Tatty the pug, beloved ‘Mayor of Midtown’, reunites with family after being stolen and sold

Two days after Tatty disappeared, the beloved fawn pug reunited with his midtown family Sunday night.

Known fondly by many as “The Mayor of Midtown,” Tatty is a recognizable fixture in his Sacramento neighborhood. His humans, Erin Boyle and Stefan Bloom, own the vintage furniture store Scout Living at 18th and Liestal Alley.

The 12-year-old pup usually spends his days ensconced on the vintage maroon velvet chaise at the front of the store.

But Friday afternoon, Tatty went missing.

Boyle and Bloom spent their entire weekend papering the town with “Lost Dog” flyers and hoping for Tatty’s safe return. The reward: $5,000, no questions asked.

Unknown caller sparks hope for Tatty’s return

Sunday night, around 6:30, the family was about to sit down for dinner when Bloom received a call from an unknown number. The man on the other end of the line said he believed he had Tatty.

“He texted me a picture,” Bloom recalled, “and I said, ‘That’s him!’”

The couple jumped in the car and raced out to North Highlands to meet the other family in a Walmart parking lot. There, they happily reunited with an unharmed, unfazed Tatty.

“They were great,” Bloom said of the family. “I could tell from talking on the phone with the guy who called me that they were legit and that he was concerned.”

The family accepted the $5,000 reward, and Bloom said he didn’t ask for more details per their “no questions asked” policy. But the man volunteered to Bloom that his family had always wanted a pug, and Saturday morning they bought one from a seller in a Dollar Tree parking lot in Carmichael. The dog had no tags or collar.

After the man’s daughter texted her mom a photo of their new dog, the mom saw one of Tatty’s “Lost Dog” posters inside Gunther’s Ice Cream. They recognized the resemblance between Tatty’s photo and their new pug.

The family told Bloom that they initially struggled with what to do next — they didn’t want Bloom and Boyle to think they’d stolen Tatty from the store. But the man said when he was a boy, he’d had a dog go missing and never return. He couldn’t imagine another kid, such as Bloom’s 6-year-old daughter, ever going through that experience.

‘Makes us love midtown and Sacramento more’

Bloom and Boyle were overjoyed with the outpouring of support from the midtown community. The couple received countless texts of support from customers, strangers and community members. Bloom even heard from a tipsy woman at a bar, who called to congratulate him on reuniting with Tatty.

Some messages carried a more negative tone, suggesting that midtown had become unsafe and that a homeless person was likely to blame for Tatty’s disappearance. Bloom dismissed those claims though, saying their unhoused neighbors were some of their biggest supporters. They put up posters on their tents and rode around town on bicycles distributing flyers.

“This morning someone texted me, ‘Don’t trust midtown, it’s changed,’” Bloom said. “If anything, this just makes us love midtown and Sacramento more.”

This story was originally published February 20, 2023 at 11:02 AM.