My partner found a dog late last night. She has a collar, but alas, no tags, no microchip. She’s well-behaved, and well-socialized, but a little dumb. She came running up to my partner’s dog in an off-leash area, but there was no other human around. My partner waited for about a half-hour and then did a circuit of the whole park to see if anyone was looking for her. The little dog is certainly a runner and definitely the kind who would gleefully bolt and run loose if a gate is left ajar. My partner brought her to our home where she had an impromptu dinner date with our hound. We posted a “found” ad on Craig’s List then went back to the park again to see if anyone was looking for her and did a drive through of the neighbourhood where she was found, but no one was searching.
We’re postering today and taking her to Animal Services (hopefully the first place her family will look for her). I don’t trust their pound policies, so if no one claims her, we’re going back. They keep dogs five business days before adopting them out, but we’re sure she’s from a local family and we don’t want them to miss her. She’s vaguely familiar and we think we’ve seen her around before.
Our temporary dog’s temporary name is Kitty. Given her good demeanor and behaviour, someone is undoubtedly looking for her.
As a dog lover, I am glad that you found her. It is nice to know that the dog is in good hands until her family can find her again… Of course you should tell them to put something with the dogs name and a phone number on the collar.
If nobody claims the dog, are you going to keep her?
It was certainly quite disappointing to have her scanned and find out she had no chip. Her collar is in good shape too, so I don’t think she lost her tags, but I have occasionally seen dog owners who have the licence tags on the leash and not the dog. I guess so the dog doesn’t jingle when walking around the house, but even a single tag with a phone number would have brought her home right away. She really does seem to be a bolting dog, the kind that would run away whenever they get the chance to escape, so she really, really needs ID.
We are still discussing the possibility of adopting/fostering her if she isn’t claimed, but there are several pros and cons that we would have to consider first
She looks like Benji and must be terribly missed, so I’d rather see her reunited with her family. She is not good on a leash and only seems to understand “sit” and “shake”, but while under-trained, she is certainly well-behaved. She tried to get on the bed last night and when gently told “no” she contently laid on the floor, didn’t fuss, didn’t try to get back on the bed. She just did as she was told. So she does have a lot of good training potential. She’s clean, he coat and teeth are in great shape, and she is fit.
Judging by her teeth, she seems young but is not a puppy. Judging by other dogs’ response to her, she may not be spayed. She is sweet and very well-socialized though and not frazzled by the unfamiliar surroundings. She was “interested” in Fatcat and Littlecat, but didn’t bark at them. She really likes our dog.
Gosh, lost dogs move me. Good for you, sounds like you’re doing everything right.
I agree about not entirely trusting the shelter system. Last time I found a loose dog (a big, athletic young Boxer) I called the shelter very reluctantly after not finding his home myself, and called them back the next day to keep tabs on the big lug. He’d already been picked up by his family, who lived miles away across many dangerous roads and highways.
When I had first called animal control and described the dog, the person on the phone warned me to stay clear of such a large strong dog because he could be dangerous. “Um, he’s currently licking my face,” I replied.
This is NOT him, but a random picture off the internet that looks similar.
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YAY! My temporary dog is going home! Given that the day-time doggy crowd is a different set than the late-night doggy crowd, I went back to the doggy park during the lunch hour, with both temporary dog, Kitty, and a fistful of “FOUND” posters in tow. A guy sitting on a park bench said a woman had gone by just a little while earlier with a fistful of “LOST” posters! Meanwhile, my partner called a dog-stuff store where pet owners often put up notices for missing pets, and it turned out the pup’s owners called them only minutes after us! So it was just a matter of time!
Over in the off-leash area of the park, she was recognized by a man who had… Kitty’s puppy! OMFG! Here I thought Kitty was cute, the puppy was super-squee adorable. So with a quick cellphone call and a short wait, she found her human. It turns out that, unbeknownst to her family, she had bolted out the door sometime around 9:15 last night. They only noticed she was missing around 11:30, after we’d given up doing laps of the park hoping someone was looking for her.
Kitty’s real name is something like “Clotailla”. They took one of the found posters because they thought my cartoon version of her was cute.
Edit: they never thought to check Craig’s List lost and found. The Humane Society is closed until June (long story) and the woman said it actually never occurred to them that there was an alternative, so they never would have looked for her at the pound. I’m SO glad we found them if that was the case.
Glad you found the owners. My current dog is a stray from a pound in a near by county. He was rescued and fostered until we got him at an adoption event at a PetsMart store. I wish I knew who his first owners were because I’d like for them to know he has a good home, but I’d certainly not want to give him back. :eek:
Thanks! I’ve been around a bit, but I can’t post from work and in RL I’m nutso-crazy busy, so I don’t have the opportunity to post much. The last couple of days I’ve been under the weather with some infernal head cold choking me when I try to sleep at night, so I’ve been home and Dope-available, save for dragging my carcass to the dog park. And I have to say that when you are feeling all foggy, the craziness of the off leash area is hard to sort out. I can’t tell you if there were 8 dogs or 80 but it felt like 80.
I’ll have to see about scanning it. My partner was going to use the pup’s photo and print posters at work, but I figured a doodle version would get the requisite information across, stand out a bit, it would take less time, and we wouldn’t have to wait until my partner got home from work. Plus, pets in lost/found posters always look miserable or somehow unidentifiable.
Voilà! Kitty and her cartoon likeness from the found poster. Not as accurate as I’d like, but I wasn’t putting in a huge amount of effort.
P.S. Does anyone know how to get my Mac unstuck from the French keyboard set-up? I should default to North American English, but since I was doing some work in French, every time I boot up my keyboard is back to French. I should be able to toggle back and forth by clicking on the flag, which I can do, but the default should be English and all applications are defaulting to French.
I’m glad Kitty got reunited with her family. Did you have a conversation with them about microchips?
I can’t imagine in this day and age that some people won’t do this.
Good job.
