No one knows for certain where this sweet stray dog named Botella came from — one day, he simply showed at the Arauco Maipú shopping mall in Chile and never left.

But though Botella may have started off without a friend in the world, things didn’t stay that way for long.

Mall-goer Silvana Katalina first encountered Botella last year after stopping to shop. She was immediately struck by two things — how loving the pup is, and how obsessed he is with toys.

“He never parts from his little ball,” Katalina told The Dodo. “He is very tender and loves to be pet.” But it’s what Boletta does with the ball that’s most impressive of all.

Botella invented a game all his own — cleverly employing an escalator to convince strangers to play games of fetch.

Here’s video of the pup in action:

Botella, clearly, is an expert at making friends. And it shows. Not only do customers love interacting with him, staff and security at the mall see to it that he stays happy and healthy.

“He is fed and cared for,” Fernanda Pérez, an animal lover who lives near the mall, told The Dodo. “He looks very happy.”

(Word is, employees at the mall are even known to look the other way when Botella helps himself to replacement balls at stores inside the mall.)

Botella may be a stray dog with, perhaps, a sad and lonely past. But thanks to the open hearts of friends and strangers at the mall who so readily embrace him, his life is not without love.

In fact, you might say, they’re making sure he has a ball.