MACON, Ga. — A dog is finally back in Central Georgia and recovering after it was stolen from Macon-Bibb Animal Welfare months ago and later found in Florida.
Buster was stolen from the shelter back in March.
Lt. Sean DeFoe with the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office says two Florida runaway teen girls volunteered at animal welfare about two months ago and left when they finished serving.
They came back later the same evening after the shelter closed, entered through a fence and a doggy door, stole Buster, then ran back to Florida with him.
The teens are also accused of stealing two puppies from Save a Pet in Monroe County in the same month.
Elizebeth Barker Bracewell works at Greenwood Farm Vet Clinic and she often makes runs to pick up dogs for animal welfare.
She says no one wanted to venture out to pick up Buster from another state because of the risk of contracting COVID-19.
Buster was in Florida for about two and a half months before Bracewell and her husband Wendell decided to drive all the way from Central Georgia to Lake Wales, Florida to rescue him.
The father of one of the teens who stole Buster was holding him at his house.
“Finally, we got that call saying, ‘You know, he’s not doing well. Can we just take the risk,'” Elizebeth said. “And we said, ‘Yes, we will.'”
The entire journey took about 24 hours for the Bracewells to complete – 8 hours on the way there, a few hours to pick up the dog, and almost 13 hours on the way back. The couple had to make stops often to accommodate Buster.
“Every hour or so we’d have to stop and take him out and walk him. Clean him up because he was getting sick. Offer him a little bit more water, a little bit more food, a lot of loving,” Elizebeth said.
Buster was in poor health when they picked him up, Wendell said. He was dehydrated, malnourished, flea-ridden, and had worms.
“There’s no telling what he had to endure while he was there,” Wendell said.
The Bracewells have had Buster for about 10 days. Wendell says they are still working on nursing Buster completely back to health, but he is doing much better.
“We finally got him to where he’s going to the bathroom somewhat normal now and his meat is coming back on him and you can feel his fur fluffing back up again,” Wendell said. “It’s really been good to watch him kind of grow. We’ve kind of spoiled him a little bit.”
Elizebeth and Wendell are fostering Buster until he is in great condition and ready to be sent off to his forever home.
“It’s going to be hard to give him up, though,” Wendell said.
“We heal them, and we train them for the families that adopt them, and then they move on to families that are looking forward to them, so that makes it a little bit easier,” Elizebeth said.
The Bracewells think Buster is a Pitbull and Chocolate Labrador Retriever mix. Wendell says Buster is a loving dog that likes to hug people.
“He gets that smile that pitbulls get where their grin really turns up on the sides of their face,” Elizebeth said. “He just gets so happy. It’s just amazing to see the difference in that face.”
Buster is good with all people, kids, other animals, and he has travel experience. The Bracewells say they are confident he will make a “great family dog.”
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