An Alabama man and his four-legged friend were reunited after his car was stolen.
Phillip Lewis, a Cullman County resident, was held at gunpoint in a Chevron station near Dodge City on August 28, 2018.
Lewis spoke to Fox News Digital by phone and described how he was forced to give over his keys and then drove off in his car.
“She said, ‘I’m not playing,’ and pointed the gun at my head,” he said, referencing the individual he interacted with during the incident. “And at that point, I handed her the keys.”
Lewis noticed that Little Dude, a five-year-old Shih Tzu puppy mix, was still inside the car when the criminals began to disperse.
“So, I screamed, ‘Wait! Let me get my dog!’” he said. “But she took off.”
“She had the jump on me, so I feel like there’s not much I could’ve done.”
Lewis quickly shared the details on Facebook and appealed to others to be vigilant for Little Dude.
Additionally, he got the help of the animal rescue groups Two by Two Rescue and Croonin’ for Critters, which contributed to the $2,000 bounty for the dog’s safe return.
Lewis was informed by an unnamed source two weeks later on September 11, 2022 that Little Dude had been brought home by a neighbor.
“I was 99% sure it was my dog,” he said.
The Cullman County and Jefferson County Sheriff’s Departments joined forces to find the puppy and reunite him with Lewis after Lewis provided the information to investigators.
“My initial thought was the robber probably liked him and wanted to keep him,” he laughed. “He is a super sweet dog.”
The Alabama-born pair were eventually reunited thanks to the enormous “power of social media,” which Lewis claimed would not have happened without all the “additional eyes” on the case.
Little Dude was “so excited” to be home at last, according to Lewis, who rejoiced in his return.
“His little tail was just a-waggin’,” he said.
“He saw his other adopted brother — I have another dog named Jack Jack — and they played and played and played.”
Lewis saved Little Dude when he was a puppy. The animal had wandered onto Lewis’s land and there was no indication it belonged to anyone else.
“He was in a really bad way,” he said. “He was all matted up.”
Lewis claimed that he and Little Dude had been “best buddies ever since” after bringing the puppy back to health.
He claimed, “God sent him to me that day”.
“He stole my heart the day we met.”
Lewis, who has adult-onset asthma, claimed that Little Dude once saved him his life.
“There was one evening before I was diagnosed that I hyperventilated and passed out — and he licked me until I was able to wake up and call for help,” he said.
Lewis, who is presently enrolled in Wallace State Community College’s mechatronics program, stated that he intends to “carry on living life” with his “little adventure buddy.”
Lewis said he hopes “the investigators can track down who did this and get them off the street before they do it again,” he said.
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