes because I was like, there's no way. She's slipping out underneath somewhere doing something, and that's how she's getting out. Then I found nothing." Ryan recalls.
A short while after Ryan scanned the Syracuse house's fence, he and Vanessa finally saw Nola's jumping ability for themselves. Vanessa spied Nola scaling the home's 6-foot-tall fence first and, after several failed attempts, got a photo to show Ryan what the dog was up to.
Luckily, Nola isn't trying to escape when she does her impressive pooch parkour onto the fence, usually climbing a tree to help her get to the top; she wants to take in the view and occasionally strike a pose. So now, Nola's unusual trick has become part of her daily schedule and the subject of her Instagram (@noseynola).
"She's got a little bit of a morning routine. She wakes up, and she has energy right away. We let her out back. She usually sprints to the back left corner by our shed, climbs there, checks out on the neighborhood, and makes sure everyone's safe. Then she jumps down, then jumps on the fence and the tree on the side of our house. Then, depending on her interest, she'll repeat that usually a couple of times," Ryan explains.
"Now the whole neighborhood sees her. It's funny," Vanessa adds.
Nola's status as an online and local celebrity helped her pet parents learn more about their rescue pup.
"The first time she went viral, everyone's like, 'Must be a Treeing Walker.' I was like, 'What are they talking about?'" Vanessa recalls. "Then I Googled it, and I was like, 'Oh, maybe.' So then we did her DNA test, and sure enough, she was like 26% Treeing Walker Coonhound."
According to Orvis, the Treeing Walker Coonhound is a dog breed that was bred to hunt raccoons. As the breed's name implies, the high-energy canines are adept at scaling trees.
Ryan and Vanessa's other rescue dog, Toby, doesn't have the same skills as Nola but still stays close to her to observe and sometimes attempt Nola's high-flying moves.
"He follows her absolutely everywhere, step by step, all day long. He has normal dog ability because when he tries to do it, he basically can only put his front two paws on the fence," Ryan says.
When Nola isn't running around the yard with Toby, she is inside relaxing, soaking up attention, and snacking on "bell peppers and carrots," according to Vanessa.
The entire Marquette crew is ready for Halloween. Nola dressed as Taylor Swift's cat, Olivia Benson, to meet her fans.
"We have trick-or-treaters come up, a lot of the kids, and the parents are like, 'Oh, this is Nola!'" Ryan says.
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Nola's owners adore their dogs, including their quirks, and hope that after learning about Nola, others will be inspired to adopt a rescue dog.
"She could have been one of the ones on the euthanasia list, and she is a dog that many overlooked because she had an impairment with her eye, which sounds silly because look at what she can do. But it's just a reminder that rescues are so special. They might surprise you!" Vanessa says.