COLUMBIA, S.C. _ Diesel is back with his family after almost a year apart, according to Sumter police.
Diesel, a Labrador pit bull mix with a long tail and brown spots, was the family dog of Tiffaney Capell and her daughter. He went missing in June 2019, according to the Sumter County Sheriff's Office
How Diesel came to be reunited with his family began a month ago.
On March 13, a Sumter County deputy responded to a call about a neglected dog held in a yard on Griffin Lane. After arriving at the home, the deputy concluded that the dog was in poor shape and shouldn't stay at the residence, according to the sheriff's office. Sumter Animal Control picked the dog up.
The sheriff's office and animal control tried to contact the person they believed to be the dog's owner. But after more than a month of no success, the agencies put the dog up for adoption in May.
The next day, an animal rescue organization contacted the sheriff's office and told deputies that the dog resemble one that reported stolen out of the city of Sumter in June 2019. The sheriff's office and Sumter Police Department compared the missing dog flier from 2019 to the recently rescued dog and agreed that the animal looked like the dog named Diesel from the poster.
Police contacted Capell from information on the year old flier.
Capell told police that her daughter prayed every night to find Diesel. When Capell told her daughter that the dog might not be theirs, she said she had a feeling it was Diesel.
On May 8, when Capell and her daughter arrived at the kennel and Diesel was released, the dog ran straight to the mother and daughter and couldn't stop wagging its tail, police said.
The sheriff's office charged a man who lived at the home where Diesel was found with ill treatment of an animal and receiving stolen goods.
