"That was a real betrayal," said Ruth Applin, from Cross Plains.

Last week, a dog appeared on Applin's property. She took it to the Abilene Animal Shelter, with hopes Rescue the Animals would pick up the pup, or it would be adopted out to a loving home.

"Absolutely perfect," Applin said as she described the dog. "He was in wonderful health."

When she got to the Shelter, she told the employee she didn't own the dog, but wanted to put it in the shelters hands. She was told to fill-out a card giving up her rights to the dog.  

"White cards are for stray animals," Abilene Animal Shelter Manager, Aaron Vannoy, explained. "Yellow cards are for owner turn-in's."

That's why Ruth is confused. She says she was given a yellow card, that said she was the dogs owner. It also proved to be a fatal error for her new furry friend.

When a dog is given up with a yellow card, it's ready for adoption, but can be euthanized within 24 hours. When a stray comes in, the animal has a 48 hour holding time for the owner to come and reclaim that animal.

This dog was euthanized within 36 hours of being released to the shelter.

"On that particular case, it's probably that we didn't have room for it," Vannoy said. "We're looking at that case to see if anything went wrong in that particular case."

Vannoy says Animal Services would rather adopt an animal out than euthanize it.

"An animal is going to be here for a minimum of 24 hours or up to even 15 days if we feel like it's a very adoptable animal," Vannoy said. "If one of the rescue groups has been contacted, whether it be locally or somewhere in the state, we try to get that back out into a community to be adopted."

But the dog's story doesn't end with it's euthanization. The day before it was euthanized, the owner contacted Ruth, saying his dogs name was Boo and belonged to his family.

"I was extremely angry and extremely frustrated," Applin said. "We had done the best we could, the best we knew how."

The dogs owner called Animal Services, but it was too late. Boo had been euthanized. Ruth says the guilt she feels is agonizing.

"It was not like having the rug pulled out from under you but like having the whole world pulled out from under you," Applin said. "To find out that they had killed him."