It isn’t every day that a dog living on the mean streets of Mexico finds a little kindness.

So when this little fella found a brief respite at a veterinary clinic, he had to return the next day – and scratch and paw and plead to come back inside.

Love opened the door.

The clinic, in a town called Puerto Peñasco, is operated by Compassion Without Borders (CWOB), a U.S. nonprofit that provides free and low-cost veterinary care.

A kind-hearted local woman brought him in to be neutered, and after he recovered, he was taken back to town.

But the very next day, a familiar figure brightened the clinic’s doorway. It was the dog with no name.

“He’s very, very friendly,” Christi Camblor, executive director of CWOB, tells The Dodo. “His tail never stops wagging. He’s just incredibly affectionate and outgoing.”

Did we mention intelligent?

After all, he knew exactly which door to knock on.

The dog’s future, despite a spectacular individual effort, is not yet assured. He joins a gallery of rescues at Compassion Without Borders – all of them looking for a home.

Sometime between Christmas and the New Year, this still-to-be-named dog will take an even bigger step in that direction.

Along with around 24 Mexican rescues, he will arrive in California. There he will spend his days under quarantine with a foster family.

By then he’ll no longer be a dog without a name. “We had a voting contest on Facebook for his name, ” Camblor explains. “There was Einstein.”

There was Navigator. And there was Boomer. Short for Boomerang.

Because he came back.

And hopefully, by then, he will no longer be a dog without a family.