Fred has a dog. When he’s away, Mary or Sue take care of the dog. There is some relationship between Fred and one of the girls, possibly ex-wife, sister-in-law, whatever.
One of the caretakers knows someone who knows someone who knows my friend Cruella and Cruella now has the dog, knowing full well the actual owner of the dog has not agreed to give the dog away and may, in fact, not yet know the dog is gone.
Without proof of ownership, Cruella can’t get a license for the dog (I’m told), but is quite willing to accept not-quite-authentic ownership papers. Cruella would not be above claiming the dog as a stray, but the dog just might be microchipped – oops.
At this point my brain is oozing out of my ears and while the polite me is doing the “nice doggy” routine, there’s another bit of gray matter shrieking “are you out of your fucking mind?”
No way, absent abuse (which is absent in this case; dog is well behaved, friendly, and in great shape) could I ever take in somebody else’s dog under these conditions.
It could be possible that it’s just misunderstanding. Mary got sick and couldn’t take care of the dog, so she sub-contracted the task to Cruella, who didn’t correctly understand the details and thought it was a gift, etc. etc.
Otherwise, yeah, applying for ownership papers on a dog that’s known to belong to someone else is theft, and since you know about it, you’re in a position to tell Fred about it when he gets back. You’re also in a position to give a friendly warning to Cruella and Mary. “Guys, Fred’s gonna be steamed, you know this, right? And I’m a witness, right? Cops? Lawyers? Fees and fines? Let’s not go down that road.”
Yup, if she plans to keep the dog and she knows the person hasn’t agreed to give it away, she’s stealing it. Without knowing more than what you gave us, the quoted sentence is the only important part. Sounds like Cruella is counting on Fred to not really know what happened to the dog. Mishandled chain of command.
If you want to stay removed from the situation but help a little, you might see if you can contact one of the dog sitters or Fred and fill them in on what’s going on.
Do you know how she’s ‘applying for ownership’? Is she taking the dog to a vet? The Humane Society? Registering it with her city? If you know one of those things, you might get in front of it by calling them first and giving them a heads up that she may be stopping in to change the chip info (or add a chip) and they need to know that the real owner is simply on vacation and she grabbed the dog. From there, they should be able to take over. It might even be worth a call to Animal Control as they may have the resources to contact all the vets in the area to be on the look out. I’m sure this happens regularly. Sometimes on purpose (stolen dogs) and sometimes not on purpose (people finding stray dogs that aren’t really strays).
But, if it were me, and I knew this was going on, I’d do what I could to get word to Fred or Mary or Sue. Just a quick email or phone call to let them know (even semi-anonymously) that Cruella is an acquaintance of mine and I heard she was planning to [what ever she’s planning to do]. A simple, non embarrising solution, for all involved, would be for Mary or Sue to call Cruella and say 'Fred’s vacation got cut short, I heard you have the dog over at your house, thanks for taking care of him, I’m going to swing by and grab him in twenty minutes". Go from there. Personally, I would keep the police out of it if possible. It’s very possible, assuming she is planning to keep the dog, that she’s hoping no one knows she has it. If someone calls her, she might hand it over like it was no big deal. If she put’s up any kind of resistance, that’s when the police need to get involved.
Honestly, I think you know what’s going on and you’re just looking for confirmation.
Yeah, that’s it. Thanks. I know Cruella went to get a license for the dog and was refused. County needs to speak to the owner to verify the transfer of ownership. Cruella asked the County to please speak with anyone else in the family, thus bypassing Fred who really must’ve pissed someone off that they’re taking his dog for revenge. That’s where somehow getting ownership paper that will pass County inspection comes in. TI don’t know any of the other participants. If I could get a look at the dog’s tags, I might be able to find out his vet or his license number and from there a name. It’s so hard to be anonymous in a one horse town where everyone (but me) is related.
You don’t even need to find the vet at this point. Just look up the phone number for the people that handle pet licenses at the county and let them know that she stole the dog, who the actual owner is, that he’s just on vacation and give them any phone numbers you have (Fred or Mary or Sue). They already know something is up, but if you tell them she stole the dog, the might get the police involved…or they might just deny the license and leave it at that.
At this point, you really do need to get one of those three involved or call the police. I’d do anything I can to get one of them involved before calling the police only because if the police pick the dog up without one of them present it’s going to end up at Animal Control. Even if that’s just temporary, I’d hate to see if happen.
Call Sue or Mary, tell them that Cruella has the dog and tried to register it with the city as her own. Tell her that they need to report it to the police and ask for the police to accompany her to Cruella’s house to retrieve the dog. For verification, the vet can confirm Fred’s phone number so the police can talk to him to corroborate the story and allow one of them to take the dog.
I don’t know any of these people, other than Cruella.
I expect Cruella went to the local Clerk’s office for a license. Next step up is County Treasurer. Every vet in the county can issue dog licenses. I can do a lot of phone calling, or I can approach Cruella directly, which likely would end one of the two friendships I have in this wasteland. But what she’s doing is just plain wrong and the fact that her family is supporting her is sickening.
I’m leaving for a while to walk my sweet little legally adopted mutt, on his leash, whose poop I always scoop. Damn Cruella and her kin. Some people are too stupid to be let near a dog much less own one.
I’d still contact the clerk’s office. She’s likely going to be back Tuesday morning begging them for a license.
I’m not sure if an anonymous tip to the cops will do much.
Have you tried finding Sue or Mary or Fred on facebook? I can find just about anyone with little more than a name and a city, especially if you’re willing to just sit there and scroll down page after page and click on profiles.
I’ll bet Fred has pictures of his dog on his page, that might make his profile easier to spot. Also, all three of these people are probably friends with each other*…better yet, they may all be friends with Cruella, you might want to start with her FB page and see if she lists any of them as friends.
*ETA, I didn’t finish that thought, what I was going to say is that (if you don’t have a last name), if you find a Sue, you can check their friend list for a Fred or Mary and do the same for others. It might help to confirm you have the right person.
That’s an odd bit on the city not letter her register the dog. Any town I’ve lived in could care less where the dog came from. They just collect a licensing fee and fine anyone who has an unlicensed dog. They just want money and to know who to send a dog back to when they catch them at large.
Interesting point. My dogs aren’t registered with my city (I know, I know, they do have tags with my name, phone number and address as well as a rabies tag from the vet with the vet info, so getting them back to me if lost wouldn’t be an issue). However, even from the day I got them, I’m not sure how I could prove they were mine.
Looking at Animal Control for my city, I can do it online with nothing but a credit card and some basic info. OTOH, it does ask where it was neutered and where it had it’s rabies shot (as well as the license number for that). I have no idea, however, if they verify that information.
Maybe that’s what stopped it. Maybe they called the vet and the vet stopped the process because the owner hadn’t consented.
hmm, yes, if the Clerk looked up the license tag, the name of the owner would show up and it wouldn’t be Cruella. Perhaps, too, the dog is from a different township or county. Perhaps I’ll soon be consoling Cruella for the loss of her dog. And perhaps pigs will fly. The long weekend gives me time to really think this through. One thing’s for sure, I don’t want Mr. Cruella on my case.
If it’s such a small town where everyone knows each other, how can she hope to get away with it? Won’t someone who knows both of them tell Fred eventually?
And why would she want to do something like this? There’s no shortage of dogs waiting to be adopted. Is this a valuable or rare type of dog?
Is there no one who can help you contact Fred? Or is he, ahem, “Away” in the sense that his, er, movements are currently restricted? Alternatively, is he in the military? Because if you contact the local Base, or Red Cross, they will abso-dang-lutely get a service man’s dog back and make sure it is well cared for while he’s gone. The USO or VFW would also know who to call, most likely.
How did Cruella get the dog? Was he out wandering the streets and she found him before the caretakers did?
I think a lot of people don’t realize how easy it is to get a dog. They just think getting a dog=Breeder=$500-$1000 (plus a hundreds in initial vet fees). They don’t realize that going to the Humane Society or a rescue is practically free AND the dog will come neutered/spayed, with a clean bill of health (most of the time) and often times, more or less house broken. Granted, it’s probably not going to be a puppy, but if you work with a rescue and have some patience, you can get almost anything you want*.
*My aunt runs a very large rescue and that’s what she’s always saying. Sure, there’s dogs that she almost has too many of and dogs that ‘fly off the shelves’, but if you want a 1-2 year old pure bred Jack Russel Terrier that’s housebroken, gets along with cats and kids, only has brown on half of it’s face AND is low energy, she’ll find it, you’ll just have to sit tight for a while.
If you want a generic Lab mix, you could probably have today.
Also, I think a lot of people feel there’s a stigma attached to getting a dog from a rescue or the pound.
Of course, at the other end of the spectrum are people that need to be reminded that kids in strollers are already taken and you can’t have them.
I don’t know the real names of Fred or anyone else involved in this mess, except Cruella. Someone along the line knew Cruella was looking, sorta, for a dog and that’s how she ended up with him, even though she is clueless about the breed. I don’t know what happened between Fred and everyone else to make them decide he didn’t deserve the dog, who is somewhere between 7 and 10. Fred isn’t military, from what little I know. And if he’s “away”, that’s still no reason to just up and take his dog away from him. He/they must be from a different town because it’s true the dog would be recognized if he were from good ole Nowhereburg.
I don’t understand any of these people.
I thank all who responded with so many good ideas and suggestions. I feel I’m damned whatever I do.
WRT to the original question, then yes, the dog is stolen. Dogs are, legally, property.
Replace every instance of the word ‘dog’ in the OP with ‘car’ and then see how that scans.
