Dog returned to shelter 11 times before staff realizes he had already found his fur-ever home

A staff at Charleston Animal Society (CAS), a no-kill shelter for stray animals, first met a stray hound-mix breed dog back in September 2014. They named the dog Gumby.

Over the course of 2015, he was adopted not once, not twice, not even thrice! Rather, he was adopted and returned 11 times at the shelter.

Gumby was known for his mischievous tricks of escaping his kennel at the shelter, and even the houses of his adopters! Animal Rescue has reported that Gumby was returned to the shelter by his then humans, because they cannot handle his sneaky ways.

For example, he was returned to CAS four times during his third adoption – twice by his own adopters, once by a Good Samaritan and once by animal control.

By December 2015, staff at the shelter tried to give Gumby a home as a last-ditch effort, only for him to escape once again – three times in less than a month.

In total, Gumby was adopted seven times, voluntarily surrendered eight times and picked up as a stray thrice.

The CAS staff had officially given up on pushing Gumby for adoption, but they did not give up on him.

They realized that Gumby’s forever home was actually the shelter itself.

Several times, Gumby escaped his adopters only to come back to the shelter time and again. In CAS, he never tried to escape.

“The staff believed Gumby kept returning to CAS because ‘he knows he has work to do,’” reported Animal Rescue.

Now, Gumby is part of the shelter helping the behavior team during behavioral demos. Apparently, he has a way of calming the other dogs in the shelter and he has also become a blood donor for kittens with eye infections, because the staff discovered his blood has healing properties.

Gumby never ran away from the shelter, his home.