A Pit Bull Was Stolen From the Humane Society in Broad Daylight

What were they going to do with him? He didn’t have a fighting bone in his body

Pit bull rescue can be harrowing and heartbreaking. It takes a special person who not only accepts possible physical risks but also the emotional trauma that comes with almost every rescue.

Many if not most rescues are undertaken by protectors of the breed. They’re not looking for fanfare or rewards. They’re simply trying to get one more misunderstood dog off the streets or away from an intolerable situation.

Some stories are so electrifying they unfold like a Hollywood action film, complete with danger, drama, and complicated twists and turns.

Such is the story of a pit bull named Maddox.

It began on Christmas Eve in 2006. A woman brought a young, bleeding pit bull to the Memphis Humane Society. She was vague about his injuries but ready to get him off her hands. The dog had cuts on his thin body and it looked like ice was applied to staunch the bleeding.

If someone attempted to train the pup for dog fighting he was apparently too friendly. He didn’t have a fighting bone in his body. The rejected, would-be fight dog was named Maddox.

When the Humane Society’s new facility opened in 2007, Maddox was transported from the old shelter by a volunteer named Mario. A well-known figure in the local animal rescue world, Mario harbors a passion for the bully breed.

His first widely publicized rescue occurred one evening during rush hour. Driving home he witnessed an emaciated pit bull flung from a speeding Ford pickup directly in front of him on Interstate 40.

As a hydrant repair mechanic for the City of Memphis, Mario always carried a catch pole in his truck. He’d caught and rescued hundreds of dogs in his twenty years of service.

With traffic howling in both directions he managed to secure the dog with the pole and drag her to the median. A good Samaritan who witnessed the incident pulled over and helped him haul the battered dog into Mario’s truck.

He then drove straight to the veterinary clinic used by the city’s animal shelter. From there Mario called Kathy Solomon, a fellow rescuer and pit bull advocate. His voice trembled with anger and hurt — would she meet him at the vet’s office, right away?

When it looked like the dog would survive, Mario named the pit bull Savior.

Kathy called the local media with the horrific story. Throughout the city, the news rippled — even the most hardened rescuers who thought they’d seen it all were shocked by the callousness of the perpetrators.

Within days funds flowed in as far away as the UK to help pay the dog’s medical bills. A month later he was adopted by an accountant and his partner. They’d lost their pittie to stomach cancer earlier that year.

It was another happy ending for a breed that’s suffered more than its share of abuse.

Had fate not intervened at critical points along the way then certainly the stolen pit bull named Maddox would never have found his way into the comfortable living room of Kathy Solomon and her husband.

At the Humane Society’s new facility Kathy was one of a small trusted crew of volunteers who walked around 150 dogs weekly. Her slot was Saturday and on those days her husband Neil often joined the walkers.

“We worked all day from 7:30 AM until every dog got walked,” Kathy recalled. “It was like playing football. Six of us lined up with leashes. When the kennel doors opened the first group would charge out. After walking, the dogs played a few minutes, then ran back to get loved on. Then we’d walk another batch.”

When Kathy began walking Maddox a bond was slowly formed. Her fondness for the dog deepened to the extent she began weighing in on who Maddox’s potential adopter might be.

“One woman wanted Maddox because her ex-husband was stalking her,” Kathy remembered. “Another one wanted him to guard a tire yard,” Neil chimed in, shaking his head.

He added, “Kathy would go to the office saying ‘you gotta say no to this one,’ or ‘that one won’t work.’ She was always protecting Maddox.”

One Friday morning Kathy received a call from an excited staff member at the shelter. Maddox had finally been adopted!

Kathy recalled the conversation with chills. Cold fingers of fear crept down her spine as she bluntly informed the caller there was no way Maddox had been adopted.

She’d just seen him the previous day and knew that all potential adopters went through a two-day wait. There was some kind of mistake she was sure. Kathy asked the employee to recheck his kennel and call her right back.

Everyone knew how attached Kathy was to Maddox and that she would have wanted information about the adoption beforehand. He must be running loose in the kennel she thought with annoyance, but her intuition whispered it was something darker.

Finally, her phone rang. He wasn’t there. The facility became a hive of activity as it reconstructed the previous day’s events in an effort to understand how the popular, affable Maddox was missing.

Pieces of the puzzle began fitting together. Two teenage girls, described as having a “Goth look,” visited the shelter several times that day according to employees.

When they tried to adopt him they were told they must be at least eighteen years old. Video cameras confirmed their presence and added more clues to explain the dog’s disappearance.

They returned later that afternoon and melted into a group of volunteers who were chatting and milling around the kennels. Pretending to be volunteer dog walkers they brazenly unlatched Maddox’s kennel door, slipped the leash they’d brought around his neck and moved confidently to the shelter’s back exit — which was off-limits to the public.

“A cardinal rule was no one except staff and volunteers ever goes out that door,” said Kathy.

A new volunteer noticed the girls escorting Maddox to the exit. Y’all adopted him he’d asked unsuspectingly. They replied yes, we just adopted him.

Outside cameras showed a man waiting in a car nearby. Coaxing gestures were made and Maddox disappeared into the back seat. The theft was done so casually and effortlessly no one questioned why the girls were in the restricted area.

Over the following days, Kathy was torn between feeling let down by fellow dog walkers and her desperate fear for Maddox’s safety. She was also frustrated over the director’s initial reticence about contacting the media.

The shelter’s administration had seen the perpetrators; they had the videos proving he was stolen, yet they didn’t — for unknown reasons — want the information announced.

“I had to find him, so I started doing everything I could think of,” said Kathy. She obtained a photo of Maddox and faxed it to vets across the city using her dentist’s fax machine.

With Kathy’s gift for sharing her passion about animals and explaining the situation in straightforward, understandable terms she drew others into the hunt.

The dentist’s receptionist took over the faxing job as Kathy added the numbers of as many vets, pet stores, and other animal-related services as she could find.

Her message stated: “Don’t post this yet. Just look out for this dog. He is stolen from the Memphis Humane Society.” And she provided contact numbers during and after hours.

Kathy spent additional hours thumbing through yearbooks from the surrounding area trying to identify the girls. They’d signed in with an Arlington, Tennessee zip code so it made sense that a yearbook might identify them.

As one dead end led to another an employee called to tell Kathy a reporter from the Commercial Appeal wanted her photo of Maddox to accompany a story she wrote about the dognapping.

The director still wanted to keep the situation low-key but Kathy felt the precious time was slipping away. On the other hand, what if someone hurt Maddox because of the publicity?

She didn’t want to betray the director’s trust but she also felt if the news could just get out then Maddox’s chance of being returned would be increased.

Somebody somewhere knew something.

To Kathy’s relief the tenacious reporter — also a pit bull owner — obtained a photo without her help. Within twenty-four hours the story ran, accompanied by the image of the young white pit bull, staring serenely into a camera.

As soon as the news hit the next morning, Maddox’s story spurred the TV stations into action. Suddenly his disappearance was being talked about everywhere.

Then someone stepped up with a $500 reward to anyone providing information leading to his safe return. Another donor added $500 more. Though encouraged Kathy was still apprehensive.

Would media coverage help the dog everyone was now looking for? Her fears were that Maddox might be moved to another city if he was in the hands of a dogfighter or an unscrupulous breeder.

Worse still was the possibility the dognappers might get spooked by the coverage and destroy him. Kathy couldn’t allow herself to dwell on the “what ifs.”

A week dragged by. Her hopes faded as her fears emerged stronger than ever. “I began to think we wouldn’t find him,” she recalled.

One day, after the media blitz settled, she got a call from the Humane Society.

As volunteer captain, she was needed at the facility and should drive over right away. The explanation seemed weak, and her presence she felt was not critical. Let someone else deal with whatever the issue was.

Kathy was emotionally drained — she didn’t have the strength that day to be where the reminders of Maddox weighed heavily upon her.

What if somehow it was her fault Maddox was still missing? Had she overlooked something? Maybe the media made things worse. These thoughts opened the door to new doubts as she strapped on her seat belt and drove wearily to the shelter.

Maybe she was needed today — maybe the work might help shake off the tormenting scenarios that kept appearing in her dreams. She pulled into the parking lot, which was unusually full.

“I’ll never forget as I walked in,” said Kathy, tearing up. “the employees were in the front area in a semi-circle. There was Channel 5 News, and 13. Someone said ‘say Maddox!’ Suddenly he appeared, tearing around the corner.”

The staff, volunteers, and fellow dog walkers radiated harmony, and all — including the news reporters — dissolved into tears.

The financial reward worked. One of the girl’s ex-boyfriends emerged, anxious for the cash. He made the call that sent out the Memphis police.

When the homeowner refused to answer, they kicked in the door. Maddox was in the house, safe and unharmed. A few days after the emotional reunion the Solomon family adopted him into their home.

But the story didn’t end there. Four years later Maddox — whose sad life was turned into one of spoiled comfort and play — was diagnosed with an aggressive, inoperable mast cell tumor.

With chemotherapy, his vet predicted he might live another six months. But after enduring his treatments, the months shrunk down to just eight weeks. The Solomons were stricken by the sudden, tragic change of events.

“We felt cheated,” said Kathy. “We had so many plans. Neil was retiring and I asked him one day what he wanted to do. He said ‘I just want you and Maddox here with me.’ I think part of why Neil wanted to retire was to spend more time with Maddox.”

Before Maddox succumbed to cancer the vet’s office chose him as their canine Hero Dog. He was going to lead the annual Puppy Up Parade, a fundraising event that brings awareness to canine cancer.

T-shirts were made with Maddox’s face — his tongue was stuck out and captioned Cancer Sucks.

But that was not to happen. Maddox died on Tuesday, February 19, 2013.

In a bizarre twist of fate Kathy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2014. The disease arrived without warning or symptoms. Ironically, they found themselves facing the same challenges, fears, and sadness that came when Maddox was diagnosed.

Kathy survived almost five years with the disease that’s been called the “ruthless dictator of all cancers.” Unwilling to let cancer dictate her remaining life, she continued her work in animal rescue, dog walking, and gardening. After Maddox died she and Neil adopted a dog named Boomer and later added an infectious pit bull called Lazy.

On April 3, 2019, Kathy succumbed to pancreatic cancer.

Maddox and Kathy made contributions they’ll be long remembered for. As a result of Maddox’s dognapping, major changes were made to improve the Humane Society’s security.

The news media provided numerous stories about Maddox — and followed up with other reports on pit bulls and the positive aspects of the breed. When viewers saw Maddox’s smiling, gregarious photos pit bull adoptions rose in Memphis.

After Kathy’s diagnosis, she and Maddox were both named Cancer Heroes by the Puppy Up Foundation. For as long as she could Kathy used every opportunity to inform and educate people about cancer — both human and canine.

I was proud to be included in Kathy’s wide circle of friends, and will always remember her and Maddox as symbols of rescue and resilience, fearlessness, and tenacity.

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