found a dog.....

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maltMonkey

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I was out working in my garage last night and this little dachshund mix comes by several times looking a bit cold and scared (it was starting to rain). I tried to approach it and coax it over a few times to see the name on the collar but it kept running off. Finally it came in the garage when I gave it some food.

Tag had no name on it, so my wife walked up and down the block looking for the owner. She found a lady that said "Oh, that's Joe's dog". Went on to say that Joe left for "Columbia" for 3 weeks....apparently leaving the dog on the front porch to fend for itself.

So we put some food, water, and blankets in our garage. This is a very nice, well behaved dog....when I open the garage door it kind of runs up to the opening but then waits until I say "go outside" before it runs out to pee or whatever. It stays curled up in the blankets we put out but it still shivers constantly....makes me feel bad but we have cats in our house and I can't do much more than what I'm doing now.

We are keeping the dog until we can find a new owner (friend of ours) that we trust. We figured if we gave it to an animal shelter it would be dead in 3 days, and as far as I'm concerned its "owner" has lost any rights to it (if he even still wants it).

Just a tough situation because nobody seems to want this very friendly, cold scared dog, we can't take it, but we want to find a good home for it.

Hopefully we'll find someone soon....
 
Good on you for trying to find a good home for it.

I agree with you, though. Anyone who leaves a dog like that doesn't deserve it.

My advice though (which is not legal advice, and i have no knowledge of situation like this) is to make every attempt to contact the owner. If he comes back and wants to sue you you need to be able to prove that he was a bad dog owner and that you made every attempt to contact him before finding a new home for the dog
 
Good work on taking care oe that poor dog, and I agree that bringing it to a shelter wouldn't be the best idea. Do look into covering your own ass, though. People irresponsible enough to leave a dog like that have a tendency to be a little sue happy to get some free cash.
 
Glad you're looking after that dog. Hope it all works out for the best; for you & the dog, screw the previous owner.
 
I've thought about the legalities of it, and I guess I just don't really care. We've been by the guy's house twice -- lights are off, neighbor said he won't be back for weeks. The guy doesn't know us, and we don't know him. He has no idea the dog wandered over here. If he comes back and wants to file a police report, more power to him. I've had 1000's of dollars worth of stereos/laptops, etc stolen out of my vehicles through the years and the police did not help -- why would they care about a guy's missing dog that he abandoned for 3 weeks? If somehow he learns we found the dog, then our story is it ran off.

I've tried to think of any possible reason for leaving a dog outside, unfenced and unfed for that amount of time, but even if there were a family emergency you still put the dog in a kennel or something.

This guy is not getting his dog back.
 
This guy is not getting his dog back.

Well said. I'm not a huge fan of people, but I do love animals. A portion of my pay gets tithed to the ASPCA every month. I'm very happy to hear that you've done the right thing here, and that you're working to find the dog a good home.

Be a responsible pet owner: spay or neuter your ****head negligent neighbors.
 
Sounds like the story of how we got our dog and we love her, had her about 9 months now. Found her on the side of the road injured and took her to the vet. They checked for a chip but did not find one, chain but no tags. We live in rural farmland area and went to most of the houses and no one ever saw her before. We were told our area is a hot spot for abandoning animals, especially cats and some farmers just let them live in their barns.
Anyway, after not finding any leads we got a chip put in her, got her tags and she is ours now. We walk her for about 3 miles around our neighborhood every weekend and never once an inquiry about where we got her. Good luck finding someone to take her. At first we were going to do that too (we have 2 cats) but it took too long and we became attached.
 
Sounds very familiar. Our stretch of road out in the middle of nowhere seems to be a regular dumping ground for scrotballs to dump their dogs. Two years ago two pups were found wandering aimlessly in the neighborhood. One was a black bassethound looking dog. The other was a black and tan rottweiler/austrtailian shepard shaped dog. We found a home for the basset looking dog. The other is still here. Her Name is Sally.
Run the dog by a vets office to get the dog scanned for a chip. It is possible the fella in columbia is not the owner.
 
Bravo! Thank you for taking the little guy in!

If you have a pet rescue organization in your area they are a great help in finding it a loving home. You can continue to foster it while they search for someone, keeping him out of the shelter.

You could pick up a little electric heater for $15 at walmart and put it next to his blankets in the garage? Preferably secured somehow so he can't knock it over (though most of those heaters have auto shutoff now...)
 
If you have to give him up for whatever reasons, take him to a no kill shelter. I found a cat once and actually put up signs and the owner came and got him. A month later he was out on the street again during a thunderstorm and the owner was yelling at him through his door to shut up and dumped some dry cat food into a bowl full of water. I went down and scooped him up. I was in the navy and wouldn't be around enough so I took him to the SPCA. They only put them down if they are too sick. I had to pay a $60 fee but he got adopted quickly. I suspect he got adopted so fast because his name was Little Joe Gibbs and Virginia Beach, VA is pretty much redskins territory.
 
My garage is dark and these are cell phone pics, but here is the dog:

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You're an absolute saint for helping that dog. However, the situation may be more complex than you think. What if the owner had someone that stops over periodically to check on the dog and somehow the dog got free when he was let out to go potty, and ran. The dog sitter couldn't find it, and is now worried.

You should probably call animal control to see if someone reported it missing.
 
Good on you! I hope his new home is a happy one. He sure deserves better than what he had.

You know, my grandmother died this week. Here I an, a busy professional new to the area, and I was able to secure quality dogsitting in the 4 hours before I left town...and that aint a 3 week vacation that has likely been planned for a while like this joker.

Fate has chosen a better future for this little guy. You are only the messanger.
 
Great ears on the little fella.. sweet!

Is (s)he eating OK?
A small cup of baked chicken livers would be a nice treat... or a baked marrow bone?

We wish him to go to a good home soon.
 
...You could pick up a little electric heater for $15 at walmart and put it next to his blankets in the garage? Preferably secured somehow so he can't knock it over (though most of those heaters have auto shutoff now...)

Looks like it's going to get under 30° tonight, so we did buy a little space heater....not much help but I guess it's better than sleeping outside :)

...However, the situation may be more complex than you think. What if the owner had someone that stops over periodically to check on the dog and somehow the dog got free when he was let out to go potty, and ran. The dog sitter couldn't find it, and is now worried.

You should probably call animal control to see if someone reported it missing.

My wife talked to 4 neighbors when trying to find the owner that each said they see the dog running around all the time.....I checked our local newspaper and craigslist with no hits, but I will call the Humane Society and Animal Control tomorrow just to be certain.
 
Glad to see you're doing your best to help the dog. :)

We recently "adopted" a stray boxer mix puppy (< 3 months old) that my girlfriend found under a neighbor's car while walking our dog (pembroke corgi). We talked to the neighbors and posted signs around the neighborhood but got no calls, not that we really expected anyone to claim it. So, we decided to give it a trial run with our corgi and they get along well so we recently took it to the local SPCA for shots, deworming, neutering, etc. He's surprisingly calm for a puppy and he's not afraid of humans which is a good sign.

The last dog we adopted was always a bit afraid of people indicating he was abused in his past life. It's always sad to see abused dogs. :(
 
That pup doesn't look very dachshundish. Looks more like a manchester terrier. And yes, they are known to have a terminal case of the shivers.

He's really working those sad puppy dog eyes ain't he?
 
I've been through this many times before. In my area we have lots of idiots that get dogs that they think are "tough" Pit bulls, Rottweilers, Chows, and tons of Chihuahuas. Problem is that I live in an old neighborhood and the idiots don't keep their fences up and the dogs get out. Problem is that I'm in the middle of the city. Loose dogs can get hit, they can get hurt or scared and bite, none of which is good, so I always try to catch the dogs.


From what I've learned over time, you should get the dog checked for a chip, put up photos of the dog for a single week, if nobody actually comes to claim the dog, it gets a new home.

Because of my area, and the types of people I have to deal with, I always go by this list:

1. I determine the dog's aggression.

2. I determine a distinguishing mark on the dog, something that makes it easily identifiable. I then take pictures of the marking for my reference.

3. I take the dog to my vet to get it scanned for the chip. If there is a chip, then I get the address and take the dog back to it's owners and take a look at the place to see how it got out. Usually a broken fence board.

4. If there is no chip and no ID, and there usually isn't, I take one good photo of the dog that does not include the distinguishing mark, and print up flyers. They stay up for one week.

5. Anyone that calls for the dog is asked about the distinguishing mark. If they can't tell me what it is, it's not their dog.

6. After the week is up, I place the dog in my local PALS rescue program. Usually takes a couple weeks, but they always get a new home. One really nice thing about our local PALS is that there is no group cost. It's all volunteers who love animals working on the lists, it's all by phone or email, and whoever puts the animal into the program keeps it until a new home is found.
 
I think it's definitely a mix....I'm horrible at identifying dog breeds. I think it does have some daschund in it though because of the short stubby legs. The ears are something else, though.....
 
I was thinking about the legalities also, however the easiest thing is to play dumb and say you put food out for it, then it ran off.

Awesome of you though, its a very humane thing to do and nice to see people in the world care.
 
Wikipedia:

The Miniature Pinscher (Zwergpinscher, Min Pin) is a small breed of dog of the Pinscher type, developed in Germany. Miniature Pinschers were first bred to hunt cats.
 
If you decide to keep it, minpins have huge problems with "big dog syndrome" where if they're not kept in line, they'll thing they're the alpha, and that they can kill even the hugest dog. That usually gets them in big trouble and frustrates their owners.
 
We let it inside for a bit and gave it a bath....it just sniffed one of our 2 cats and didn't seem to care about them. The cats were pretty freaked out though.

It does seem to look closest to a mini pincher, but it's legs are too short and stubby.
 
i finally found a no-kill shelter with ONE opening. It was a bit out of town, and during the drive the dog sat on my lap the entire time and wouldn't let me stop petting her. When I drove up there were several small run-down kennel buildings, and about 30 outside cages. LOTS of loud barking. I started walking into the buildings until I found some staff. In this particular building the dogs barking was so loud i thought my ears would start bleeding....probably about 30-40 dogs in that one small room. I signed the paperwork and brought the dog in -- she was cowered in my truck, but she let me pick her up and carry her to the cage. She was shivering from fear the entire time.

I still feel really guilty about having to leave her there, but it's the best I could do.
 
i finally found a no-kill shelter with ONE opening. It was a bit out of town, and during the drive the dog sat on my lap the entire time and wouldn't let me stop petting her. When I drove up there were several small run-down kennel buildings, and about 30 outside cages. LOTS of loud barking. I started walking into the buildings until I found some staff. In this particular building the dogs barking was so loud i thought my ears would start bleeding....probably about 30-40 dogs in that one small room. I signed the paperwork and brought the dog in -- she was cowered in my truck, but she let me pick her up and carry her to the cage. She was shivering from fear the entire time.

I still feel really guilty about having to leave her there, but it's the best I could do.

I kept waiting for you to say, "and then I turned around and took her home". But don't feel bad, you did a good thing for a dog regardless.
 
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