SUMTER, S.C. — A little Sumter girl's prayers were answered last Friday when her dog, stolen over a year ago, ran into her arm with a tail that couldn't stop wagging.
On March 13, Cpl. Kristen Gregory with Sumter County Sheriff’s Office responded to a residence on Griffin Lane in reference to a neglected dog in the yard.
Looking at the dog, Gregory realized the canine was in poor condition and could not remain at the residence.
Sumter Animal Control responded to the scene and removed the dog.
For more than a month after the dog’s removal, Capt. Misty Lee, SCSO, and Sumter Animal Control attempted to contact the person believed to be the dog’s owner.
Lee decided to release the dog for rescue or adoption on May 6 after the person living at the residence failed to respond to phone calls, house visits, a letter and posts left at the house.
The next day, Amy Frey with Saving Sumter’s Strays — a nonprofit foster-based rescue — called Lee and advised that a volunteer, Rachael Weber, thought the dog resembled one that was reported stolen from the city of Sumter in June 2019.
Weber was referring to an old flyer of a dog named Diesel.
Lee compared recent pictures of the dog to the flyer and came to the same conclusion.
Sumter Police Department also thought the rescued dog was a match to Diesel after visiting Sumter Animal Control.
The dog’s actual owner, Tiffaney Capell, was called to the animal shelter to identify the dog.
She brought her young daughter who said she’d prayed every night that they would get their dog back. And when Capell’s daughter was told there was a possibility the dog might not be theirs, she said she had a feeling it was Diesel.
When the dog was released from the kennel he ran straight to Capell, tail wagging.
“The sequence of events that had to align for this dog to find its owner were astounding,” Lee said.
Officers are still attempting to contact the person living at the residence where Diesel was found.
Charges are forthcoming.
