Rick Scott has returned a dog he adopted during his 2010 campaign for governor of Florida according to a report from the Tampa Bay Times.

After winning the Republican nomination for Governor, Scott announced that his family had rescued a Labrador retriever and named it Reagan, at the urging of his Facebook friends.

By 2011, the dog had disappeared with its last appearance at Scott's swearing-in ceremony in January of that year.

Scott's office evaded questions from the Tampa Bay Times about the dog's whereabouts, with a spokesman telling the paper their line of inquiry was "weird."

A spokesman eventually e-mailed the paper saying he was aware of "the potential for a PR nightmare if the Tampa Bay Times doesn't receive a photo of Reagan next to today's copy of the Tampa Bay Times. So take it to the bank, I'm getting you every bit of info I can lay my hands on."

But the promised information never materialized.

The newspaper then confronted Scott himself, asking him where his dog was. Scott said they had given the dog back to its owner because it "scared the living daylights" out of people at the governor's mansion, and "barked like crazy."

A spokesman for Rick Scott then said the dog was returned to All Pets Grooming And Boarding, in Naples.

BuzzFeed's calls to the head of All Pets Grooming And Boarding have gone unreturned. An employee who answered the phone Tuesday said her boss was "busy with a customer," and then later claimed he "left for the day and won't be back until Thursday."

Asked to confirm the whereabouts of Scott's dog, the employee said, "I really don't know what happened to Reagan."

Update

A local Florida television station found Rick Scott's dog. His name is Pluto now and lives on a "horse ranch."