[Galatea]

The police have to get the search warrant - you can't. All they need is reasonable suspicion to believe the dog is at a specific address and is being held illegally - they make a declaration and then a judge determines whether the suspicion is legally sufficient. A judge may or may not believe a kid saying the dog looks like Tahoe is enough. It is up to the judge. The warrant attaches to the address, not the people at the address, so it doesn't matter who is or isn't there. They don't need a name, just an address.