How to Lose Ownership to Your Dog
It can happen in just 71 hours!
Recently, a student of mine shared a story that she read about someone who found a lost dog but refused to give it back to the dog’s original family after they came forward to claim her. Sadly, in this particular case, the law was on the side of the finder of the dog and NOT on the side of the dog’s original owner.
Read the story first, then I’ll explain the law that’s involved and what you should do to protect your dog(s)!
About 7 months ago a friend found a dog near her house. I took her in and called animal control. They said to bring her in to look for a microchip. She was underweight with dirty fur and they could not find a microchip. They said I could hold onto the dog for a week and if nobody claimed her, I could adopt her. That’s exactly what happened.
My dog now has shiny fur and is very healthy. She is polite and walks well on a leash. She does lots of tricks. I have depression and anxiety and she’s my support animal. She’s honestly the light of my life.
Last month, I joined a Facebook group for the same purebred dog that my dog is. I posted a picture of her in the group and a woman was tagged. A few hours later, she DMs me that my dog was her dog. She was so thankful that I found her and wanted to arrange to come and get her. She even offered to pay me for taking good care of her.
I thought she was trying to scam me since she lived across the country, but when I looked into it, I found her page included a lot of dog pictures and videos. My dog has very unique markings, so it was unmistakably the same dog as the one in her pictures. Turns out, my dog is a show champion and had a lot of training to do obedience, agility, and a few other things I’ve never heard of. She has a lot of fancy titles, too. My dog was clearly well cared for, well trained, and well loved.
The woman said her house caught fire last year and she lost everything, including my dog, who ran away. Nobody knows how she traveled so far or what happened between when she got lost and when my friend found her. She never stopped looking for my dog. She even had a video of my dog as a super cute puppy getting a microchip. No idea why the shelter and my vet couldn’t find the microchip, but my dog had one at some point.
