Stray dog found - what to do?

A family member (out of state) has found a stray, mixed breed, female, no tags/collar, no chip, sweet as can be, housebroken, spayed, was definitely cared for, no signs of injury, checked by the vet, and was not starving/dehydrated. Family member has posted an ad in the paper plus signs everywhere, and flyers around town and at shelters, welfare societies, pounds, and vets, including groceries and other stores. The shelters are all full within 400 miles. She can't keep it much longer, it's been 3 weeks. She wants to know how long she should keep the flyers up and ad in the paper as reasonable before finding a home, as she cannot continue to keep the dog. I understand the situation, she has more animals than she can reasonably take on and kids, so cannot continue to keep it.

If the dog has no home, I have been looking to adopt anyway, and would be happy to, but only if every effort has been made to find its owner. I hate to take it out of state if there is a chance of the owner coming forward but need to relieve my family member yet too, either to find it a home there close by or to bring it home with me as a possibility as a last resort (happily though but with reservations under the circumstances).

How long do you think is reasonable to find the owner before trying to find her a permanent home? She can't find anyone else who is willing to take her even temporarily is part of the problem too. Any suggestions?

Did she post pictures of the found dog at the humane shelters? I kept looking there for my lost dog two years ago.

I think nearly a month is sufficient time to look for the owner. My mom/sisters found a dog awhile back that was clearly somebody's pet. We were unable to find the owner and suspect somebody travelling through here lost her.

In many states, 72 hours and the dog can be claimed by you - the founder. Most shelters, if the dog is deemed healthy and adoptable, will keep an animal longer (about two weeks in some cases) to allow a potential owner to come forward however as is the case with most shelters, this amount of time is too long as there are so many animals being dropped off every day so they will put up for adoption sooner.

You've done what you need to in order to try to find the owner. Being a veterinary technician (and former animal control officer) I can tell you that more often than not, these animals end up never being claimed. If you can find it a good home, that would be awesome! Good luck!

Yes, she did post them at the shelters as well as several other places. So far no luck in finding the owners. The shelter wondered because they are all full, if the collar and tags were taken off and the dog was let go. They have seen a lot of that lately. Who's to know though. If only the little one could tell, bless her for what she's been through, especially if that is the case as well. How scary that must have been.

I'll ask her to go back to the shelter to find out what the state's policy is. Thank you for this.

Has anyone scanned for a chip? Preferably a good shelter that can cross-scan for all the different chips out there. Please check this out if possible ASAP.

That was the first that she did when she tried to take her to the shelter. Chipping is so important and especially when I know, even with my own, how I know collars can come off, especially with the breakaway collars, doing what they're supposed to and not strangle them if they get caught; but then they have no identifiers. There was no chip and scanned at two different places including the vet, when she went to have her checked to make sure the the little one was ok after being on its on for however long. No sign of one. It was disheartening as with no tags was hoping for this to be able to call someone, nothing.

She was someone's; she's been spayed, well fed, seems to be in good health, estimate about a year to three years old, housebroken, and seems to knows how to sit on command. Breaks my heart that if she is not returned to her owner. Not sure what else that can be done though. Still no openings at the shelter, then again, if she needs a home, she would have a good one here. I just would rather her back with her owners.

What are you calling her? I mean, maybe in the way that dogs have of finding their way home...um...she ... has?

Room for one more, Fresia? You have done everything I can think of. Your only options now are to find her a home or to share yours ...

Let us know.




Roadie

In our State, it's 30 days before the dog is legally yours. Personally, I think three weeks is more than enough, with all the effort that was taken to find the owner. The owner should be making every effort to find the dog, not the other way around. I think it's safe to say, whoever used to own this dog is not interested in getting it back. Even if they don't live in that area, they would know where their dog disappeared and would be looking there, calling the HS and all that.

I had a dog run away once, quite a while ago, and we spent the next 24 hours (until he returned and just sat by the backdoor) hanging up fliers on every lamppost in our area, at every Vet, every grocery store, every gas station, filing a missing dog report with the Humane Sociey and the microchip company, stopping by there several times to check for him, scanning Craigslist for found dogs, alerting the neighbors, calling every shelter around. THAT's what you do when you want your dog back. We had "fun" collecting all the fliers after he returned, but that's beside the point.

I think you got a new furry friend.

Thank you for your willingness to adopt a stray dog. That's WONDERFUL that you are willing to open your heart and home. Personally I would wait 30 days OR until the family member can't keep her any longer - whichever comes first.

Seems to me, if the owners were looking, they would have seen the ads or flyers by now. I think that ship has sailed and now the pup needs a home.

Shelters around here will hold a stray for between 3 and 5 days before moving the dog to an "adoptable" status. The rescue group I work with will hold strays for 2 weeks before attempting to find a home.

An honest effort has been made to find this dog's owners, I think it's safe to proceed with re-homing it.

I'd say 30 days is a reasonable amount of time to actively post notices and attempt to find the owner ... After that, Go ahead and "adopt" her ... If the family comes forward at a later date, you can always return her ... She may have gotten lost, she may have run away, the person who owned her may have become ill or lost a job or simply can't care for her any more and figured if they just turned her out she'd find a good hearted soul to take her in (YOU!) ... Go for it ... It will all work out as it's supposed to in the end ... !!!

Sincerely,
BrokenCloud

She's going to give it another week to be sure but meanwhile she has checked that all the fliers are still up and has added more further out. In the meantime, she discovered one of their neighbors has been interested in adopting since they lost theirs to cancer last year and would be a good home, loving couple, great, large fenced in yard, very responsible, used to always walk and bike with the other one. The couple said if someone comes forward later that that they would be fine with turning her over. That would be great to keep her there, would save me too a 10 hour one way trip/20 hour RT. Relieved that she would have another good home to go to meanwhile. Love happy endings.

Thanks everyone for the information and support. Always concerned about getting critters to their rightful places. This one may very well end up exactly where she was meant to be.