Community helps homeless veteran locate missing medical alert dog

When people in a Northwest Austin community found out a homeless veteran's medical alert dog was missing, they jumped into action. Within an hour they had posted fliers and put together a reward.

Doug Ferguson and his 7-year-old Golden retriever Elvis have quite a following in the area of Loop 360 and 2222. Doug said a series of events led him into a life on the street.

Three years after he started living out of his car, he got attacked and was left epileptic.

Doug applied for a medical alert dog through a Navy program and has spent every day for the last six years with Elvis. Until he woke up from a nap on Wednesday and his pup was nowhere to be found.
               
Thanks to the community who cares so much about the duo, word quickly spread on social media and a young girl, whose brother thought he had brought home a stray, returned the dog.

“I give credit to the lord and neighbors that live in the adjacent area that have come to know Elvis and are reaching out to help us and they want to see us do good,” Ferguson said.

Doug said Elvis has saved his life several times already by alerting him before he has a seizure. The girl who returned Elvis was offered the reward, but she decided to give the money to Doug to have his car fixed instead