Kay Hayman is a true animal friend and has been volunteering at shelters for more than two decades, but she’s never seen anything quite like this. Kay befriended an incredibly affectionate pup named Gumby, and the four-footer was always well-liked by the shelter staff. Unfortunately, it seemed that Gumby would reside in the shelter forever, as he could never find a permanent home.

The poor pup was returned by his owners to the Charleston Animal Society shelter no less than 11 times.

Gumby wasn’t a bad pup at all, he never bit anyone, never got aggressive or was never even mean to his owners or other dogs. However, the pup is really energetic and does have a tendency to run away and escape, which is why he’s been returned so many times.

The Hound-mix species is known to be stubborn, and Gumby is definitely no exception. No matter what was going on, you can always see Gumby running around as he just refuses to stay put. It turns out that Gumby was a little too energetic to handle for most, and owners just simply kept returning him. Some people even brought him to the shelter mistaking him as a stray because he kept escaping.

The shelter staff still recalls when Gumby was first returned to the shelter.

The four-footer returned in great condition, and he was clearly taken care of properly. However, the owners just didn’t want to care for him anymore and surrendered the pup to the shelter. The shelter staff figured that Gumby would be adopted again pretty soon since he was healthy and had a loving personality. And sure enough – the pup found a home again rather quickly.

Gumby was adopted a second time, but everyone was completely flabbergasted when his new owners returned him only three days later.

And this kept on happening over and over again. The next time, he only lasted six days at his new home. He was adopted again by a new family and the poor pup was returned to the shelter four times! Gumby kept escaping and roaming the streets, and people simply brought him in thinking he was a homeless dog.

After all these escapes and attempts, the fourth family decided that it wasn’t safe to keep Gumby as they felt the pup needed a lot more space and freedom to be happy.

Once again, he was returned to the shelter – and this happened over and over again with five other families.

One of them even mentioned that Gumby destroyed the screen door, just so he could escape. Even though it was all with good intentions, Gumby is a tough pup to handle.

The shelter staff decided that this couldn’t continue, so they decided to try something else.

They adopted Gumby themselves as the “staff dog”, and the pup has never been happier since.

It turns out that Gumby felt most at home at the shelter itself, and he never had the tendency to run away anymore. He simply missed his trusted environment and all of the people who cared for him!

“He plays with over 50 dogs a day has all the toys treats and food he can ask for and we love him like he is our own dog!” Kay says.

And Gumby does his job quite well: he’s basically an in-house “therapy dog” to make sure new and scared pups feel more at ease, and he also loves to take care of sick kittens. What an adorable and sweet goofball!

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Source: Charleston Animal Society