Texas family finds their dog at a shelter three years after he went missing

Desmond ran off during a Super Bowl party in 2023. In July a frightened dog turned up at the animal shelter in Garland, Texas, and staff called him Ash. This week his family came in with old photos.

12 October 2026

A grey dog in a blue harness sitting on a leash beside a family of four, a father, a boy, and a mother holding a toddler, in front of a stone wall.
Desmond with his family outside the Garland Animal Shelter this week.
Photo: Garland Animal Services, via WFAA

Desmond got out during a Super Bowl party in 2023 and did not come back. His family searched, put up fliers, and began to fear they would never see him again, WFAA reported.

On 14 July this year a frightened dog was brought into the Garland Animal Shelter, just outside Dallas. Nobody there knew anyone was looking for him. They called him Ash. He was nervous at first, and then, the staff said, he was strutting around the place as if it was his.

This week the shelter posted his photo. Desmond’s family saw it, thought the dog looked like theirs, and came in with old pictures to compare his markings.

Then the dog did a trick Desmond had been taught years ago, and that settled it.

He went home with them.

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From WFAA’s report of 9 October 2026, based on the Garland Animal Shelter and Adoption Center’s post. Photograph: Garland Animal Services, via WFAA.
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