In November 2021, a mysterious package arrived on the doorstep of Jessica Sattelberger’s home. There was no note explaining who it was from, nor any return address. Inside the Amazon box were two chew toys and a bag of chicken and waffle-flavored dog treats.
Sattelberger and her boyfriend, Adam, had adopted a dog named Myrtle earlier that year, so the package was definitely for her. But … who had sent it?
“We were extremely confused,” Sattelberger told The Dodo about receiving what was just the first of many packages sent for Myrtle. “If anyone would be sending Myrtle a gift, I would have guessed my sister because she will often send our dogs things.”
But the secret sender was actually someone neither Sattelberger nor Adam would have ever guessed.
The anonymous gifter ended up being the father of one of Adam’s childhood friends. “We figured it out after one of his sons had told Adam that their dad had asked for our address,” Sattelberger said.
But the funny thing is that Adam doesn’t have a relationship with the man they’ve dubbed “Uncle Bill.”
In fact, Uncle Bill had only met Adam once (back when Adam was in high school), and it took some backtracking to figure out how Uncle Bill knew about Myrtle in the first place.
“We officially adopted [Myrtle] in June of 2021, and then we started an Instagram page,” Sattelberger said. “He must have followed it because Adam shared it on his own page and Bill follows Adam as well.”
Soon after the packages started arriving, Uncle Bill then began liking and commenting on all of Myrtle’s Instagram posts, confirming that he is, in fact, the secret sender.
Sattelberger said that the situation gets even funnier when they factor in that Uncle Bill has his own kids who have their own pets, and he rarely sends his granddogs toys and treats in the mail.
“He’s taken a liking to our dog,” Sattelberger said in a TikTok video explaining the lore of Uncle Bill. “Eventually he started writing, ‘Love, Uncle Bill’ on [the packages]. The whole thing’s incredible.”
