Adoptive Dog Was Returned to Same Shelter 11 Times–Then Staff Realize He’s Already Found His Home

(Illustration - hedgehog94/Shutterstock)

From the archives: This story was last updated in June 2019.

Pet shelters are full of sad stories of crying dogs waiting for someone to take them home. Some “problem pets” are adopted only to be returned to the shelter by their new owners multiple times because of their “undesirable” traits. The desperation and sorrow of these unadoptable pets is palpable.

The story of Gumby the dog turns that whole narrative on its head.

Gumby, a whitish hound mix, was first brought to Charleston Animal Society in South Carolina as a stray dog in 2014. The shelter is a no-kill facility, which meant that Gumby was in good hands. He forged a beautiful bond with the staff who worked there.

They diligently set to work seeking a forever home and a loving human owner to adopt him. This they managed to accomplish; however, Gumby wasn’t having any of it. One could say that Gumby truly was a “problem pet.”

Over the course of a year or so after his arrival at CAS, the troublesome hound was returned to the shelter no less than 11 times.

Then, was Gumby desperately troubled by all of this turmoil? Was he found crying sorrowfully in his kennel for some kind owner to love and care for him? Not even close! Just the opposite, in fact.

To quickly summarize his several tries at adoptive home living, Gumby’s first try at adoption lasted just three days; his second lasted six days; his third adoptive owner was determined to suit Gumby with a new forever home, yet he was dropped off back at the shelter four times, as he kept on escaping.

A good Samaritan dropped him off once; animal control found him the second time; the owner dropped him off the third and fourth times.

No matter what anyone did, Gumby would find his way back to the shelter where he was adopted from. The shelter warned hopeful owners that the hound was a skilled escape artist, but it did no good.

Gumby’s longest-lasting adoption lasted four months, from March 2015 to July of that year—when he was returned to CAS as a stray.

There were two more adoption tries, both of which failed: one started on Aug. 5 and lasted just a few weeks before he turned up at another shelter 30 miles outside of Charleston; and one began on Dec. 6, where Gumby escaped three times in less than a month, where he ended up bursting through a screen door.

The staff at CAS came to realize that the place Gumby truly longed to be was at the shelter. He never made any escape attempts from there, and he had a fond relationship with the staff and got plenty of love and attention from them.

He was also a contributing member of the team, as he would often comfort dogs that were nervous or fearful. He also plays an active role in the staff’s behavioral demonstrations and even donates blood, whose serum, according to staff, seems to have certain healing properties.

The CAS shelter has become Gumby’s forever home. The staff there are his loving human family, and he has no shortage of furry friends to play with all day. It seems this “problem pet” had it all set up right from the start!