[mscat]

Thank you all for your help. I believe this little one was not out too long after all. She looks very healthy , food wise . My guess is that she is around 5-6 months old. I did give her a bath , she was very smelly as well as extremely matted. the poor pup just had so much dirt and sand on her . I also gave her a groom before the bath. That took a couple hours just for that. She has a docked tail.... Discovering this really made my mind up. Someone did lose her accidently , and if that was me I would be devastated.
Just because she was filthy and matted perhaps just means she may have crawled out under a fence or something.
I know in my heart I cannot just keep her. I hope I can bring her home to her "real' family and they make sure it does not happen again.
I did go all around the neighborhood and saw nothing posted yet. but people could of been working, and not even know she is missing.
After cleaning her up and obviously well fed puppy makes me know that your all right in telling me to seek out the owner asap.
The vet is closed today for the holiday, but their is a dog pound that might be able to scan her, or know of the family looking for her.
I am not allowed to have anther dog where I live... the 2 I have are service dogs.
my niece just lost her pup recently to a illness . I cried so many tears over her death.
Her family is most defintely heartbroken.