I guess this has been going on forever. In the long ago past, it wasn't given a term, just done. There used to be very little effort to try to find a lost pet's owner. It was finders-keepers and a lot of times the finder just up and sold the dog.
If you watch many old movies about a found dog, the subject of finding its owner was RARELY ever even mentioned. The finder just took over the dog, end of story. The finder kid(usually it was a kid) named the dog, began talking his parents into letting him keep it and the story went forward. That's the way it used to be. If you lost a pet, you had to beat the bushes to try to find it yourself because usually whoever found it was treating it as their pet now or selling it - not looking for you. And if you did find it and the new owner fought back, it was a tough go to get your dog back ever.
__________________  Jeanie and Tibbe One must do the best one can. You may get some marks for a very imperfect answer: you will certainly get none for leaving the question alone. C. S. Lewis |