OT: Found a Dog

[mjmoon]

... or I should say the dog found us. I'm looking for some opinions on how to proceed.

Last Thursday Nana was dropping off DS after an evening together and a small black dog (older puppy) popped out of nowhere and came inside with them. She is a small (about 15lbs) black dog, I have no idea what breed(s) she has in her. She is SUPER sweet and has made herself at home. I thought for sure someone would be searching frantically for her by Friday but I've combed the neighborhood (and surroundings) and no "Lost Dog" signs have been posted. I've also checked Criag's list, Pet Finder and Pets911 and no ads have been placed. I have placed a 'Found Dog' ad on Pet Finder and Pets911. The puppy has a tattoo from the local Humane Society showing she has been spayed (we've had a dog with this tattoo before) so I'm going to call when they open and see if anyone has reported her lost.

Here is where I'm looking for opinions.

Just how hard should I be looking for her owners? She has a collar but no tags. She is a sweet dog that is mostly house broken and seems to have been well cared for. I would think that her owners would be doing some work to find her. IF her owners don't come forward, I'd like to keep her.. But I don't want to keep her without at least attempting to locate her rightful family.

So should I be doing more? Am I doing enough? What are your thoughts?

 

[crisi]

Have you taken her to a vet to look for a chip? That would be something I'd do. A well cared for dog is very likely nowadays to be chipped.

 

[micheleq]

Call the Humane Society; they should be able to locate the owner if she is tatooed and was adopted from there.

I bet there is a family looking for this puppy -- they might not live in your neighborhood. I know when our kitten was lost for an overnight, I called the vet's office first, then our local animal control shelter. I have never heard of pet911 and would not have thought about Craigslist. She came home 24 hours later, but we are going to get her chipped asap.

Imagine if it were your puppy that was lost (and your kids at home crying for her). How hard would you want someone to help her get to her home?

 

[Tinkmom75]

My dog was just lost. It is a small 12 pound Shi Tzu/Maltese mix. My daughter let him out Saturday night while I was out of the house, and it was snowing and blowing. Of course, he didn't have any collars on. Why would a teenager bother to put a collar on our beloved family pet. I thought I would never see him again. I left a message at the vets office cause they were closed as was the animal shelter. Well low and behold I get a call, a nice lady took him to the vet to see if he had a microchip, which he didn't, but they gave her my name. I went there and thought it wouldn't be him cause he was more than 10 miles away from our home. It was him and I cried because we found him. I don't know how he got there, but someone obviously picked him up and dumped him way out in the country. Who would do that? If it wasn't for her trying then we might not have found him.

 

[mjmoon]

Thanks y'all! I know what the right thing to do is and I'm going to do it. I'm taking her in to the largest vet office in about a five mile radius to have her scanned for a microchip. I talked to the tech this morning and she has put the info in her computer in case someone calls looking for her. I have also placed an ad at the Houston SPCA. I'm still waiting for the Humane Society to open (not to 11AM???) to report her there too.

My reluctance to try was solely selfishness on my part. I've grown pretty attached to the little bugger... but if in a couple of days I can fall in love with the little dog, I can't imagine how her family must be feeling. I'm going to do what I can and if nobody steps up, I can rest easy knowing I did everything I could to reunite her with her family.

 

[jennifer293]

We had a rat terrier find us back in October. She was someone's dog because she was house trained and very clean. I looked and looked for weeks, put ads in the paper, called the local vets, put pics of her on craigslist, looked through the neighborhoods, called the dog shelter etc. NOTHING!!!

I still have not found her owners and I now have over $300 invested in her for shots, and spaying. I will now call her my dog!!!

Her name is Minnie!!

 

[micheleq]

Thanks y'all! I know what the right thing to do is and I'm going to do it. I'm taking her in to the largest vet office in about a five mile radius to have her scanned for a microchip. I talked to the tech this morning and she has put the info in her computer in case someone calls looking for her. I have also placed an ad at the Houston SPCA. I'm still waiting for the Humane Society to open (not to 11AM???) to report her there too.

My reluctance to try was solely selfishness on my part. I've grown pretty attached to the little bugger... but if in a couple of days I can fall in love with the little dog, I can't imagine how her family must be feeling. I'm going to do what I can and if nobody steps up, I can rest easy knowing I did everything I could to reunite her with her family.

I don't know if you have a pet already, but maybe this is a sign that your family needs a puppy! Once you find her family, maybe you and your kids could adopt a pet too? Good luck!

 

[DISNEYNV]

You are awesome to help that pup find his owners! If they can't be found then the puppy has found a good home Good Luck!

 

[3KidletsMom]

This exact same thing happened to us in November. Saw an English Springer Spaniel sitting in our neighbors yard (corner of busy street). She sat there for a couple hours before we brought her over since our neighbor didn't know whose she was. We tried everything you did - scan for chip, Craigslist, called animal shelters, Petfinder, newspaper ads - but no one came looking for her. She was obviously someone's because she was housebroken. And she is still living with us today! She's the second stray we've adopted - I think my husband will put his foot down if another dog finds it's way to our house!

 

[riley2008]

You are doing the right thing by searching for the owner. Our dog was staying at my mother's house across town one time while we were on vacation and got out of the yard. She ended up a couple of days later in our neighborhood. Luckily, a family down the street from us recognized our dog and put her back in our yard and kept her fed and watered.

My mother was so upset that she lost our dog. She went to water our yard one day and there she was!


So, maybe the owners are out of town. (or maybe not - just bad economy)

(Our dog even had her collar and tags on, and a piece of tape with my mother's phone number on the back of the tag. No calls. At least she made it home. Now we don't make her go anywhere when we leave.)

 

[Kae]

My friend just found a dog, it was chipped but the numbers were disconnected & over 250 miles away. Her SIL was at work when she saw this car pull in their parking lot & just let the dog out. We all thought she was about 3 come to find out she is 10. Around here you have to pay to drop a dog off at the shelter, so drop & run is happping allover.

Kae

 

[mjmoon]

My friend just found a dog, it was chipped but the numbers were disconnected & over 250 miles away. Her SIL was at work when she saw this car pull in their parking lot & just let the dog out. We all thought she was about 3 come to find out she is 10. Around here you have to pay to drop a dog off at the shelter, so drop & run is happping allover.

Kae

That is so sad!

I took her to the vet office today and they scanned her with two different devices.. she definitely has no microchip. The tech said she is between 1-3 YO (judging by the condition of her teeth). I left info with the lost and found with the Houston SPCA and Humane Society and posed ads on Petfinder and Pets911. I still haven't found any lost dog signs.. There is supposed to be some storms tomorrow so I'm going to wait until those blow over to post "found dog" signs.

She gets along great with my kids and our dog and cat. If her owner doesn't come forward we're definitely going to make her a permanent member of the family.

 

[starann]

Sadly a LOT of animals are being left behind when their owners homes are foreclosed on. It was recently on an episode of something on Animal Planet. A family had left behind a puppy/a kitten/and a fish. Thankfully the 'bank' people (in charge of checking on the damage left by the owners) saw the animals and came every other day or so with food. Now to me the owners were STUPID...they knew in advance that their house was being foreclosed on (usually several months beforehand), so why get a kitten and a puppy?

I recently had a patient who was a judge and she said the worse case of animal neglect she saw was a house that was foreclosed on, the owners left a dog chained in the back yard with a dog house, no one knew the dog was there and as the grass grew, no one saw the dog. Sadly he was found when the house was being 'cleaned up' for sale many month later with a garbage bag of CANNED food 10 ft from him. What a terrible way for that guy to have to die.


I have NO tolerance for animal cruelty.

 

[ericsgm]

What a very, very fortunate little dog to have wandered into your life! Bless you for all your efforts to reunite her with her family and willingness to have her become part of yours. She is definitely a winner... and so are you!

 

[3boymthr]

Believe it or not dogs can wander 100s of miles. We had a dog that found us one night, a very cute little beagle. Or rather she found and ate my groceries! My kids are afraid of dogs so I had to call the local animal control right away (the dog was really friendly but the kids were crying). Luckily this dog had a microchip. The dog had come from CT! We live in SE Mass just north of RI. It had crossed half a state. So you may want to also contact animal control in several of the surrounding areas as the dog may not have come from Houston.

 

[mjmoon]

I believe it is very possible she strayed far from home... I'm thinking of calling her Houdini. lol

Yesterday she got out of our yard but I was able to find her (she was a couple houses down) so I asked hubby to comb the yard looking for where she could have escaped. He found a small spot and secured it.. he searched the rest of the fence and all seemed secure. We let the dogs out to play and she ran off again. I searched for her and could not find her anywhere. I assumed she went home.

This morning I get a call from the vet office that I had taken her to to have her scanned for the microchip.. a man found her last night quite a distance from my yard and took her in there to see if they knew her. They called me and said, "Would you like to take her back and continue looking for her owners?" Apparently the man couldn't keep her and was going to leave her there anyway.lol So now I have her back and really need to expand my search for her owners.

I went ahead and got a tag with my phone number in case she runs off again and a tie out for the yard.. (my house backs up to a very busy street, I worried she'll get hit).

I'm going to call surrounding counties tomorrow but I'm wondering if I have a new doggie.

 

[ilandrazdsw]

If she's a runner the her previous family may not be looking for her...kind of like one too many times and she's on her own? Sad, but possible. Sounds like if you can't find the family she has a really great one now!

 

[Kelblum]

I would also go to the police station as well, that is what we did when our dog got out and we couldn't find her. They were very helpful!

 

[StephMK]

Have you watched her? How tall is your fence? It could be she's jumping the fence. When we were adopting a 2nd dog last summer, we went to a rescue at a woman's house. One of the dogs was an escape artist & literally climbed the chain link fence to freedom! She said he got out frequently but everyone around their small town knew him. We decided he was not the dog for us but did find a great guy to bring home.

Good luck (or not?) with the search! It'll be interesting to see where she's from if she's ever claimed.

 

[crisi]

Have you watched her? How tall is your fence? It could be she's jumping the fence. When we were adopting a 2nd dog last summer, we went to a rescue at a woman's house. One of the dogs was an escape artist & literally climbed the chain link fence to freedom! She said he got out frequently but everyone around their small town knew him. We decided he was not the dog for us but did find a great guy to bring home.

Good luck (or not?) with the search! It'll be interesting to see where she's from if she's ever claimed.

My neighbors had a smallish dog and a six foot privacy fence - wood, not chain. That dog could clear that fence - I have no idea how she did it, but she would do it. Fortunately, her favorite thing to do was see if my dog was home (and he is yard trained and won't leave the yard), so we usually would just put a leash on her when we caught her and bring her back. The fence had two feet extended on the top last summer.