What to do if you find a lost dog….

 

As a lifelong dog person, I am terribly distressed by all the pictures of lost and found dogs we see on Facebook, the heartbreaking pleas of families who miss their dog and are offering rewards. So I decided to investigate what you should do if you find a stray or lost dog. I went to neighbor, Robin Fulton, because I know she’s active in re-homing lost dogs. The result was an article in our neighborhood newsletter, condensed here.

What you should not do: offer the dog free to anyone who promises it a good home. Here’s my version of Robin’s advice:

If you can do so safely, take the dog to a veterinary office to have it scanned for a microchip—you may even have a neighbor who has a scanner. Many dog lovers do. Next, post on Nextdoor.com and Pawboost.com. Notices are posted in the immediate area and shared widely (and also on local neighborhood pages, of course). In ideal situations, a microchip will lead you immediately to the owner, but it doesn’t always happen.

Don’t necessarily post the dog on Facebook at all. You’re liable to get several people who say the dog belongs to them—it may or may not. If it’s a highly prized breed, some people may claim a dog intending to re-sell it (think of Lady Gaga’s recent experience). If someone does claim the dog, you probably aren’t the best judge of whether or not the person is the true owner, but there are several things you can check,

Watch the dog’s reaction to the individual—is it overjoyed, cautious, scared, hesitant? Ask for family photos, leave a tell-tale physical trait out of your description that only an owner would know, ask for vet records, and check inside a collar, too, just in case a name and phone number are there.

It is against the law to re-home a dog immediately. All found dogs must be put on stray-hold for 72 or 96 hours (depends on who you talk to). For your own legal protection, even if you want to hold the dog on your property, you should probably involve a recognized agency.

The best call to make is to the animal control unit in your city. Oh, you say, they’ll just euthanize it, and it’s such a cute young dog, and—oh, no, I couldn’t do that. Wrong! Most city shelters are making great progress towards minimizing the number of animals that are put down. Our Fort Worth unit now has a 97% live-release rate, a marked improvement over just a few years ago. 

Most important, your local animal control is where owners will look first. You can register a dog for its stray-hold, and you’ll still be able to take it home with you. You can also work with recognized rescue groups such as Saving Hope or Good Neighbors Animal Rescue. They will search for owners during the stray-hold period. However, rescue groups have a scarcity of fosters so if a finder can foster, it makes it more likely that a rescue group will step in to sponsor the animal’s medical needs and thoroughly vet a potential adopter. 

When I started looking into the problem of lost and/or stolen dogs, I was convinced that dogfighting rings went door to door looking or bait dogs. A talk with experts at the Fort Worth Animal Care and Control Center convinced me I was pretty much needlessly frightened. Dogs are stolen, either for resale or because someone wanted that dog, and one or two people may set two dogs to fighting, but organized dogfights, with arenas and gambling, are rare in this area. The last big one broken up was in Arlington in 2018. Animal control officers can only issue misdemeanor citations—felony warrants must come from law enforcement. And dogfighting is a felony.

What can you do to protect your dog? Make sure it’s microchipped; secure the area where it exercises; and keep an eye on the dog.

A version of this blog first appeared in the Poobah, newsletter of the Berkeley Place Association, April 2021, yours truly, editor.

The Saga of the White Dog

This is in some ways a cautionary tale, though I don’t know that any of us could have done anything else. It’s also a story without an ending, and that gives me hope.

In my neighborhood, Berkeley Place, neighbors not only look out for each other, we look out for everyone’s pets. See a loose dog? Probably Fido escaped from his yard and his owners don’t realize it. Put it on the Berkeley Buzz, our email? Did your dog or cat get out? Put it on the Buzz—chances are someone will either return your pet or report that they have it secured for you to pick up.

The white dog first appeared on the Buzz a couple of weeks ago, spotted in the eastern part of the neighborhood, minding her own business.  Next day, different location. And the next. There’d be a day without a sighting and the small network following her would get anxious. Then she’d appear in the wee early hours following an early-morning walker.

She was wily, coolly rejecting all friendly approaches. One neighbor said he couldn’t even get close enough to use a catch rope.

Everybody had a theory about her. It seemed to me she was moving purposefully, whereas most stray wander aimlessly from tree to bush. Generally, strays don’t hang around the same neighborhood day after day, though we did have one dog it took a month to catch. The white dog stayed, and speculation began that she had hidden a litter of puppies nearby. In the picture above, it looks to me like she’s recently nurse.

Once she was spotted diving into low bushes in front of a house. After she emerged someone searched the bushes. No sign of puppies.

Neighbor John Holmes was active in the effort to capture the dog, and he reported one day that he was trying to coax her to him when a woman he didn’t recognize drove by and assured him she had Animal Control on the line at that moment. Not what John or any of us wanted to hear—if she did have puppies and was taken to the pound, disaster would occur. Besides, John said if she was feral, they would just put her down. There was no need to involve Animal Control unless she was a menace to people or other animals, and she clearly was not.  When he called Animal Control, they would neither deny nor confirm that they had her. There were no more sightings.

Yesterday a neighbor known for her active rescue work reported Animal Control had only one dog that fit her description, and she was sure it was “our” white dog. Today the dog would have gone off her three-day hold as a stray. Robin has promised to try to keep track of that happens next—adoptable list, “desperate” list, sick list. Her Berkeley fans will stand by “our” white dog.

You think I could call her Lucy?