Ryan Cordell jokingly told his two oldest daughters on Tuesday they could get a new puppy if they got one million likes on Facebook.

Today, less than 24 hours later, Cordell and his wife, Evie, are searching the Internet for a dog to adopt after their daughters' Facebook page, Twogirlsandapuppy, received 1.2 million likes, and counting.

"I really don't know how it moved so quickly," Evie Cordell said. "We thought it'd top out at maybe 2,000 people."

That low expectation is exactly why the Cordells, who live outside Boston, agreed to the proposal put forward by their daughters, Cadence, 12, and Emerson, 9, who along with their three younger brothers have been begging for a dog since August when the family's beloved dog of 10 years died of cancer.

The girls got the idea to wager with their dad after reading about the Urbano family in nearby Newton, Mass., who, back in November, got a new cat after a photo of the family's two kids holding a sign that read, "Hey FACEBOOK! My sister & I REALLY want a CAT! My Papa PROMISES we can get one if we can get 1000 LIKES! PLEASE like this picture! Thank you." The photo got more than 10,000 likes.

"They were joking with my husband and said, 'What if we got one million likes?,' and my husband was like, 'Sure,'" Cordell recalled.

Emerson and Cadence created their own sign that read, "Hi World, We want a puppy. Our dad said we can get one if we get 1 million Likes! So LIKE this! He doesn't think we can do it!" Their mom created a Facebook page with a photo of the girls and their three younger brothers holding the sign.

"They went to bed at 8 p.m. and it had hit 10,000 likes and we went to bed about midnight and there was one million [likes]," Evie Cordell said. "My husband works with social media as part of his job so it got spread through his friends that have large social networks and it just took off from there."

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The Cordells surprised their daughters with the good news this morning after an unsuccessful attempt to wake them up last night.

"They didn't quite believe it had happened so quickly," Cordell said. "My youngest daughter thinks every million we reach we should get another puppy, which is not going to happen."

Cordell said she had spent her morning online searching Petfinder.com and expects the family to have a new addition within the next month.

"We are looking at adoption through a rescue or a local shelter," she said. "I think we want a lab or a golden retriever, either a puppy or a very young dog so it can grow up with our family."