Ten days ago, my daughter found this little wisp of a doggie at my granddaughter’s bus stop. She had no collar or tags. We have spent the last week trying to find her owners, with no luck.
We placed a “found” ad in the local newspaper, I cross-posted an ad on the local CL; and called the Humane Society and County Pound with info on this widdle doggie. She’s a Westie-and-what’s-it; from what I can tell. We had no takers.
So I have made an appointment with my vet for tomorrow morning, starting with a Micro-chip scan.
The problem is, Mr. bot has totally fallen in lurve with this little doggie. As have I! Last night he asked me if we “could skip the Micro-chip scan?” We had a discussion about The Right Thing To Do, and he begrudingly(?) agreed to go through with the Micro-chip scan.
At this point, Mr. bot and I are hoping for a negative on the Micro-chip scan. We really love this little pooch! She is a perfect fit for us, gets along with the cats and our Border Collie. She would live the life of Riley with us, our vets can attest to that.
But, we must do the Micro-chip scan. It’s the right thing to do, no? I won’t be able to sleep tonight, worried that she might leave us for people that let her run loose, get fleas and ticks; and lose too much weight. It’s a miracle that she didn’t get hit by a car, or eaten by foxes or cougars.
I’m just hoping for a negatory when they do the scan in the morning. Then we can start with playing the Name Game! I’ve thought “Nike”, because she was on the run.
Tilly’s a runner. I have to keep a close eye on her, and she’s always on leash when we go out. But if a visitor accidentally lets her out the door - she’s off, and really really hard to get back (she’s faster than sin). Tilly’s microchipped and tagged - the whole nine yards. She’s also as sweet as can be. It makes me red with anger right now thinking about someone labelling me as irresponsible" or that I “let her run loose”.
You say you’re losing sleep over possibly losing her, and you’ve had her for all of 10 days. Imagine a little girl out there somewhere who’s been missing her dog for 100.
Munch, I’m not implying that I wouldn’t love for her to be re-united with her original owners.
But, the little doggie was out there long enough to become skin and bones, become infesteted with fleas and ticks, ect. The fact that we’ve tried locating an owner for her for 10 days with no takers; makes it look like she was dumped.
If I lost a beloved pet; I would be putting up flyers, advertising; doing everything in my power to find The Beloved Pet. The fact that we’ve done everything we can to locate the owners; and no-one stepping up to the plate, seems to indicate that she’s homeless. As I said, the only avenue we haven’t researched yet is the Micro-chip scan. And she will be scanned in the morning. We’re doing everything we can to locate her owners.
Or it means that she’s covered some distance. If you live in even a moderately populous area, even ten miles might make a difference in whether the original owners would see your flyers, read the right nespaper, or be in contact with the right shelter, especially if she went missing a few months ago and they’ve given up looking.
Ten days is enough time for a dog to get a long way from home, though. It’s possible that your postings of a found dog aren’t where the owners live. It’s also not really a terribly long time (and a lot of people don’t ever use Craigslist and wouldn’t even know that found dog ads would be there).
I totally understand falling in love with the pup; I absolutely adore dogs. But you definitely need to get her scanned just in case. If your dog had escaped somehow and you later found out that a family found him and decided they’d rather keep him, wouldn’t that be awful?
And a lot of dogs are escape artists and accidents can happen. It’s not fair to assume automatically that her owners were horrible.
Vihaga, we live in a rural area. An area that’s notorious for being a dumping ground for unwanted cats and dogs. Our local paper is read in several counties, and we did contact the HS/AS for 2 counties. And our local CL covers Southern Oregon in general.
I feel that she may have been lost for some time; only a Micro-chip will tell us at this time. From her condition I can venture that she’s been out in the wild for a couple of months. If her scan tomorrow is negative, we will have her chipped for our peace of mind. If the scan reveals her true owners, so be it! First and foremost, we have tried to reunite her with her owners. We are thinking of the Dog first, and anyone that might be missing her.
We really have tried. But there comes a time when you have to accept the reality; hey, this is our dog now! And she’s at least 2-3 years of age, gauging by the tartar on her teeth; and she hasn’t been spayed yet. I’m of the Bob
Barker mentality “Get yer dog/cat spayed/neutered!”
No - I’m not trying to say you don’t want the best for him/her. It sounds like you’ll be great dog owners if it comes up negative.
How much of a trip is it to get him chip-checked? When I took Tilly and Toby to the clinic for the first time, they checked. It’s something they can do in the lobby in about 10 seconds.
If not neutered, then they are not that good of an owner. I found my first beagle over 25 years ago walking across a very busy street. I ran ads and called the Humane Society and the police. No claims were made and I had her for 15 years, She was a good doggie. We now have our 4th and 5th beagles.
Good on you. I would be mortified if one of our dogs got out. The two little ones (4# and 8#) have already gotten out of our fenced in yard which scared us to death. Two of the four are chipped and we would be forever grateful if someone would return them.
Its also possible she is chipped, but abandoned. A lot of people dumped pets when their financial situation left them scrambling for a home for the people in the house. So you may find a chip, but get no response from the owners who may have disappeared.
Look, all this is great and all, this detail. But look: WHERE ARE THE PICS? Gimme pictures naoooooooooo!
And Dangerosa brings up a good point (possibly being abandoned). In the Detroit area, we’ve had a huge increase in owner surrenders at rescues. Or even worse* is the families that foreclosed on their houses and leave… and leave their pet behind in the house. Bank reps have walked into a house and seen a very sad and thin dog or one that’s dead.
and I know for a fact that this happens, because my mom works at a city office and does assessing.
It’s the right thing to do. I wouldn’t do it, of course.
About a month ago there was a pit mix puppy (youth, already pretty large) with no tags, very skinny, running around in our neighborhood. I’m terrified of big dogs but my Mig brought it into the back yard and asked around. We couldn’t find the owner, but I wasn’t about to invest in signs or ads. If someone came around asking or if we saw a lost dog sign we’d call, but this dog won my heart in about three days time. We’re taking her after Thanksgiving to find out if she’s spayed and get her shots and tags. Everyone in the house already loves her, including our other dog.
**zweisamkeit **speaks truth. I just adopted a kitten from the Mpls pound, and her notecard told me that her owners surrended her because of “eviction.” By the way she eats (like she’ll never see food again), I think there was less “surrendering” and more “abandoning” going on - it’s likely that a landlord or assessor or whatever walked into the property and found himself greeted by a small hungry kitty. This makes me sad, for both the kitty and the owners.
A couple of years back, a man called my rescue that he had found a dog in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart. The dog was chipped and the chip was traced to a phone number and address in Florida. The dog was found in Delaware. I called the chip company and told them I the situation. They were very understanding and we both attempted to contact the registered owners. The number was shut off and the letter I mailed them generated no response. The chip company re-registered the dog to our rescue. We adopted out Daphne to a great home about a month later.
Bank reps have walked into a house and seen a very sad and thin dog or one that’s dead. 