[yorkietalkjilly]

How does the OP actually know this dog was neglected or mistreated for a fact - she doesn't. My Jilly, born a runt, was frail all of her life - ate little, had serious congenital problems with her GI system that kept her thin but had only the best vetting, love and care trying to get her to eat well. Possibly, as the vet and she are surmising as to how the dog got the way it is, we have equal rights to surmise, too, based on the things we've been told - that perhaps the dog had an eating disorder, the owner was working hard to entice her to eat; or she'd been out on her own for a good deal of time trying to survive. Perhaps she'd just recovered from a long illness.

Suppose she was a recent rescue or foster, efforts made to get her well-nourished and she found a way to get out while she was yet un-adjusted to her new home? All kinds of things happen with dogs - they get out all the time - and the OP making a judgment that's she's malnourished because she's been neglected by her former owner, based allegedly on what some vet says or not - who doesn't know why she's malnourished -, is jumping to conclusions and allows us to do much the same. Everybody makes judgments based on what we read, see or hear all day long - just as the OP is doing. What's fair for her is fair for us.

This thread starts out as if a serendipity had occurred in her life with no concern about finding the prior owner expressed. Then later, the OP states she will have to be certain that the dog wasn't neglected before returning her, a decision a judge needs to make - someone who is not biased or whose own self-interests are involved.

The law states we cannot claim things as our own just because we find them and due process is owed to all involved. If the owner were found, the AC investigates, interviews neighbors and inspects the home, premises, checks with the dog's vet, the true story should come out and perhaps the judge would award her to the OP. But to just make up your mind based on a couple of facts that the dog was malnourished due to neglect and state she's the one to decide its fate without making a heck of an effort to find the true owner, is just wrong, according to the morals and laws we all live by. It's just as likely there is a woman and maybe even another child somewhere desperately looking for that dog. I just hope the OP is making a real Facebook and other efforts to find her owner and take it from there as to what situation she came from.