I do know that there is nothing as panicking as having one of my dogs disappear. Somebody left a door open or the back yard gate open and all of a sudden I have no dog. I quickly search the yard - we're on a quarter acre with hedges, bushes, and trees with all kinds of hiding spots - I check the neighbor's yards, and then I'm in the car searching. Fortunately the couple of times its happened I've found my missing dog within half an hour. But it still freaks me out. My dogs have their City of Surrey tags and also a tag we made at PetSmart with the name, Kerry's cell phone number, and our address. Anyone catching our dog, as long as the collar hasn't come off, will be able to contact us right away.
A few months ago a beautiful golden retriever showed up while Kerry was working in the yard. No humans in sight. No tags on his collar. We got a leash on him and walked him around the neighborhood hoping that someone was looking for him. We finally took him home, took some photos, and posted on the Internet. We took him for another walk. This time we ran into someone walking their dog who recognized the dog as belonging to their neighbor. He had his cell phone on him and called the neighbor who was out in her car searching. Apparently one of her kids had left the gate open. We met up in a few minutes and she was very thankful. And she was heading to PetSmart the next day to get an ID tag made for the dog.
A couple of weeks ago we came home. It was night and pouring rain outside. Standing at my front door is a large Rottweiler. Staring me down. Now I grew up with a Saint Bernard and friends of ours breed Rottweilers so I'm good with large breeds. Its just you never know if a dog is mean or friendly. This one's collar was on so tight I couldn't get my fingers around it. I got my front door open and brought him inside. I towelled him down and he just loved it, rolling around the living room floor. He was not neutered and appeared young, probably 8 or 9 months old. He also was not house broken, so we put him out on the sundeck, which is covered. He wolfed down a bowl of dog food. He was hungry, but overall in good condition. This dog wasn't malnourished. I took pictures and posted him all over the Internet and searched for lost dogs. We took him for a walk around Cloverdale, wondering if he would lead us to his home, but he didn't seem to know the area and had nowhere in particular he wanted to go.
The next day we took him to the vet to check for a micro chip but there wasn't one. We contacted our breeder friend. We had a man from Aldergrove come out and look at him. His 7 month old Rottweiler was stolen from their yard, but it wasn't his dog. I stood out on the street for an hour with him, hoping someone looking for him would drive by and see him. Finally we took him to the SPCA and hoped his owners would look for him there.
I checked the SPCA's website yesterday and the Rottie is now up for adoption. No one came looking for him. Sad. But hopefully he will find a good home.
We can't stress enough to people we meet who don't have ID tags on their dogs to get one made up. Costs about ten bucks. But it might return your dog home sooner if someone catches it.
Here's a couple of photos of the stray Rottie if anyone is looking for a friendly male. He's at the Surrey SPCA.
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