For Those of you who like dogs:

My daughter-in-law was driving home when she noticed two dogs trotting along the side of the road.

She stopped her car and opened a car door, and they hopped right in. The two dogs did not have tags, and the local pound wouldn't take them.

As they appeared to have been trained as house pets, she took them home and gave them water and some dog food, and then called family members who were happy to take them home as pets. They also thought they would let one of these pets breed with their own dog, and then sell the pups.

So, as corny as it sounds, "All's Well That Ends Well". :)

The dogs maybe would have gone back to their homes. Their owners are probably heartbroken.

Did your daughter in law post notices? There are usually places for neighborhoods on the Internet for lost pets and places to post signs. Usually the pound will take information to share in case people call to ask about their lost pets. Sometimes neighbors along the road know where the dogs live. I hope she tried to find a way to get the dogs home.

No, this is a bad dog story.

If you find something of value, and do not notify the police, you've *Stolen* the property/dogs (at least in this jurisdiction), and whoever has the dogs now is in Possession of Stolen Property. Possession of A Stolen Animal is Grand Theft. Dagny gave you good advice.

Sorry if your family members saw dollar signs, ("... and then sell the puppies"), but your daughter in law should have reported what she "found."



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2020 12:11PM by kathleen.

Exactly. It is a very bad dog story. It's bad enough to steal the animal, but to use it to breed designer pups to sell just takes the cake.

I've had a pet escape and return home more than once. Those owners must be calling everywhere, frantic with worry.

I may have shared this before but a few years ago I stopped on a busy four lane road because a small dog was in the middle of the road. I had no sooner opened my car door than the dog, turned out to be a puppy about four months old, hopped into the car and onto my lap. I drove around the area, knocked on some doors, and inquired if anyone knew who might be missing a puppy. The dog had a collar but no tags. Our next step was to take the dog to the pound thinking that surely someone would search there first for their missing do. We also toured the neighborhood several times looking for lost dog posters but saw none.

After six weeks or so the pound called to tell us that no one had claimed the dog and would we like to adopt it. We did, paying $300 in fees. She has turned out to be a fabulous little dog and we think ourselves lucky she jumped into our car that day. She is as cute as a button and perhaps a Yorkie, Lhaso mix.

Thank you for sharing an example of doing the right thing trying to find the dog's owner.

No one wants the lost dogs to be hit by cars. A puppy deserves a nice home. :-)

True story:

Years ago, my worse half found a lost dog without a collar in front of the house, made posters of the dog's picture and started down the hill stapling them to telephone poles or trees. Halfway down he met the owner working her way up the street with her own posters on the other side.

She had taken the collar off for a bath and the dog bolted not wishing to get wet.

I am not usually one for shaming, but this story is actually kind of horrifying. Did your DIL even try to get them scanned for microchips?

Hopefully, their rightful owners had them fixed.

It appears to me that many of you far underrated the efforts my daughter-in-law made in trying to reach their original owners.

She made every effort she could to find them, and even fed them, and gave them water.

IMO, one shouldn't judge a person without first walking in their shoes (Biblical).

And, selling puppies gives them all a far better home than just letting dogs wander in the streets, to fend for themselves--as the original owner did.

To me, this wasn't a money-making schem...no one was going to get rich with doing what they did. Selling a dog gives it a better chance for a good life, with owners who will love them and treat them good.

Did your daughter in law make a police report ?

You didn't say she tried to find the owners. How do you the original owner "just let the dogs wander in the streets, to fend for themselves"? Conversely, you said that "apparently they were trained as house pets."

She going to call the police ? I think she stole the dogs.

I didn't think the original post implied she made every effort to find the owners but I'm glad for the correction if she did. People with cute little breeds don't just let their dogs wander loose. Someone is brokenhearted.

Mutt puppies aren't worth very much and can have a variety of genetic health issues passed on from parents that are not screened for these health issues. People do not want to pay the Vet fees to care for a sick dog. Pregnant bitches can have all sorts of issues requiring Vet healthcare. Is your DIL willing to fork over $1000 or much more for an emergency C-section to save the life of the mother and pups? Also, the homes the puppies are sold to do not always provide a good home. Breeding pets just for the fun of it or thinking you will make money are scenarios that exacerbate the abused and stray/homeless pet issues in our communities.

pollythinks Wrote:
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> IMO, one shouldn't judge a person without first
> walking in their shoes (Biblical).
>


That didn't come from the Bible, Polly, but since you are think it did, you should try it.

My dog, Mr. Peabody, was stolen three weeks after our grandson died. All I could think was, "How could someone have done this to us when we were so weak ?" The combined devastation was so great that we ended up in therapy for over a year. DH lost 80 lbs in three months.

We knew we'd never see our grandson again, but we put 30k miles on our car looking for Mr. Peabody. Still, every time we go out, we pass by where we lived then to see if maybe he found his way back. Last time, we turned and asked each other if it's time to give up looking for him. He's been gone for nine years. Nope, we won't give up.

Even pedigreed dogs wind up in shelters. I don't think breeding them is a good idea. There are already too many animals who need homes. Again, I hope they were fixed by their original owners.

As for "judging" your DIL... none of us know her; we only know what you posted. What you posted did not imply that she tried very hard to find their owners. It's true that sometimes dogs that appear to be strays actually are strays that need to be rescued, but your story doesn't imply that.

You never, ever, breed unless it improves the breed. Ever.

Both of my dogs have tracking collars on them. The tracking device is about the size of a wrist watch and connects to the cellular system. When my dogs get far away enough from home that the collar loses touch with my home Wifi, the cellular connection turns on and I start getting text messages. Then I open the app and go get my dog. You can literally see the dog represented by a dot on a map, moving down the street and in to people's yards. They might run but they can't hide. They've only gotten out a few times. The first time, I knocked on a neighbor's door where my dog had been invited in, and got her back. They were nice people and didn't know what to do with her and were glad to see me. We've lost dogs before. If your dog gets out only once in their lifetime and you get them back, the cost of tracking is so worth it. One of my dogs is an escape artist and we've gotten her back four times now.

https://whistle.com/



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2020 08:45PM by azsteve.

This looks really good. Too big and heavy for my girls though. So far, they have never gotten out. They are never allowed outside alone or off lead. If we are going out of the property I like their stroller best. My tiny girl isn't even allowed in the back unless she has her vest on.

http://pic100.picturetrail.com/VOL678/3529167/23655964/414438853.jpg

You might want to have a vet check them for microchips.

The dogs may have been someone's pets. In some communities, dogs are allowed to run or wander freely. Or they may have escaped out of the door or yard -- if you've ever had a dog, you know this will happen on occasion despite the best of intentions.

As for animal shelters, some take strays and some don't. My local SPCA only takes pets that are being given up from established homes. The local (publicly funded) animal control takes strays. Animal Control does a good job with these pets, giving them medical care and posting photos and descriptions in the local paper and online. They have volunteers and get donations, just like the SPCA. Your daughter-in-law's community must have some mechanism for dealing with stray pets.

I'm also not going to congratulate anyone who deliberately allows a stray to breed. There is no shortage of adoptable dogs and cats already.

So, just an opinion, and as a dog and cat lover, I find this story dispiriting.

Yes, every dog should be micro-chipped too. If someone has your dog and they've never bothered to have the chip read by a local vet, they've stolen the dog. We've had around ten dogs total over the past twenty-six years (all rescues) and have gotten several of them back from people scanning the chip or calling us from our phone number on the tags on the dog's collar.

I have a medium sized terrier who can get over a six foot block wall. If there is anything leaning along the wall like a bicycle or a wheelbarrow, she charges the wall and launches off of the bicycle or wheelbarrow and can make it over the wall. She landed one time in the supermarket back side area behind my home (a ten foot drop on the supermarket side of the wall) un-injured and ended up wondering around on a main highway in front of the supermarket. Someone found her, took her to the vet, had her scanned for a chip, and called us. We were so happy to get her back. She is starting to get older now and we keep the block fence walls clear now of anything that she could launch from. But before we figured out how she was getting out, she was escaping almost daily. That was when I bought the trackers and put my phone number on a tag on her collar.

One of my neighbors two blocks away treated her so well that he called us a second time, two weeks after the first time he found her. When she escaped the next time she went back to his house. The kids in the neighborhood all know her and where she lives now too. Hopefully her days of running loose are over now.

Another thing we used to do before we had tracking devices on each dog is to keep "Lost Dog" flyers with a photograph for each dog we have, made-up in advance. We have large flourescent green posters with a plastic sleeve page insert glued to the posters, all ready to go in advance. The flyers stuff in to the page inserts. When we first discovered that a dog is lost and we couldn't find them by driving through the neighborhood, we would print several color copies of the lost dog flyer and post them in the page inserts on these posters on telephone polls or light posts at all main entrances in to the neighborhood, within minutes. This usually works to get the dog back too. We always went back and retrieved those posters later, for potential re-use.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/2020 11:16AM by azsteve.

She sounds like a smart little terrier!