When Julia Morley first saw Lu-Seal at a shelter in Pittsburgh, the little Chihuahua could barely walk. Lu-Seal tipped the scales at 16 pounds — double the healthy weight for a dog her size.

But once Morley got her home, the now 9-year-old dog began to shrink. “I put her on a healthy diet and walked her as much as she could tolerate, and the pounds fell off,” Morley told The Dodo. “Now she’s a healthy weight and doing great.”

Lu-Seal has been at a healthy weight for three years now and is more active than ever before.

But her weight loss was never more apparent than when her mom had a new fence installed around her yard.

“It never occurred to me that she would fit through the bars of the fence when I picked it out, but it became clear as soon as it was installed that it was going to be a problem,” Morley said.

Lu-Seal is constantly on the lookout for her neighbor, Eddie, who always gives out the best treats. And the new fence posed a small challenge when it came to Lu-Seal breaking out of her yard to chase him down.

Lu-Seal was determined to squeeze through the fence anytime she went outside, so Morley had to act fast. Morley posted about her conundrum on Lu-Seal’s Instagram, and one of the dog’s followers came up with a hilarious solution: placing a “safety spoon” on Lu-Seal’s back.

The spoon idea seemed just crazy enough to work, and the results were hilarious.

“I attached it to her harness with Velcro cable ties and it worked like a charm,” Morley said. “We only used it as a temporary solution. The landscaper came back a week later and installed puppy guards on the fence.”

“I think Lu-Seal was so committed to getting through that fence that she didn’t even notice the spoon on her back,” Morley added. “It didn’t seem to bother her at all and it certainly didn’t change her conviction that her attempts were eventually going to work.”

Thanks to the puppy guards on the fence, Lu-Seal has given up on her quest to sneak past the fence. But that doesn’t mean she’s given up on convincing her neighbor to give her treats.

“Instead, whenever she sees Eddie during her vigilant cookie watch, she runs to the gate and waits for me to take her over to see him,” Morley said. “Lu-Seal is just unfailingly optimistic. She has a permanent smile on her face, and nothing seems to keep her down.”