Billy and Everest were John Davison's best friends.
“We'd go out to the mountains or I'd have 'em with me at work a lot of the days,” said Davison, “They're with me pretty much all the time.”
Davison had the German shorthaired pointer and German shepherd/pitbull mix since 2017 and 2019, respectively.
But in September, Davison had to begin a two-month jail sentence. He says he paid a friend $600 to watch the dogs while he was gone.
“I had given him family phone numbers and everything needed, along with paying him and (for) the dog food,” said Davison. “Everything was covered.”
But the very next day, Billy and Everest were brought in by Arvada Animal Control as strays to Foothills Animal Shelter.
The shelter says they checked for microchips and found Davison was the dogs' owner. They contacted him every day for five days, but Davison was in jail with no phone.
“I had a feeling that something bad had happened,” said Davison.
When his family couldn't get in contact with the friend, Davison started to worry about Everest and Billy. When he got out in November, he learned his friend had given up the dogs.
“I cut ties with him once he told me that,” said Davison.
That friend told CBS News Colorado Davison had paid him to stay at his place temporarily. He said he called animal control because he never agreed to watch the dogs.
“When you trust somebody and they do something this extreme, it's hard to get a grasp on it,” said Davison.
After calling shelters and searching for the dogs, Davison finally found a picture of them on Facebook saying they were up for adoption at Foothills Animal Shelter.
But when Davison reached out, neither Billy or Everest were still there. He learned they were both adopted out to two different families. Now he has no idea where they are.
“They told me that there's nothing that can be done about that. I just asked if there was any way that they could give me contact information to the families, to see if they had any kind of a heart to at least contact me, but they would not do that,” said Davison.
Colorado law dictates stray pets belong to the shelter if their owner does not retrieve them in five days. And now, the dogs legally belong to the new families.
But Davison won't stop searching, and hoping a miracle will reunite him with his best friends.
“Out here in Colorado, they're about all I have anymore,” said Davison.
