Richard Amey bought his dog Wesley six years ago, about the same time he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Since then, the two have been together as Amey struggled to come to grips with his mental health diagnosis, a journey that has taken him from a successful career in the trades in Alberta to living on the streets back in his hometown of Kingston.

"He is loyal to him to the core," said Amey’s daughter, Ashley Burns. "They have been through everything together, and I mean everything. They have been attacked by dogs, attacked by people, that’s what happens down on the streets."

Now Amey’s loyalty to Wesley, a six-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, is being tested as he and his family are fighting to get his dog back after it ran away, was caught by animal control and eventually adopted out to another owner while Amey was trying to get him back.

Wesley ran away from the Bagot Street address in late November. Amey and Burns said it was around Nov. 29, but the Kingston Humane Society said the dog came into their possession between Nov. 21 and 26.

Whatever the date, Amey approached the humane society the day after the dog went missing, and for the first week of December called the facility almost every day to ask if he had been picked up.

At first he said he was told by staff that there were no dogs there that matched Wesley’s description. Later he said he was told the dog had been sent to the veterinarian to be neutered.

It wasn’t the first time Amey and his friends and family had to search for Wesley.

"He was a runner," Burns said, adding that Wesley had run away about five times in the past, including one instance when he had to be retrieved from the pound.

Amey said he was willing to pay the $650 in fees, boarding costs and medical charges to get his dog back.

"He is willing to put his entire ODSP check on his dog’s impound fees and live like that. That’s how much it means to him," Burns said.

"He’s really trying to get his life on track and he’s doing it with a mental illness. They have all kinds of campaigns supporting people with mental illness, supporting people with the humane society, but yet they are denying the epitome of it right here in front of us."

On Dec. 8, Wesley showed up in an online adoption ad as Otis, a one-year-23-day-old terrier mix. The ad included a photo of Wesley wearing the black bandana Amey gave him.

Desperate to get his dog back, Amey offered to pay the fee to re-adopt his dog. He said he was assured he would be at the top of the list and filed his re-adoption application on Dec. 15.

He called to follow up the next day and was told Wesley had been adopted.

"On Dec. 6, they knew Wesley had his owner reaching out for him. Regardless, they put him on the adopt-a-pet site advertising him as a Christmas gift," Burns said.

"It was wrong what they did. We did reach out and try to get the dog back."

Connie Ball, the executive director of the Kingston Humane Society, said owners of dogs taken to the pound must visit the Binnington Court facility in person to identify their pets.

Owners have up to five days to claim their pets before the animals become eligible for adoption.

"We need to make sure we have a connection with the right person," Ball said. "Staff cannot go into a kennel full of dogs and say this is someone’s pet. We cannot take that on. We need the owner to come down and make that identification."

Ball said that in the past, successful adoptions have been passed over because the humane society held onto an animal while waiting for an owner to come in to identify a lost pet.

Ball also said pet owners do not get priority in the adoption process because their goal is to match animals with the next available owners on a first come, first served basis.

Amey said he did not go to the humane society because he was first told that Wesley wasn’t there, and then later was told he was recovering from his vet visit.

The experience has left Burns disillusioned by an agency for which she has fundraised in the past.

"I’ve sold a s— ton of cupcakes for that humane society that I have personally made," she said, adding that she thinks her dad’s mental illness and economic status affected how he was treated.

elferguson@postmedia.com