Finders Keepers.

[emery]

i recently found an elderly german shepherd who had fly bitten ears, was slightly skinny and i suspect been hit by a car as he has abig wound on his hind leg/foot. I called the ranger as i found him at the school and he was nervous of kids he was friendly with my rotti girl who i put in the car and used her lead to tie him up. i moved him into the shade and sat for three hours with him to the ranger came. Her first words are oh he's skinny and look at his ears (they were taped to prevent further fly bite) i went he is elderly and may be suffering a medical condition due to being under weight. she automatically assumed he was unloved. he was picked up by his owners thankfully cos i was gonna take him on if his owners hadn't found him in his alloted time to allow them more time as it was clear he was loved. Too make assumptions causes great distress i had my rotti boy get let out of the yard he was collarless due to having a bath, i advertised everywhere papers, poles, radios, rang every pound in perth and visited. no rottis, i checked papers for litters or for sale adds and went and checked. 3 years later we got a call due to his microchip a vet nurse found him wandering over an hour away we were overjoyed to get him back. if the person who found him had only done the right thing i wouldn't of went through three years of angst wondering what happened to him

[mita]

I have a potentially very sad story - before microchipping.

When I found a staffy bitch once (again pre microchips)

Council registration of dogs....with tags to wear on collars... pre-date microchipping by decades.

ID disks on dogs' collars have been around since Adam was a chap.

I read where King Edward VII's dog, Caesar, had an ID tag which said, 'I'm the King's dog.' Even the king of England was prepared that his dog might get lost.

Was there any reason why the 2 dogs you've posted about, did not wear either or both registration tags and ID tag?

I don't have sympathy for owners who lack the foresight to imagine what might happen if their dog gets lost....without any form of identification. I have sympathy for the pets.

Edited December 14, 2011 by mita

[Blackdogs]

I have a potentially very sad story - before microchipping. One day I saw a cream Bearded Collie running along a busy road. I grabbed him and took him straight to the RSPCA. I told them he was a Bearded Collie and even wrote it on the form. Someone with their superiour dog breed knowledge corrected my form to say Old English Sheepdog. A few days later I was contacted by the owners and given a bottle of wine and box of chockies and they came to met me. They explained their dog had escaped after a bath and they were frantic. The rang the RSPCA and were told - no Bearded Collies here. The RSPCA thought they meant Rough Collie. After ringing and visiting pounds etc for a few days they decided to check the RSPCA in person. There was their dog called an Old English Sheepdog. They almost lost him - due to a breed-id-error and not checking in person. To me and to them he was so much a Bearded Collie but I guess they are similar to an Old English Sheepdog.

When I found a staffy bitch once (again pre microchips) I rang the pound every day to check on missing dogs and went through the RSPCA lost lists in person. Both the pound and the RSPCA told me to keep her at home as they were both over-run with dogs and no room. She was beautifully trained, fat and healthy, an obvious inside-dog but elderly. We never found her owner after 3 months but I managed to find her a good forever home.

This sort of thing really gets to me. I think people involved in these fields really need to know what they're talking about. That kind of flippant arrogance can lead to disaster. Even if they were to utilise a breed chart it would be better than guessing. I regularly scan shelter adoption pages and the number of clear breed misindentifications I see is abominable. How is anyone to find their JRT if it's been labeled a Fox Terrier? I see crossbreeds labeled as staffies, Kelpies labeled as lab crosses (if it's not black and tan with pointy ears it can't be a Kelpie), plain old mutts being labeled as exotic breeds (some that don't even exist in Australia!) . . . it's mystifying.

I would hate for my Schipp or my Kelpie to end up in some of these places. I could imagine she'd be a Chihuahua or Pom x and he (boofy headed show line dog) would be called a Shepherd or Lab x.

Fortunately, they're not the straying types.

However, if they did get out and someone held on to them and if I ever found out who they were I would push for 'theft by finding' and if that didn't work I'd be in touch with my lawyer.

I agree with you to an extent, but as someone who has worked in a pound I have to say, about 60% of the dogs that came through where I was working were cross breeds. Pound staff have to make an educated guess a lot of the time.

We would have people calling looking for their dog and the only info they could give us was "It's brown". This happened MUCH more often than you would think. We used to tell everyone that they HAVE to come in and look for their dog. It's not enough to just call and then blame pound staff when the dog is destroyed.

Yes, some places arent great at breed ID but when you have a cross breed with no ID, what can you do? Also, mistakes will occur, we are humans and we are not perfect and there is always going to be some amount of human error, this is why people need to go in physically. Also in my experience the dodgy breed ID's are much more frequently from Rangers than pound staff. I once had a Ranger with two Chis taking pictures as he was so chuffed to see such small dogs, asking me what they were.

It is up to owners to ID their dogs so that when they come into a pound the workers know without question what the dog is.

I agree that people who don't have their pets ID are partially to blame. I understand having to guess, though if it is a guess I think it's important to use a variety of descriptors just in case.

"It's brown"

That would get very frustrating pretty quickly.

I hope pound/shelter people always advise people to come in just in case.

[emery]

I have a potentially very sad story - before microchipping.

When I found a staffy bitch once (again pre microchips)

Council registration of dogs....with tags to wear on collars... pre-date microchipping by decades.

ID disks on a dogs' collars have been around since Adam was a chap.

I read where King Edward VII's dog, Caesar, had an ID tag which said, 'I'm the King's dog.' Even the king of England was prepared that his dog might get lost.

Was there any reason why the 2 dogs you've posted about, did not wear either or both registration tags and ID tag?

I don't have sympathy for owners who lack the foresight to imagine what might happen if their dog gets lost....without any form of identification. I have sympathy for the pets.

I always had collars and tags on my dogs unless being bathed but after i almost had one strangled they only wera collars when out htey are microchipped though

[Blackdogs]

I have a potentially very sad story - before microchipping.

When I found a staffy bitch once (again pre microchips)

Council registration of dogs....with tags to wear on collars... pre-date microchipping by decades.

ID disks on dogs' collars have been around since Adam was a chap.

I read where King Edward VII's dog, Caesar, had an ID tag which said, 'I'm the King's dog.' Even the king of England was prepared that his dog might get lost.

Was there any reason why the 2 dogs you've posted about, did not wear either or both registration tags and ID tag?

I don't have sympathy for owners who lack the foresight to imagine what might happen if their dog gets lost....without any form of identification. I have sympathy for the pets.

Sometimes dogs slip their collars.

I hope, despite your lack of sympathy that you would still do the right thing and take the dogs to the pound.

[Blackdogs]

i recently found an elderly german shepherd who had fly bitten ears, was slightly skinny and i suspect been hit by a car as he has abig wound on his hind leg/foot. I called the ranger as i found him at the school and he was nervous of kids he was friendly with my rotti girl who i put in the car and used her lead to tie him up. i moved him into the shade and sat for three hours with him to the ranger came. Her first words are oh he's skinny and look at his ears (they were taped to prevent further fly bite) i went he is elderly and may be suffering a medical condition due to being under weight. she automatically assumed he was unloved. he was picked up by his owners thankfully cos i was gonna take him on if his owners hadn't found him in his alloted time to allow them more time as it was clear he was loved. Too make assumptions causes great distress i had my rotti boy get let out of the yard he was collarless due to having a bath, i advertised everywhere papers, poles, radios, rang every pound in perth and visited. no rottis, i checked papers for litters or for sale adds and went and checked. 3 years later we got a call due to his microchip a vet nurse found him wandering over an hour away we were overjoyed to get him back. if the person who found him had only done the right thing i wouldn't of went through three years of angst wondering what happened to him

Thank dog for micrchip!

[mita]

I agree that people who don't have their pets ID are partially to blame. I understand having to guess, though if it is a guess I think it's important to use a variety of descriptors just in case.

Partially? Are such people under the misapprehension that their dog can talk.....& will provide finders/pound with the contact details of its owner?

Having said that, there's always that one -off when a dog goes missing before its collar can be put on after a bath....or has slipped its collar. That can happen for the most responsible owner. Thankfully, microchipping now provides the ultimate safety ID cover. So it's wise not to assume that, because a found dog is not wearing collar ID, that the owner has not been responsible.

Edited December 14, 2011 by mita

[Greytmate]

Whenever people post somewhere that they've found a dog I tell them to ring every council around there area but even then it's still hard because a ranger I know works in a town along a major highway & the amount of times he's had a dog brought in from places sometimes 4hrs away is incredible! He does usually try to get in touch with the council area the dog came from but sometimes you just don't know where the dog has come from. I just don't know what people think when they find dogs

Two days ago this happened on DOL, and you did not advise this. You advised that the ranger would "just put to sleep".

What an annoying topic this is, in so many ways.

[Maddy]

I almost lost a cat to "finders, keepers" and when I finally got her back, it was more than six months later.

My mother was walking to work and saw Panda sitting in someone's front yard, about a 20 minute walk from our house. Apparently the children had found her and took her collars off to convince the parents she was stray.

I'd spent the last six months searching for her (she was my first ever pet) and being a child, I was absolutely heartbroken when we didn't find her after a few weeks (assumed she'd been hit by a car, but at least wanted to find her body or who disposed of it). She was obviously a much-loved cat, wore two collars (a flea collar and a collar with one of those little name discs on it), was clean, desexed, well-fed and extremely friendly- I can sort of understand why the children did what they did but the parents should've known better- those six months were just horrible.

Most pounds would much rather sell you back the animal after the impound period is up than pay a vet to destroy it and then have to dispose of the body, anyway.

I can still remember that thread on here (not too long ago) about the pregnant cat that someone took and was "caring" for. It made me so angry- that cat could've been someone's pet. And I know how much it hurts to not know where they are.

typo

Edited December 14, 2011 by Hardy's Angel

[starreys]

a microchip didnt help my pure bred mini bully when he escaped 2 years ago, he was missing for 3months , i never gave up hope and had notices everywhere finally one day i get a text from a guy at 6am on a sunday to tell me they were sure they had my dog, two hours later he was at my door, my dog had apparently been living with him for 6 weeks or more and he had taken him to a vet but the chip didnt scan which i dont believe , at any rate i got him back and two days later i got him desexed. My bully had a lot of scars and looked very thin and and had a few rough patches on him so he certainly had a rough time whilst he was gone.I am always finding stray dogs wandering around my area and when there has been no collar i have called my council to pick them up.

[german_shep_fan]

Just this morning i took a dog to the vet to wait for his owners. I have picked up this dog at least 3 times now. The local vet will hold the dog till the owners are able to be contacted, they are very good like that. The moment i walked in with him the vet nurse said "oh the famous Zeus".

I have personally taken him back to his home a few times and you hardly even get a thank you out of them! They just don't give a s&*t!

i even said to the vet nurse this morning that i felt bad giving him back to his owners cos they just don't give a damn. She looked at me a little oddly but i really don't care, i wish he had a owner that gave a damn abt him and his whereabts

[SparkyTansy]

This is a sore spot with me... My cat went missing two years ago (she slipped out the door after being kept in for two weeks having just moved) and i called all the coucils, pounds, cat refuge etc and did posters and letterbox drop in the area around the house and from the house I had just moved from (they were within 5 minutes of each other)... she didn't turn up. I think about her every day and wish she was safe. There were no busy roads nearby and as much as it hurt I would always look for her around the roads... I had the very caring people call me a few times from the cat refuge where i got her from, to find out if she had been found... I was heartbroken as it was the first cat i had such a close connection to. For all i know, she could be alive and well, her microchip with my contact details sitting just beneath her skin, unscanned, while they are all blissfully unaware that she is someones much loved pet.

Edited - time goes fast, it's been two years.

Edited December 14, 2011 by SparkyTansy

[SparkyTansy]

Just this morning i took a dog to the vet to wait for his owners. I have picked up this dog at least 3 times now. The local vet will hold the dog till the owners are able to be contacted, they are very good like that. The moment i walked in with him the vet nurse said "oh the famous Zeus".

I have personally taken him back to his home a few times and you hardly even get a thank you out of them! They just don't give a s&*t!

i even said to the vet nurse this morning that i felt bad giving him back to his owners cos they just don't give a damn. She looked at me a little oddly but i really don't care, i wish he had a owner that gave a damn abt him and his whereabts

Perhaps if he is taken to the local ranger instead, and informed of the owners address, they might take more notice having to pay to bail him out.

[Keira&Phoenix]

Just this morning i took a dog to the vet to wait for his owners. I have picked up this dog at least 3 times now. The local vet will hold the dog till the owners are able to be contacted, they are very good like that. The moment i walked in with him the vet nurse said "oh the famous Zeus".

I have personally taken him back to his home a few times and you hardly even get a thank you out of them! They just don't give a s&*t!

i even said to the vet nurse this morning that i felt bad giving him back to his owners cos they just don't give a damn. She looked at me a little oddly but i really don't care, i wish he had a owner that gave a damn abt him and his whereabts

Perhaps if he is taken to the local ranger instead, and informed of the owners address, they might take more notice having to pay to bail him out.

Agree.

If I pick up the big boy I did last night again, now that I know he has a M/C, he will be going to the local pound so they have to fork out cash to get him back. I will give them the benefit of the doubt at the moment that he is getting out without their knowledge but now they have had to pick him up from the vets, they definitely know and should contain him.

[Dame Aussie]

I have a potentially very sad story - before microchipping. One day I saw a cream Bearded Collie running along a busy road. I grabbed him and took him straight to the RSPCA. I told them he was a Bearded Collie and even wrote it on the form. Someone with their superiour dog breed knowledge corrected my form to say Old English Sheepdog. A few days later I was contacted by the owners and given a bottle of wine and box of chockies and they came to met me. They explained their dog had escaped after a bath and they were frantic. The rang the RSPCA and were told - no Bearded Collies here. The RSPCA thought they meant Rough Collie. After ringing and visiting pounds etc for a few days they decided to check the RSPCA in person. There was their dog called an Old English Sheepdog. They almost lost him - due to a breed-id-error and not checking in person. To me and to them he was so much a Bearded Collie but I guess they are similar to an Old English Sheepdog.

When I found a staffy bitch once (again pre microchips) I rang the pound every day to check on missing dogs and went through the RSPCA lost lists in person. Both the pound and the RSPCA told me to keep her at home as they were both over-run with dogs and no room. She was beautifully trained, fat and healthy, an obvious inside-dog but elderly. We never found her owner after 3 months but I managed to find her a good forever home.

This sort of thing really gets to me. I think people involved in these fields really need to know what they're talking about. That kind of flippant arrogance can lead to disaster. Even if they were to utilise a breed chart it would be better than guessing. I regularly scan shelter adoption pages and the number of clear breed misindentifications I see is abominable. How is anyone to find their JRT if it's been labeled a Fox Terrier? I see crossbreeds labeled as staffies, Kelpies labeled as lab crosses (if it's not black and tan with pointy ears it can't be a Kelpie), plain old mutts being labeled as exotic breeds (some that don't even exist in Australia!) . . . it's mystifying.

I would hate for my Schipp or my Kelpie to end up in some of these places. I could imagine she'd be a Chihuahua or Pom x and he (boofy headed show line dog) would be called a Shepherd or Lab x.

Fortunately, they're not the straying types.

However, if they did get out and someone held on to them and if I ever found out who they were I would push for 'theft by finding' and if that didn't work I'd be in touch with my lawyer.

I agree with you to an extent, but as someone who has worked in a pound I have to say, about 60% of the dogs that came through where I was working were cross breeds. Pound staff have to make an educated guess a lot of the time.

We would have people calling looking for their dog and the only info they could give us was "It's brown". This happened MUCH more often than you would think. We used to tell everyone that they HAVE to come in and look for their dog. It's not enough to just call and then blame pound staff when the dog is destroyed.

Yes, some places arent great at breed ID but when you have a cross breed with no ID, what can you do? Also, mistakes will occur, we are humans and we are not perfect and there is always going to be some amount of human error, this is why people need to go in physically. Also in my experience the dodgy breed ID's are much more frequently from Rangers than pound staff. I once had a Ranger with two Chis taking pictures as he was so chuffed to see such small dogs, asking me what they were.

It is up to owners to ID their dogs so that when they come into a pound the workers know without question what the dog is.

I agree that people who don't have their pets ID are partially to blame. I understand having to guess, though if it is a guess I think it's important to use a variety of descriptors just in case.

"It's brown"

That would get very frustrating pretty quickly.

I hope pound/shelter people always advise people to come in just in case.

I think they're fully to blame, who else could be held responsible?

Yes, we had to advise everyone that called to come in, many still didn't though. I also hope other places do this too.

[jacqui835]

I get so scared when I have to hand a lost dog in. Just the other day, I found a jack russel whilst I was out walking Sammy and he was running across roads. Well fortunately he was very friendly and so I put Sammy's lead on him and just held Sammy by the collar. I tried to follow him for a while to see if he would lead us back to his own, and asked at every house he showed interest in, but no-one had ever seen him before. So I took him home and took him to the vet. The vet said to me that heaps of pets go missing at this time of year, because their owners go on holidays and leave them with strangers and they escape. She also said heaps of pets get put down because it takes them too long to contact the owners I was petrified at that point that I'd sentenced this dog to death so I filled out all this paperwork saying that if no-one claims him I'd mind him and search for his owners myself.

Fortunately he had a happy ending, but when you get told things like that - I just know if it was Sammy I would just be inconsolable if he got put down or something and I get scared for other owners - especially older people who don't always have mobiles or understand how to update their microchip details.

[whiskedaway]

Council registration of dogs....with tags to wear on collars... pre-date microchipping by decades.

ID disks on a dogs' collars have been around since Adam was a chap.

I read where King Edward VII's dog, Caesar, had an ID tag which said, 'I'm the King's dog.' Even the king of England was prepared that his dog might get lost.

Was there any reason why the 2 dogs you've posted about, did not wear either or both registration tags and ID tag?

I don't have sympathy for owners who lack the foresight to imagine what might happen if their dog gets lost....without any form of identification. I have sympathy for the pets.

I always had collars and tags on my dogs unless being bathed but after i almost had one strangled they only wera collars when out htey are microchipped though

This. My girls don't wear collars at home, due to the fact that I'm worried about then strangling themselves on the tubular fence by getting their collar hooked in it, plus being coated breeds it ruins their coat. Like you, they are microchipped though.

a microchip didnt help my pure bred mini bully when he escaped 2 years ago, he was missing for 3months , i never gave up hope and had notices everywhere finally one day i get a text from a guy at 6am on a sunday to tell me they were sure they had my dog, two hours later he was at my door, my dog had apparently been living with him for 6 weeks or more and he had taken him to a vet but the chip didnt scan which i dont believe , at any rate i got him back and two days later i got him desexed. My bully had a lot of scars and looked very thin and and had a few rough patches on him so he certainly had a rough time whilst he was gone.I am always finding stray dogs wandering around my area and when there has been no collar i have called my council to pick them up.

Actually this can happen, my lappie's microchip didn't scan at the vet a few weeks back. Turns out it's moved down her leg slightly so was hard to find.

[Dame Aussie]

Council registration of dogs....with tags to wear on collars... pre-date microchipping by decades.

ID disks on a dogs' collars have been around since Adam was a chap.

I read where King Edward VII's dog, Caesar, had an ID tag which said, 'I'm the King's dog.' Even the king of England was prepared that his dog might get lost.

Was there any reason why the 2 dogs you've posted about, did not wear either or both registration tags and ID tag?

I don't have sympathy for owners who lack the foresight to imagine what might happen if their dog gets lost....without any form of identification. I have sympathy for the pets.

I always had collars and tags on my dogs unless being bathed but after i almost had one strangled they only wera collars when out htey are microchipped though

This. My girls don't wear collars at home, due to the fact that I'm worried about then strangling themselves on the tubular fence by getting their collar hooked in it, plus being coated breeds it ruins their coat. Like you, they are microchipped though.

a microchip didnt help my pure bred mini bully when he escaped 2 years ago, he was missing for 3months , i never gave up hope and had notices everywhere finally one day i get a text from a guy at 6am on a sunday to tell me they were sure they had my dog, two hours later he was at my door, my dog had apparently been living with him for 6 weeks or more and he had taken him to a vet but the chip didnt scan which i dont believe , at any rate i got him back and two days later i got him desexed. My bully had a lot of scars and looked very thin and and had a few rough patches on him so he certainly had a rough time whilst he was gone.I am always finding stray dogs wandering around my area and when there has been no collar i have called my council to pick them up.

Actually this can happen, my lappie's microchip didn't scan at the vet a few weeks back. Turns out it's moved down her leg slightly so was hard to find.

You're right, microchips are missed A LOT. Please do not rely on any form of ID other than looking for your dog at the pound/s.

Human error means people can miss them and sometimes they can move down too far and cannot be detected.

[Guest lavendergirl]

Council registration of dogs....with tags to wear on collars... pre-date microchipping by decades.

ID disks on a dogs' collars have been around since Adam was a chap.

I read where King Edward VII's dog, Caesar, had an ID tag which said, 'I'm the King's dog.' Even the king of England was prepared that his dog might get lost.

Was there any reason why the 2 dogs you've posted about, did not wear either or both registration tags and ID tag?

I don't have sympathy for owners who lack the foresight to imagine what might happen if their dog gets lost....without any form of identification. I have sympathy for the pets.

I always had collars and tags on my dogs unless being bathed but after i almost had one strangled they only wera collars when out htey are microchipped though

This. My girls don't wear collars at home, due to the fact that I'm worried about then strangling themselves on the tubular fence by getting their collar hooked in it, plus being coated breeds it ruins their coat. Like you, they are microchipped though.

a microchip didnt help my pure bred mini bully when he escaped 2 years ago, he was missing for 3months , i never gave up hope and had notices everywhere finally one day i get a text from a guy at 6am on a sunday to tell me they were sure they had my dog, two hours later he was at my door, my dog had apparently been living with him for 6 weeks or more and he had taken him to a vet but the chip didnt scan which i dont believe , at any rate i got him back and two days later i got him desexed. My bully had a lot of scars and looked very thin and and had a few rough patches on him so he certainly had a rough time whilst he was gone.I am always finding stray dogs wandering around my area and when there has been no collar i have called my council to pick them up.

Actually this can happen, my lappie's microchip didn't scan at the vet a few weeks back. Turns out it's moved down her leg slightly so was hard to find.

You're right, microchips are missed A LOT. Please do not rely on any form of ID other than looking for your dog at the pound/s.

Human error means people can miss them and sometimes they can move down too far and cannot be detected.

People also place too much faith in microchip details being correct. It took 6 weeks for the shelter to send through the details when I adopted my dog. In that time he could have gone missing. So it is worth getting the chip scanned at the vet regularly.

[Bluefairy]

Council registration of dogs....with tags to wear on collars... pre-date microchipping by decades.

ID disks on a dogs' collars have been around since Adam was a chap.

I read where King Edward VII's dog, Caesar, had an ID tag which said, 'I'm the King's dog.' Even the king of England was prepared that his dog might get lost.

Was there any reason why the 2 dogs you've posted about, did not wear either or both registration tags and ID tag?

I don't have sympathy for owners who lack the foresight to imagine what might happen if their dog gets lost....without any form of identification. I have sympathy for the pets.

I always had collars and tags on my dogs unless being bathed but after i almost had one strangled they only wera collars when out htey are microchipped though

This. My girls don't wear collars at home, due to the fact that I'm worried about then strangling themselves on the tubular fence by getting their collar hooked in it, plus being coated breeds it ruins their coat. Like you, they are microchipped though.

a microchip didnt help my pure bred mini bully when he escaped 2 years ago, he was missing for 3months , i never gave up hope and had notices everywhere finally one day i get a text from a guy at 6am on a sunday to tell me they were sure they had my dog, two hours later he was at my door, my dog had apparently been living with him for 6 weeks or more and he had taken him to a vet but the chip didnt scan which i dont believe , at any rate i got him back and two days later i got him desexed. My bully had a lot of scars and looked very thin and and had a few rough patches on him so he certainly had a rough time whilst he was gone.I am always finding stray dogs wandering around my area and when there has been no collar i have called my council to pick them up.

Actually this can happen, my lappie's microchip didn't scan at the vet a few weeks back. Turns out it's moved down her leg slightly so was hard to find.

You're right, microchips are missed A LOT. Please do not rely on any form of ID other than looking for your dog at the pound/s.

Human error means people can miss them and sometimes they can move down too far and cannot be detected.

Our vets are great when they scan our two cats and Archie they always check everywhere on the animal, they are always saying the microchips seem to migrate to different locations. Its nice and comforting to know they do this. I know some only check the back and if one isn't picked up its 'obviously' not microchipped....

Lynn