A Miami mother of five who is preparing to begin chemotherapy for cancer says a dog sitter has refused to return her family's puppy after keeping the animal for seven months. Hanna Bustos says she left her one-year-old poodle, Lucie, with a boarder she trusted, only for the sitter to insist the arrangement was permanent even after learning of Bustos's diagnosis. The dispute has left Bustos's 14-year-old son, for whom the dog was originally a gift, without his pet, and has pushed the family into legal and police action to try to recover her.

Bustos says there was no written agreement with the sitter, but that Lucie is microchipped and has rabies vaccinations registered in her name, and that the dog was handed over only for fostering, not rehoming or abandonment. The family has filed two police reports and hired an attorney, and Bustos sent a demand letter requiring Lucie's unconditional return by 5pm on Monday 7 September 2026, sharing updates from a police station on Instagram as the deadline passed with no dog returned. The unnamed sitter, approached by local broadcaster Local 10 News at her home in South Miami, declined to comment.