Kristie Pereira walked out of an animal services building last year distraught after making one of the toughest decisions of her life.
Moments earlier, she had signed a form to euthanize her puppy, Beau. The 5-month-old hound mix had been crying constantly, had lost control of his bowel movements and couldn’t lift his hind legs. A Maryland veterinarian said Beau might not recover, Pereira said, so she thought her decision would take away the dog’s pain.
Pereira has been grieving since. She wished Beau a “heavenly birthday” on social media in October and couldn’t stop thinking about him in March — a year after she decided to euthanize him.
Then on Sunday, Pereira discovered something shocking. She was looking at adoptable dogs on a Virginia animal rescue service’s website when she saw a photo of one that looked identical to Beau. Investigating further, she found that the dogs were the same age and had the same brown spots around their noses.
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Beau, Pereira realized, was alive.
Pereira called the rescue center and Montgomery County’s animal services to piece together what had happened after she dropped off Beau at the county’s animal center. A receptionist at the center told Pereira that county veterinarians didn’t think Beau needed to be euthanized. They gave him medicine and sent him back to the rescue center where he had been born, the employee said.
The Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation took the dog to more veterinarians, who diagnosed him with a liver injury and restored his health with surgery, Chloe Floyd, a spokeswoman for the Falls Church-based rescue service, said in a statement. He was put up for adoption last month.
No one ever told Pereira, she said. If she had known Beau could have lived comfortably, she told The Washington Post, she would have paid thousands of dollars for the necessary medical procedures.
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Now, Pereira said Lost Dog & Cat won’t return the dog to her, as D.C.-based TV station Fox 5 first reported.
“I’m more than happy and excited and overjoyed that he’s alive, obviously,” said Pereira, 32. “I wouldn’t be going through all of this if I wasn’t. I’m just upset that I was iced out of the conversations.”
Lost Dog & Cat doesn’t return dogs to former owners who surrendered them, Floyd said in a statement. The foundation has given the dog his name from before Pereira adopted him — Amos Hart — after a character in the musical “Chicago.”
“Our mission is to save adoptable and safe-to-the-community dogs from euthanasia,” Floyd said.
Maria Anselmo, a spokeswoman for Montgomery County Animal Services and Adoption Center, said people sign a form relinquishing ownership when they give their dogs to the center. The form also says the county can treat pets — even if their owners asked for them to be euthanized — if its veterinarians deem them treatable and adoptable, according to a copy of the contract.
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Most pets brought in for euthanasia are inoperable, Anselmo said, but sometimes veterinarians find they can live comfortably.
“We have something around 5,000 animals come through our shelter system every year,” Anselmo said. “It is not really an appropriate use of our time or resources to follow up with every single person that surrenders an animal to us.”
In fall 2022, Pereira was looking to adopt a dog when photos of a litter of puppies from Lost Dog & Cat caught her eye. When she attended an event near the rescue center that December, only one 2-month-old puppy hadn’t been adopted.
Pereira named him Beau, which means handsome in French. They cuddled, slept in the same bed and went on walks.
“He was my little shadow,” Pereira said. “He was always with me.”
But in February 2023, Pereira said Beau started pacing the perimeter of her Laurel, Md., house, pressed his head against the walls and bit and barked often. She took him to veterinarians in Silver Spring and Columbia, Md., where he was given medicine for a possible liver problem.
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One vet said Beau’s nervous system might be damaged, Pereira said, and he could undergo a spinal procedure that would cost thousands of dollars but might not help. Pereira didn’t want Beau to endure the procedure if it was unlikely to work.
Beau’s condition kept getting worse, Pereira said. He cried constantly and couldn’t control his bladder or sleep through his pain. Pereira barely slept, taking Beau outside in the middle of the night in hopes fresh air would help him.
In March 2023, a veterinarian told Pereira she should consider euthanasia. Beau was “not acting mentally appropriately” and had no quality of life, the vet wrote in an email, a copy of which Pereira provided The Post.
A few days later, Pereira took Beau to Montgomery County’s animal services center in Derwood, Md., where she signed a form to euthanize him. The county prohibits owners from being present during euthanasia.
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County veterinarians, however, thought Beau could be healed. They didn’t see anything wrong with his nervous system but noticed a treatable issue with his liver, Anselmo said.
Lost Dog & Cat picked up Beau in April, Floyd said. After a series of tests, the dog, now called Amos Hart, was diagnosed with a liver shunt in July, Floyd said. The condition usually stems from a birth defect that causes a poor connection between veins.
In September, the dog underwent a nearly $7,000 surgery — funded by donations — to redirect his blood flow, Floyd said. When veterinarians concluded last month that the dog was healthy, he was put up for adoption.
“With one look into his brown soulful eyes, Amos Hart will steal your heart,” Lost Dog & Cat wrote on its website. “This one-and-a-half-year-old puppy will charm you with his smarts and keep you active with his love of adventure.”
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After Pereira saw her former dog on the site, a county receptionist confirmed to her that her dog was never euthanized. The rescue service also confirmed the dog used to be hers but wouldn’t return it, Pereira said.
Pereira recently moved to San Antonio, but she’s staying at her mom’s house in Gaithersburg indefinitely. She said she wouldn’t feel right leaving without Beau.
“I’m sure if he got adopted, that would be a great family,” Pereira said through tears.
She paused for a few seconds to gather herself. Then she added: “But that shouldn’t be what’s happening.”
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