I need your help

[BeccalovesMAC]

Imma make this short and sweet. My man found a dog wandering my neighborhood on Sunday. It was soo cold outside that day so, we decided to bring him inside to feed him and to clean him up. While we were brushing him, I noticed how freakin skinny he is. You can feel his hip bones and his ribs. I couldn't tell at first cuz he has a lot of fur. He ate three bowls of food and drank like a gallon of water.

My plan was to make signs and put them up the next day. Now, I don't know if I should try to find his owner. I don't want to give him back knowing his owners don't feed him regularly. What would you do?

 

[Makeup Emporium]

That's so nice of you. It could be just that the dog got lost and was wandering for a while that is why he is so skinny. Of course I would worry about exactly the same thing as you are. We did the same thing a few years back but the dog that we helped was healthy and, as it turned out, microchipped so his owners were easily found.

If I were in your shoes I may seriously think about keeping him. I'm an animal lover and there's nothing worse than someone mistreating any animal. I would rather keep him then send him back to a possibly abusive situation. The problem is you will never know for sure.

Glad that you took the time to care!! There should be more people like you out there.

 

[LMD84]

it's a tough one. if he's been lost for a while that could explain how thin he is.... but equally i can see why you are reluctant to put up signs in case the owner isn't very nice

i think it's great that you and your man are taking time to care for him

 

[k.a.t]

I have to agree with what makeupemporium said, you just can't take the risk of giving the dog back to the original owner as they may have been mistreating the dog

if I were in that situation I would keep the dog or find a suitable home for it through friends or something if i couldn't afford to take care of it myself.
Btw that's such a nice thing of you to do, I know many people would just turn their back on a poor lost wandering animal

 

[gildedangel]

It is so good of you to take in that poor dog! I would try to look for its owner. You never know how long a dog could have been missing for, and a family could really be missing him. You can ask them about how long the dog was gone and such before you give back the dog, if they aren't a suitable owner you can contact the ASPCA? or animal control to look into the living conditions of the dog. Chances are if the dog didn't have a collar and tags it doesn't have an owner or the owners are too far away to reclaim him.

 

[obscuria]

Personally, I think you should take it to a shelter to get checked for a microchip. At this point, I don't think it is wise to make assumptions about the previous owners because the dog could just be skinny from getting loose or lost for a long time. Keep the dog but make an effort to find the owner. I personally feel that if a dog was really neglected by the owner, they probably won't care enough to make an effort to get it back.

It is an awefully nice thing you are doing though.

 

[Meisje]

I think you should take the chance to find the owners, and try to do it through a microchip if possible. You should also consult with the shelter when you take the dog to check the chip; they will have experience dealing with this situation.

The dog could be abused, but it's equally likely the dog got really lost and hasn't eaten since becoming lost. Maybe the family moved and the dog ran back to the old neighbourhood. I really do understand why you feel torn, but give the owners a chance to explain.

 

[Meisje]

Sorry, I forgot to add --- a third possibility is that the owner could have died.

Sometimes when elderly people have pets and pass away, the animal is abandoned either because the person's family doesn't give a shit about animals, or because there's nobody to come claim the pet and the landlord doesn't give a shit about animals.

 

[Mabelle]

something like this happened to me 2 months ago with a kitten. she ran into my house one cold rainy night. I couldnt put her out, so we fed her and brought her over to my boyfriends.
That night i went door to door in my neighbourhood with my digital camera (and a picture of her) but didnt find her home. I did find out that some other families had seen her around all day, and one man said he had been hearingf a kitten meowing for a couple nights but didnt know where it was coming from. The next day she showed up.

We made posters are put them up, but no one called. We kept them up for a month almost. My bf kept her. We named her Scout (after Scout Finch from to kill a mocking bird, cause shes so brave) and im so happy we have her.

I would suggest that you make posters. If someone was starving their dog, i dont think theyd call. It's possible someone dumped her (which is what i think happened with scout), a run away or that she's a homeless pup.

Will you keep her if you cant find the home? Sometimes i think animals find the right people when they are in trouble. Ive found lots of homeless animals (seriously they all come to me) and i always try to give them a home somewhere.

 

[MaskedBeauty]

I would keep feeding the dog and taking care of him. And when he has plumped up a bit you can post ads on craigslist to find him the proper home. Make sure you screen all interested people very well. They also have special food at vet offices for dogs or cats that are underweight. Hope this helps!

 

[BeccalovesMAC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaskedBeauty I would keep feeding the dog and taking care of him. And when he has plumped up a bit you can post ads on craigslist to find him the proper home. Make sure you screen all interested people very well. They also have special food at vet offices for dogs or cats that are underweight. Hope this helps!

I think thats what I am going to do. Just keep feeding him and keep him groomed then try to find his parents. Its sad. He gets along with my other dogs. I dont mind him being here

 

[MaskedBeauty]

^ awww then you should keep him!

 

[Mabelle]

ya ya ya!!! christmas miracle doggiesss!!!

 

[BeccalovesMAC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mabelle ya ya ya!!! christmas miracle doggiesss!!!

hes a cutie! I am going to try to to take a pic of him

 

[shatteredshards]

I would take him to the vet and have him checked for a chip. If the owners were neglecting him, they probably wouldn't have paid for it to be done.

I also agree with putting up posters and notices and asking people who contact you how long he's been missing. The vet should be able to give you some insight as to approximately how long he hasn't been getting fed properly, which you could compare to the times the callers give.

 

[malika]

I think you did a wonderful thing taking the dog in!

I'd like to add that some dogs just are really skinny, and you can see their ribs poking out quite drastically. This is true in my family's dog, and he is very well taken care of, with two big meals every day, both with dog food and dinner left overs. Even a vet, who didn't know the dog, said he looked too skinny, but they have no luck in fattening him up. He's just so active.

This could be the reason the dog you found was skinny: he was skinny from before, and spent some days or longer without food. Without shelter I can see a dog being very stressed and therefore active, making him even skinnier.

My point is that the dog you found could be from a home with loving people, maybe even kids who are now scared of where their dog is, walking or driving around the neighbourhood to find him.

My advice is to take him to a vet or shelter or some other place they have equipment to read a chip, maybe put a notice in the paper, and put up posters in your area, or maybe there's a website that does this (I'm in Norway and only know the Norwegian ones).

If you're concerned about the quality of his home, I think you can judge that fairly well by the response you can if they call you to get their dog back (or don't at all).

Good luck!

 

[Lauren1981]

i think you should keep the dog. like you said, if it had an owner it obviously wasn't getting the proper treatment/care it needed. i cannot stand animal abusers. if you can't handle the care of a pet then don't have one. starving it and other forms of abuse are beyond f'ing disgusting and these ppl don't deserve to have animals if thats the way they choose to "care" for them.
so i say keep him. he's prob already in love with you for what you've done

 

[MxAxC-_ATTACK]

I used to work for a Canine Rescue and we would get calls for missing dogs all the time, and they were all written down .. You shouldn't just decide to keep the dog without at least trying to find the owners.. Contact the local Animal Regulation and see if anyone has reported a missing dog that fits the description. You can't just assume that the animal was mistreated, like was said above, he may have been missing for some time, the owners may think hes been hit by a car or something.

 

[sweetbabyblue]

I agree with what some posters have said, you can't just keep the animal because he looks malnourished, he could've been missing for a period of time.
I don't know what the laws are like where you live, but in Australia not all vets have access to the microchip database and by law you're meant to take the animal to the local council's pound where the council has records of all pets; not the vet clinic or RSPCA (although this is what pretty much everyone does).

It is very kind of you to look after him for the time being though