Dog drama

[bdog]

The Dec 18th we found a dog in my moms garage. She lives about two miles down the road from me in a rural subdivision. It is about a year old maybe a red heeler mix. Dog was skin and bones and very skittish like it had been beat. My mom knows all her neighbors and it was none if theirs so we brought it home. Primarily I didn't want my elderly widowed mom having to deal with the dog and we put it on Craigslist and such to try and find the owners . Time went by and we never heard anything or saw any signs or ads posted. The dog kind of grew on my kids and me and we basically took it in. We built a doghouse for it three days ago.


Well today this man calls and he saw the picture and he owns the parents to this dog and raised the litter and said he gave the dog we have to some people that live across the road and maybe a couple hundred yards down from us. He described their property and I know where it is but I have lived here five years and have never met them. He went on to say he does some work for these people and after giving them the puppy he regretted it because they were abusive to it. Heck if I move fast the dog cowers and runs away but he is warming up to us.

Anyway -what to do. If my dog was missing I would want someone to tell me they have it but on the other hand these people haven't exactly been looking and they mistreated the dog.

I can literally see their house from my front gate and this dog has been running free on our 20 acres he obviously doesn't want to go back nor have they been looking or they would have seen him from the road.

 

[dragoneggs]

Tough one but from what I am hearing I would lean toward taking care of the dog and not attempting to return him/her. Especially if there is prove of serious neglect or abuse. No tags on dog?

 

[jlawso21]

What phone call?

Keep the dog!

 

[sseelhoff]

Keep the dog. No way I would return a dog to the situation you describe.

 

[newbury]

we put it on Craigslist and such to try and find the owners

You tried.

Get it an extra bag of treats.

 

[RobertBrown]

If your mom wants to have a dog, she should consider keeping this one. Red healers can be very smart dogs. If she doesnt want a dog then you would be doing the dog a favor by finding a home for it.
I don't think you should give dog back to the peiple that had it before you....under any circunstances.
I seriously that they would try to claim the dog....it's clear they don't want it.

 

[dragoneggs]

Heelers are very smart and trainable. This dog needs TLC.

 

[sseelhoff]

Heelers are very smart and trainable. This dog needs TLC.

I think it might prefer Animal Planet or maybe some National Geographic Channel.

 

[Rock knocker]

Keep it, you or your mom, as well as the dog will be better for it.

The previous owners gave up all rights

 

[dragoneggs]

I think it might prefer Animal Planet or maybe some National Geographic Channel.

Touche'

 

[sailorman]

Do the dog a good . Keep it . Why would you want to send the dog back to the environment you believe it came from ?

 

[bdog]

Tough one but from what I am hearing I would lean toward taking care of the dog and not attempting to return him/her. Especially if there is prove of serious neglect or abuse. No tags on dog?

No tags.

We also had pictures up on every lost dog website in our area we could find and nothing until we hear from this guy.

 

[bdog]

If your mom wants to have a dog, she should consider keeping this one. Red healers can be very smart dogs. If she doesnt want a dog then you would be doing the dog a favor by finding a home for it.
I don't think you should give dog back to the peiple that had it before you....under any circunstances.
I seriously that they would try to claim the dog....it's clear they don't want it.

My mom doesn't want it but we would not mind keeping it. My 11 year old loves the dog and I like him as well. He hangs out with me in the shop anytime I am working out there. He is a little climber too when I was working on some wiring in the cab of my peterbilt he managed to climb up in there and laid down on the floor of the cab and went to sleep.

During the bad blizzard we had right after Christmas we let him stay inside.

Good pup I just don't want our family to grow super attached to him and then 6 months from now the neighbors see him and are like hey thats our dog.

I am thinking of going over there and talking to them. I don't want to put the dog in an abusive environment but I don't want a war with my neighbors either. If he had a loving home and was just lost I would be happy to give him back but at this point if I saw them beat this dog I would probably beat them.

 

[SSdoxie]

This dog was either neglected or mistreated. You made legitimate effort to locate the owner by placing ads. I doubt the previous owner will want it back, but he does try to claim charge boarding fees (about $10 per day). I suspect if he did had to fork out any cash to reclaim it he would pass on it.
Keep it, Love, and Train it.

 

[devildog1]

Just listen, the dog is yours now , never , never give back to the idiot who abused the poor dog.
DevilDog

 

[Green Power]

Sounds like a abused dog found a good home.

 

[BKBoiss]

I personally am not a huge dog fan but I would NEVER return it if the previous owners treated it like you think they have. It's happy, your kids are happy and your happy, why ruin a great thing. If they try claim it was their dog just let them call the dog and see if it wants to go home, chances are it'll be a no contest.

 

[Gary Fowler]

If you want to keep the dog, do so. IF the neighbor ever questions ownership, you can site the efforts made to find the owner with no reply from them. IF he insists that he now wants the dog, charge him the boarding fee of $10 per day and if he pays up then you might have to let the dog go, but I doubt he would up $100+ dollars for the dog and the longer you keep him the more it will cost him so eventually after a month or so, the boarding fee will be much more than the dog could ever be worth to the dog mis-treaters.

 

[davesl708]

Hopefully you have some pics as to the condition the dog was in when you found it. That will stop any attempts of the previous owner from trying to reclaim the dog. Even if you find another home for him give any pics to the new family.

 

[AchingBack]

Giving an animal away places no worth on it. Too often the gift is abused because there is no skin in the game. The man probably gave the dog away just to get rid of it. Always a bad idea.