Say hello to Bentley, a Dallas Ebola patient’s disease-free dog

Two weeks after Spain disregarded an international campaign and deliberately killed a mixed-breed mutt whose owner had Ebola, a dog in a similar situation is finding a different fate in Dallas.

Bentley, a 1-year-old King Charles spaniel who belongs to one of two Texas women hospitalized with the disease, has tested negative for it. Bentley belongs to Nina Pham, one of the nurses who was treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the disease's first and so far only casualty on U.S. soil. Duncan died on Oct. 8 after traveling to the U.S. from Liberia.

Fittingly, because Bentley's uncertainty had been documented on Twitter, Dallas spokeswoman Sana Syed made the Ebola-free announcement with a tweet.

In the meantime, the condition of his owner, who is hospitalized in Maryland, has been upgraded from fair to good condition, The National Institutes of Health said Tuesday.

Pham, 26, said she was grateful "for everyone's concerns and well wishes."

U.S officials consciously decided against such the drastic measure carried out in Spain, which euthanized the dog of an Ebola patient despite a worldwide protest on social media with the hashtag #SalvemosExcalibur.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings told USA Today that the dog was very important to Pham and officials wanted to keep him safe.

In a Facebook post, the Veterinary Emergency Team at Texas A&M University who cared for Bentley said they had fallen in love with him.

So, it seems, had quite a few others.