When you find a stray dog wandering your neighborhood, you assume someone’s desperately searching for their lost pet.
But what if you discovered the owner lives much closer than you think and has no intention of getting their dog back?
Some commenters speculate they might have even set the dog loose themselves, leaving it to be someone else’s problem and potentially putting the helpless animal in harm’s way.
What Happened With The Golden Retriever?
In a trending video with more than 47,000 views, Florida woman Kelli Allen (@bigrusstheplug) walked viewers through the timeline of events with a stray dog she found.
Allen explained that last Thursday, someone came to her door asking if a stray golden retriever they found belonged to her. Allen said no; her own golden retriever named Russ was already home. The person explained they had to get to work and didn’t know whose dog it was, so Allen volunteered to help.
She says she took the stray to the vet, hoping to find the owner through a microchip. The vet found a chip, but it wasn’t registered to anyone. They told her to bring the dog to animal control.
At animal control, things got weird. The microchip was connected to an account because the dog had been there before. Staff knew who the owner was, and Allen says it turned out to be her own neighbor.
Allen says she called her husband and told him to knock on the neighbor’s door to let her know they had her dog. No one answered. She couldn’t bring the dog home herself since her own golden retriever, Russ, had pneumonia. With no other option, Allen says she left the dog at animal control.
Neighbor Gets Caught
Allen started calling animal control every day, now worried and a bit emotionally attached. She says they told her that the owner had five days to reclaim the dog before it would be adopted out.
On Saturday, animal control told her the neighbor was coming to pick up the dog, and Allen was relieved. But when she called back Sunday, they said the neighbor never showed. Apparently she told them she couldn’t because she was in Miami. But Allen says she could see her neighbor going in and out of her house.
Monday was the final day to reclaim the dog. Allen says she called again, and the neighbor still hadn’t come. On Tuesday, she says the golden retriever was adopted out to a new family.
“[When] only you, your husband, and your friends, and your parents know that your neighbor took off her dog’s collar, let it out on the streets of West Palm Beach, and just dumped it,” Allen says in the TikTok.
“Marley deserved better,” she added in the caption.
The Reality Of Shelter Animals
Marley’s story isn’t unique. According to the ASPCA, roughly 5.8 million dogs and cats entered shelters in 2024. About 60% of those animals came in as strays (meaning they were either lost or, like Marley, deliberately abandoned).
While 2 million dogs were adopted from shelters last year, only 554,000 were reunited with their original owners. That leaves hundreds of thousands of dogs whose owners never came looking.
The lucky ones get adopted. But according to The Zebra, there’s a heartbreaking reality: 60% of adopted pets are no longer in their adoptive homes six months later. Some are returned to shelters. Others end up back on the streets.
For animals left at shelters, there’s typically a 72-hour window for owners to reclaim them before they’re made available for adoption.
While Marley eventually found a new home, not all abandoned animals are so fortunate. Shelters euthanized approximately 607,000 animals in 2024, though that number has been steadily declining over the past five years.
Commenters React
“It would become my mission to let the whole Neighbourhood know what she did,” a top comment read.
“You can report that as animal abuse byw,” a person said.
“Hopefully the dog got a great home. Getting a golden from animal control sounds like hitting the jackpot,” another wrote.
@bigrussthaplug Marley deserved better #westpalmbeach #southflorida #palmbeach #dog #fyp
BroBible reached out to Allen for comment via TikTok direct message and comment.