After 10 Months, Rogue Returns to Her Jail-Dog Friends

Lawrenceville, GA -- For 10 months, jail dog Rogue had been living up to her name.

Then, on Tuesday, the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department announced that it had nabbed its pooch.

“We are happy to announce the capture of our most elusive fugitive!” the department announced in a Facebook post.

Rogue, is a scrappy looking, Snickers-bar colored mutt, with a mohawk-style tuft of white fur on her head and coloring around her eyes that, for all the world, looks like a bandit’s bank-robbing mask.

She was part of a rescue program run out of Gwinnett County Jail in February, when she took off while a volunteer was taking her for a walk in Rhodes Jordan Park in Lawrenceville.

And for more than 10 months, that was the last anyone had seen of Rogue.

But, then, officials with the program got some good news on Tuesday.

“Exhaustive efforts have been made by our staff, Gwinnett County Animal Welfare and Enforcement and several volunteers to bring her home,” the Facebook post read. “But she was ultimately recovered by a kind hearted citizen who was in the right place at the right time.”

That person, who wished to remain anonymous, was able to enclose Rogue long enough for the sheriff’s department to come pick her up.

She was at the vet’s office getting a checkup on Tuesday afternoon, but expected to be back with her friends in the Jail Dog unit soon.

Started in February 2010, the Gwinnett jail dog program -- nicknamed Operation Second Chance -- is a partnership between the sheriff’s department and the Society of Humane Friends of Georgia.

With the help of detainees at Gwinnett County Jail, the program works to rescue dogs from Gwinnett County Animal Control, get them proper veterinary care, train them and offer them for adoption.

While there are similar programs at prisons, where the population is more stable, Gwinnett officials say it’s the only one of its kind they know of at a county jail.

Started with five dogs pulled from animal control’s euthanasia line, the program now houses about 15 animals at a time. Since the program’s founding, over 200 dogs have been adopted through it.

Rogue may be the program’s most famous participant now. The Facebook post about her drew hundreds of “likes” and dozens of shares and comments.

“Cutest ‘Rogue’ I’ve ever seen,” wrote one commenter. “Hope she (& her jail dog fur-pals) finds a home for Christmas.”

“Sigh,” wrote another. “I’ll bet Rogue has some interesting stories about ‘life on the run’.”