08/18/2025
Beautiful
"Stu," the older Lab mix pushed out of a pickup on US 50 and brought to Anne Arundel County Animal Services Aug. 9 as a stray, left the shelter this afternoon -- not with an adopter, but with his devoted lifelong family.
His real name is Gus, and he currently lives just outside of Washington. He was adopted as a rescue puppy in California, is now 12 years old (just as shelter staff had estimated) and has logged thousands upon thousands of miles of travel with his family, including spending three years in the country of Colombia. He disappeared from his Takoma Park home while under the care of a pet sitter while the family was out of town. He was reunited today thanks to a sharp-eyed reader of our earlier posts about him, who matched "Stu," as AACAS called him, with a post about Gus on a Montgomery County lost and found pets page. After seeing her comments on our page, shelter staff contacted Gus' owner, who was at Dulles Airport, and stayed after the shelter closed today so Gus and his family could be reunited (video in the comments).
What none of us except Gus knows is how he ended up in a red pickup truck at the intersection of US 50 and Davidsonville Road in Anne Arundel County, where witnesses said beer cans tumbled out, followed by the dog, before the pickup sped off. His owner said Gus wears both a Fi tracking collar and a second collar with his name, address and phone number, but the Fi's battery had died and Gus had neither collar on when he came to the shelter. He also has a microchip, but the shelter had been unable to trace its international number. For the time being, Gus will be wearing one of the shelter's free dog tags.
We are over the moon happy for Gus. This has been a pretty tough week for the shelter's staff and volunteers, but the reunion today of this personable old fellow with his thrilled family lifted our spirits immensely. May you continue having a great life, big fella!
