Alabama native, Philip Lewis has been reunited with his dog after He was held at gun point and his car was hijacked while the pup was still inside.
Lewis of Cullman County was held at gunpoint while pumping gas at Dodge City’s Chevron gas station.
On a call with Fox News Digital, Lewis said he was forced to surrender his keys to the group of robbers, in which one was a woman — who then drove away with his vehicle.
Lewis recounted what happened when the woman came up to him, “She said, ‘I’m not playing,’ and pointed the gun at my head.”
“And at that point, I handed her the keys.”
As the carjackers sped out of the lot, Lewis realized that his five-year-old Shih Tzu-poodle mix named Little Dude was still in the car.
“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.”
Desperate to get his dog back, Lewis quickly spread the word on Facebook about the incident, begging for the publics help to keep an eye out for Little Dude.
Lewis also involved the local animal rescue and charity organizations Two by Two Rescue and Croonin’ for Critters. The two organizations generously donated to the $2,000 reward that was offered for the dog’s safe return.
Two weeks later, Lewis received a tip from an anonymous source that a neighbor had come home with a dog a few days before that looked just like Little Dude.
Lewis shared the tip with investigators and the Cullman County and Jefferson County Sheriff’s Departments teamed up to locate the dog. Thankfully Little Dude and Lewis were safely reunited.
Lewis half-heartedly joked saying, “My initial thought was the robber probably liked him and wanted to keep him,” he laughed.
“He is a super sweet dog.”
Lewis and Little Dude celebrated their reunion. Lewis stated that his dog was “so excited” to finally be home.
“His little tail was just a-waggin’,” he said.
Lewis told of the scene when Little Dude was also reunited with his brother saying, “He saw his other adopted brother — I have another dog named Jack Jack — and they played and played and played.”
Lewis rescued Little Dude as a small puppy after the dog had wandered onto his property with no sign that he had belonged to anyone else.
“He was in a really bad way,” he said. “He was all matted up.”
Lewis and Little dude have been “best friends ever since.”
“God sent him to me that day,” he said.
“He stole my heart the day we met.”
Lewis, who struggles with adult-onset asthma, said Little Dude has saved his life more than once.
“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.
However, the police did recover the car and the case remains an open investigation.
Lewis said he hopes, “the investigators can track down who did this and get them off the street before they do it again.”
