My husband comes home with animals like that all the time. Sometimes I give him a hard time because it is a pain to find owners and it seems he always finds them on a holiday or weekend when we can’t take them to a shelter. Our dog doesn’t deal well with other dogs in the house. She won’t hurt them but her herding instinct is so strong that she can’t leave them alone and they run around and around and around until we all go crazy. I can’t stay mad though, because I have been with him a few times and I understand the feeling of obligation, that “I can’t just leave him there” feeling, try as I might to convince myself they are just out for a stroll and will return to their home on their own, it never works and home with us they come. Now that we have a baby I am more wary though, I don’t like to have a strange dog in the house if I don’t know what vaccinations it has and how its temperment is.
So far we have always found the owners one way or another except for a stray kitten that got brought to a shelter. The most annoying thing ever is that we have had owners be indifferent or not even know their dog was gone numerous times, and they almost seem annoyed that we picked their dog up! Grrr. It’s not like I enjoy taking care of your strange dog for the day, people! At least say thanks and apologize for the inconvenience!
Once we had a dog for a day and a half and the owners never realized it was gone! (No, they weren’t on vacation or anything, either.)
Sigh, we have a soft spot for dogs. I say we have picked up other people’s dogs enough times that if our dog ever somehow gets lost the universe owes us her safe return!
That said, we live in the country and I’ve rescued three dogs that the vet has sworn are purebreeds-a Blue Heeler, a Border Collie, and a Great Pyrenees.
All were exceptionally timid at first-especially the Border Collie.
Found out later from some neighbors that he’d been sitting by the side of the road for over a week, waiting for his ‘people’ to come back.
Whoever has dumped him had left a little styrfoam bowl with either food or water in it that had long been empty.
Poor little guy was scrawny as all get out and covered with ant bites.
I’m normally a peaceful sort but if I ever got my hands on them…
If I lost one or both of my dogs, I would be incredibly, eternally grateful to anyone who cared enough to pick them up and help them. Bless you for doing that for this pup.
When we’ve picked up loose dogs in traffic, we’ve called the local animal control and animal shelter if there wasn’t a tag with owner info on it. If someone is looking for a lost dog, that’s usually the first place they call or visit. One little dog had nothing but her rabies tag on, and animal control was able to trace the number on it and get contact info for the owners, who were very glad to have her back. She apparently dug a hole under the fence in her backyard and slipped away - right into an intersection with 8 lanes of traffic moving east and west and 4 lanes moving north and south. A very dangerous situation.