8 abandoned Texan dogs on the run rescued and given furever homes after community and dog rescue stepped up when police and animal control refused to help, rescuer says: ‘The city wants us, the citizens, to corral and shelter these poor animals.’

Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor

Jul 14, 2026 12:15 PM EDT

What happens when 8 dogs are suddenly dumped in your neighborhood and escape the yard they were left in? The police and animal control tell you they are too busy to help apparently…so a plucky crew of canine lovers banded together to do the heavy lifting instead.

As many of you might know Reddit's r/Austin subreddit is just as colorful as the place itself. On its pages you can find all sorts of curious and comedic stories about the city, but this one caught our attention as it strayed from the usual celebration of the city's facilities and told a tale that is far too common to our liking. It began with a dog lover who spotted eight Australian Cattle Dogs dumped in a neighbor's yard. Of course she did what any reasonable dog lover would do and rounded up a group of likeminded people to try and save the doggos before starvation kicked in. However, this rescue attempt would lead to five of the eight pups escaping.

A miserable spot to be in and one that now affected the whole neighborhood, our would-be rescuer turned to the police and animal control to try and get the professionals to step in and save these dogs before they hurt themselves or someone else. But her pleas fell on deaf ears, the people who were meant to be there for everyday citizens to lean on in tough times simply could not be there. Undeterred our heroine stepped up to the plate once more and made contact with a rescue who tentatively agreed to help. And upon finding the resources, they stepped in and found all five of the missing pups. Taking the whole lot of them to be fostered and adopted.

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Three Australian Cattle Dogs standing under pergola on patio in garden
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Wow, ok, this is quite the let down. Sure, we can appreciate that emergency services are busy and might not have time to attend a pack of loose dogs call immediately. But surely at some point someone specialized in canines could have come down to lend a helping hand. After all, eight is no small number of dogs to have running wild in your community. There is no telling what the fear and anxiety of being dumped might cause them to do and if someone ends up getting hurt in some way it would be a tragedy. So once again it is up to the people who actually love canine-kind to save the day.
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Holy moly this is unreal! To go from having no help at all from the people who are literally doing their jobs to serve the community they work in, to gaining the support of a pawfessional dog rescue who had the time, resources and people to wrangle 5 loose dogs is simply amazing. This plucky rescue did what the fully government funded bodies could not and then some. Because they are not only responsible for the capture of the doggos but also their fostering and subsequent adoption. It is a rarity to see a pupper rescue in such a powerful position and we are delighted to see that they lived up to their word.
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