Dog Caught In TS Debby Reunited With FL Family After 918 Days Missing

BRADENTON, FL — The last thing Paul Williams expected while working in his custom cabinetry shop in Samoset on Tuesday was for a wet, lost dog to wander in seeking help.

The pup, which he later learned was a chow chow mix named Rusty and had been missing from his family for 918 days, had clearly been caught in Tropical Storm Debby.

“He was very, very cold. He was very, very wet. He was dirty. He was tired,” Williams told Patch. “I would guess that he was probably lost during the storm. He had that look on his face like he needed some help.”

Rusty wore a collar, but no tags, so there was no way to identify him.

Williams, a long-time animal lover, took the dog to his Bradenton home, where he fed Rusty and gave him a bath.

“Because he was pretty dirty,” Williams said. “And then he pretty much slept the rest of the night.”

The next morning, he brought Rusty to Southeast Animal Clinic in Bradenton to see if the pooch was microchipped.

“That’s when we found out more about him,” Williams said.

Not only did they learn his name, but they learned Rusty was a senior dog at 16 years old and that his original owner had died about three years earlier. Unfortunately, Rusty’s microchip hadn’t been updated since then.

“I would recommend that fervently to anybody,” Williams said. “It’s always a good thing to update your chip periodically, if a number changes or an address changes or anything. He had been chipped, but it wasn’t updated in 15 or 16 years and only had original information.”

Though he took Rusty home after that, the staff at Southeast Animal Clinic wasn’t ready to give up, Karrie Tyna, a veterinary assistant, told Patch. “We just wanted to get that baby home.”

One employee began searching lost pet posts on social media and eventually found a plea from Rusty’s family — the children of his original owner — posted in the Facebook group Lost and Found Pets 941 asking for help finding the pup.

Veterinary staff messaged the family on Facebook and eventually connected them with Williams.

“We couldn’t believe it at first,” Tyna said. “When it comes to lost animals that get brought in, they were usually lost a month ago or something. We were just so excited to find the missing post online and the family was just as surprised and shocked that we found their baby that went missing.”

Though Rusty was “kind of in rough shape,” he likely had been taken in by another family during the time he was missing and then got out again during the storm, she added. “He looks like he was well fed. But we can’t be sure what went on for those two years.”

Rusty seemed confused by the reunion, but his family was emotional, Williams said. “Hopefully things settle down for him. He’s 16 years old. He deserves to be pampered for what days he has left.”