Confused Owner
 

Hi guys. I am very confused right now and am not sure what to do.

My Yorkie, Mambo, ran away and got lost last Saturday 3/1. We did an extensive search throughout the neighborhood posting flyers all over the area parks, vets, even pet shops, not to mention the door knocking to pass out flyers.

Well, Sunday night my prayers were answered when I received a call from a girl and her father claiming that they had found a Yorkie in their backyard that same day and after knocking on some doors, someone pointed them to the flyers posted at the park. We went to see him and at first sight I said to myself "This is not Mambo", probably because he looked different. His hair was cut a different way and he looked slightly heavier, like he had gained some weight, but slightly. We called out his name and he didn't respond, which made me worry, but after checking the microchip location (Mambo's had moved by itself slightly to the side), the hair color pattern, his size, the eyes, the wee wee (not neutered). We became pretty sure it was him and chucked it up to probably being very scared after all that ordeal and just needed time to adjust. I figured whoever picked him up decided to adopt him and then he just ran away again from this new family.

Well, we took him home. As soon as we got home, he sniffed everything and it then looked like he was right at home. Sat on the couch, licked me and the kids and generally acted happy. I noticed some differences that same night such as the way he is urinating (before = squatted, now = lift up his leg), he seems to be more active (jumping around, more athletic). He also was crying that night when I put him in the crate and I had to end up sleeping in the couch so that he could sleep next to me, or rather, on top of me.

Because I had that seed of doubt, I took him to get his microchip scanned. I have the microchip number that was given to me by the pet shop where he was bought. To my dismay, the microchip numbers DID NOT MATCH.

I called AVID, the microchip company, and they tell me that this new number is not registered, that it could be a mistake (the original chip number I have) on the part of the pet shop, but that in any case, I could transfer the registration from the old number to this new number.

I am freaking out and don't know what to do!

In one part of my brain I'm thinking that this is my boy and he must be acting a little strange because he was away for a week. He is now responding normally to the name "Mambo" and is acting his same sweet self with the family. I am thinking that I am just paranoid and should just let it be. Not to mention how bad I feel that I am having doubts about knowing my own dog and what a horrible owner I must be because of that.

The other part of my brain is saying that if this is not him, I don't want to be the one to keep a dog from reuniting from his family. I keep looking around the area he was found to see if I see any other "lost dog" flyers besides my own but I see nothing. He was also given to me without a tag.

I guess I just want to hear your opinions. I feel like I want to transfer the chip number and register him, but feel so bad about the doubt I have. I feel like if this is not him, I would be "replacing" Mambo with a look-alike, but then again it could very well be him and just feeling traumatized and learned some new tricks (like lifting up his leg).

good idea!

I agree! I know how hard this all is. Good luck though.

be a foster mom
 

You know in your heart whether or not this is Mambo. If you are in doubt-I'm sorry to say, it is probably not him. He would not have forgotten you or changed his personality that much in less than 2 weeks.
Possibly think of this time as being a foster mom for the unidentified yorkie. Someone out there is missing their little boy, just as you are, and think of what a relief it would be to know that this little guy is being taken care of until he can be reunited with his original family. I am sure that is what you want for your little fella until he comes home to you, to be loved and cared for by someone until he returns.
Continue to look for your Mambo and also keep your eyes and ears open for anyone else looking for a lost yorkie. Continue to put out flyers and spread the word that your little guy is still missing and that in the course of looking for him you found someone else's lost yorkie. Hopefully you can put both of these lost little guys back into their original homes.
Best wishes to you!

Wow, bless your heart. Do you feel deep down, with your gut, that this is your Mambo? How long have you had Mambo and how old is/was he?
I hope you get this worked out. Best wishes.

Yorkie Owned posted at the same time as me...she said it very well!!

My goodness what a strange situation to be in. I wouldn't be the one to tell you what you should do, only you alone would know from your heart. Even though my girls have the Home Again chip, this make me think of having a tatoo done on them. Do dogs all have different DNA like humans? I'd think so anyway. This may be something else we could have the Vet. do just in case someone got our dog and said it was theirs. I doubt it would be too difficult for someone to take that little chip out of them.
I sure hope you find a way to know for sure if this dog is yours or not. Good luck to you.

Wow. I'm so sorry about your ordeal. I think before you do anything drastic, do some investigation of your own. Call the shelters, check craig's list, check the papers for other missing Yorkies. Wouldn't it be strange if Mambo is "home" with the owners of the yorkie you have in your possession if it's not him? I guess it could happen since they look pretty similar. Is there anyway the petstore would have records of the chip to double check the numbers?

Good Luck....and PLEASE let us know how this all turns out!!

I would like to welcome you to YT. I am so sorry that you, your family, and that little baby is going thru all of this. Good vibes coming your way from Texas.

How old is your dog? You could take him to the vet and maybe they can tell by the notes they wrote in his file....maybe they scanned your dogs chip when you brought him in for his check up...(they should be scanning every dog that comes in for appt.s) they would have probably wrote the chip number in his file.See if it matches the one you got or the chip number that this dog has.

Does this dog weigh the same? Is there any tricks your dog does that this one doesn't know? I would think if he had been missing it would be tramatic and he might act different for a bit.

Chewy lifts his leg once in a blue moon... just when I think he might start he stops for months... It's very weird but you can't go by that alone.

Do you grrom your dog or do you have a groomer? they might be able to tell... I groom chewy so I feel like I know every inch of him!

keep him until you know for sure... he might be yours!

That's a really hard place to be in - can they tell who he belongs to by his chip ?

Someone may be really missing their yorkie and if you can't find his people - maybe you could adopt him but I would try just because it's the right thing to do.

It's a really a tough decision but you owe it to him to try to find who he belongs too - if he was chipped they cared enough to do that for him and maybe they're looking just like you are for your 'mambo'...I wouldn't give up on finding him and GOOD LUCK !~

more ideas
 

Does Mambo usually act really excited to see you when he has been away from you, like when you go to pick him up from the groomers? Tucker is so excited he jumps right over the 3 foot gate they have between the salon and the lobby area. If tucker didn't come running when he saw me after being away from me I would know it wasn't him!

Also, look at his teeth! If you brush them, and know where any stuck on tartar is you could check for that as well. Or you might recognize the bite pattern.

I know I took Banjo to my sisters at Thanksgiving- he was 2 1/2 months old- we went to her house again before Xmas- and she said he didn't even look like the same dog- I didn't notice the Big change because I saw him every day! She was shocked- said he'd grown & his color had changed!!!
She could not believe a puppy changed that much in 3 weeks!
But the chip # confuses me??

I would keep checking for a while, but they found this dog on the day you lost yours?? Makes me think it is your yorkie!!

I think it is yours
 

When my husband had cancer in his face, the left side of hiis face was swollen on the left side... pushing against his glasses. I lived w/ him and I never noticed the change. I looked back at the pictures and I don't recognize him. The change was subtle so we didn't even notice it. Had he been gone and then returned w/ the swelling... we would have immediately thought... wow...what a difference! It is probably the same effect here. Your dog was changing... but you were still seeing your baby... this is more than likely your baby. Was the chip in the place your dog's chip had slipped to? How likely is it that 2 dogs...lost on the same day... and both their slips changed location to the exact same location.... and in the same neighborhood... both males.... both unnuetered... the odds would probably be astronomical!!!! Calm down...take a deep breath and cuddle.... then see where you are.

I would not change the chip registration just yet.

If this is not your baby, someone may take yours in to be checked...

I agree that it seems highly unlikely that 2 intact male yorkies would be missing in the same area... but, time will tell.

(((hugs)))

I can not imagine your inner turmoil.

Even if I couldn't recognize Gus there would be other ways to tell it was him. When I ask him "Where's the squirrel?" he runs to a certain window, he loves some foods and won't touch others, every time I turn on the hair dryer he has to have his hair done first, things like that.
Is there something only your dog would respond to in a certain way?

Best of luck. I hope it's him.

I could not imagine for the world being in your position.

We all have little things for each of our dogs.. that would make them ours no matter how long.. like my dogs.. see family and friends in florida for 6 months. then we go home for 6 months.. they always know... like kacee when my long time friend comes over when we get back home.. he runs and gets his toy and runs to her.. like he is saying ah this is the girl that plays with me..

it is 6 months he is away from her.. yet he knows just who is who..so unless he was very young, and away for longer then one week.. I am not understanding how you would not know if he was your baby. even a haircut will not change his personality... if he was hurt and acted with fear, he should feel safe in your arms.. or be glad to have his own cage which is his own private domain..

I really hope all works out for you. and you soon know if he is yours, if he isn't, then I pray yours is found.

I can't imagine not being able to know my own dog. I know lots of people say they all look alike but I disagree. Have you only had this dog a short time?? They all have unique things they do that should tell you if he's yours. I have 5 and believe I could recognize them all after only a couple of weeks but I've never been in that situation so I guess I could be wrong

What a devistating situation to be in! Please give us an update.

How old was your dog and how long had you had him when he was lost? You said you had yours chipped, if so the numbers should match even if you hadnt registered his number you should have the number from the breeder. I hope you find the answer soon. I would not be able to sleep at night if this happened to me. I am so sorry for your situation.

post pictures here of before he wandered away and pictures of him now, see what other people on YT think.

It is always good to get an objective opinion.

Good luck!

Pictures and update
 

Hello Ladies. First of all I wanted to thank you all for your suggestions and advise. I know you must all be thinking what a terrible mommy I must be to not know my own dog, but I guess you have to be in that situation to understand where I'm coming from. Here are before and after pictures. The before pictures are not very recent or good since he had pretty long hair sometimes covering his eyes and now his hair is pretty short and you can really see detail on ears/eyes/etc. He was turning 1 in his before picture. He is now 1-1/2.

By the way, I spoke to the vet yesteday and they do not scan the dogs there when you take them in, but I remember him taking x-rays of Mambo's legs one time that Mambo jumped from the bathroom sink and hurt his leg. Nothing hapened to him then, but we did discover that he had a "condition" of his legs, a congenital problem, in which his kneecaps were slightly to the side instead of to the front. I remember the vet showing me the slight deformation on the x-ray and hoped that by doing the same for him now would prove if it's him or not.

Yesterday I was feeling much better about the whole situation since he had already gotten over the strange initial behavior and was acting more like he was before he ran away. I knew deep down that those were his eyes and the tender look of his face, but being the analytical, anal person that I am (I am a Computer Tech ladies!), I finally took him to the vet and he proceeded with the X-rays.

IT'S HIM!!!!! It's my baby. He has the same deformation of his knees (not that I am happy about that), but I am just glad I can finally give this closure. I Thank you again for your feedback.

What a sense of relief you must be feeling. I'm so happy for you that you've got your baby back.:animal-pa

i'm so glad you were able to figure it out!

Thank goodness you got that all straightened out!
But why was the chip showing up as unregistered?

Next time I go to the vet, I'm going to make sure they scan Bitsy and the numbers match!

It looks like this is what happened:

Mambo was given to me as a gift. My cousin bought him at a pet shop as a surprise for me (I know, I don't condone that either). The irresponsible pet shop person applied the chip right then and there and put a sticker on the purchase receipt with the chip number. Mambo was never scanned at the vet's office. Apparently, not all vets do this.

Now that we've found him, it turns out that we had the incorrect chip number all along. The INCORRECT number was registered under my name and the CORRECT one was never registered. That tells me that the pet shop person applied the wrong sticker to his paperwork and only God knows what he/she did with the correct one. Thankfully it looks like it was not crossed with another dog's (since it was not registered) or we would have a serious case of mistaken identity.

I was looking at his before and after legs and they look nothing alike. The before shows him to have the red legs, and the hair very short which on the red leg Yorkies they usually are. But the after picture shows him to have long blond hair on his front legs. I'm amazed it's the same dog, but congratulations on finding out that the x-ray's are the same.

I like happy endings. glad you found your dog.:smile:

Leg Color
 

YorkieDaze,

I see what you are saying, though the before pictures are the ones in the birthday party, the after pictures are the ones on my bed showing the legs (sorry...posted them in the wrong order).

Remember I said that he had gotten a haircut, well not only was he given a haircut, but his hair was cut VERY short in many places, including his legs, which is why I was doubting because he looked so different. I pulled out pictures of Mambo of when he was smaller and had shorter hair and his legs DO look red when they are short, I guess when the hair is short it looks darker. See here: