AMARILLO, TEXAS -- 6-year-old Anberlin O'Dell got her dog Hershey four years ago.
Her parents said he is the first dog that did not scare her and he was their first family pet.
Three weeks ago Anberlin thought she might not ever get Hershey back.
"How do you put it nicely? That's the hard part," said Bart O'Dell, Anberlin's dad. "Basically our neighbor next door kidnapped our dog."
As many dogs would have done, Hershey dug under the O'Dells' fence and into Kristy White's back yard. Her lab was in heat.
"We had to call the cops to get him back the first time," said O'Dell. "The second time she took him and didn't answer the door for the cops and wouldn't give him back. a few days later we found out that she let him loose in town."
The police where called again and the O'Dells discovered that White had been arrested.
"On the 26th (of March) we were dispatched to a structure fire, when we arrived we had witnesses stating that Ms. White was seen starting a fire in the garage of her dad's house," said Deputy Fire Marshal John Woodward.
Woodward says they have dealt with her before and that she had been arrested for other fires in the past.
Back to Hershey's story -- A second family found him and posted an ad on Craigslist and three days later, they took it down.
They had fallen in love with the dog, and once again, the police had to get involved.
"Detectives called and talked to the individual," said Cpl. Jerry Neufeld with the Amarillo Police Department. "They were a little bit combative, a little verbally like, 'what? I don't know what you're talking about'."
Once the police arrived, the family did surrender Hershey to them, and he was taken back to the O'Dell's.
Anberlin was able to get a big surprise when she walked through their front door.
"When she walked in the door and she saw Hershey she pretty much went nuts and started crying," said O'Dell.
The moral of this story -- yes, dogs really are a man's -- and a girl's -- best friend.
