dh and I took Tessa and Maggie on our normal walk. This is the first time I had ever taken Tessa and let her walk on a leash for this trail. Well....we were walking through the subdivision across the street when this LARGE lab came running up behind us. I flipped. I grabbed Tessa, dh grabbed Maggie. The dog seemed very friendly...she was wearing tags with her name "Tessa" and her address and phone number. I walked the dog 4 houses down to it's home, rang the door bell 2 times...no answer. I saw that the gate on the fence was open so I just put the dog back in the fence and shut the gate tight. I was freaking out...even tho the dog seemed very sweet, it really worried me. I told hubby that I wanted to look the phone number up for the people that live there (I didn't have my cell phone on me and had no way of taking down the number on the tag). He is a realtor so he showed me how to look up the address in the tax records. I found their phone number and gave them a call. I was VERY nice...I knew they weren't home and probably had no idea their dog could get out. The lady was extremely nice, very apologetic, and her husband was going out immediately to put an extra latch and lock on the gate. She was very thankful that I put the dog back and that I called her. The scary part is that she said she had rescued the dog recently and has been working with a trainer because the dog has "extreme aggression" towards small dogs. That she is VERY friendly with people...but very aggressive towards small dogs!! OMG I am so thankful we saw her coming behind us and grabbed our babies!!! she seemed very sweet and was not acting aggressive at all..but who knows what she might have done if she could have gotten to the girls!!!!
anyway...I read about this all the time and thankfully, it had never happened to us. Now,I guess we can be added to the unfortunate list
I do not feel these people were being irresponsible at all. It's not like they were just letting her run free. They were not home and we really think the dog was determined to come and "meet" us and she found a way to get the gate open
well...we are just thankful everyone is ok and I was able to return the dog to it's home.