Yes, I agree she is trying to help the dog. But what I disagree is that you cannot just pick a dog up and claim it as abandoned and neglected. There are certain common laws practices that must be followed. There may not be laws on the books about lost animals but could be referenced as "lost chattels" and that in some states this comes from old English common law principles.

There might not necessarily be law on the books regarding lost animals but a dog is considered property. Which means that be a common law principle of finders of lost chattles (money or goods) i.e. lost dog, money, or other items and an effort needs to be made to find the proper owner.

I can't do the Craig's list thing. We've had some get hurt/killed by trusting the info on Craig's list. While that can happen anywhere, I just will not do that. And surely the family is looking for her. I hope I see some fliers soon. The responses I've had have all proven false...one didn't know her sex. The other didn't know the breed. And none have had pictures.

I think your approach is the safest. If they were the owners they would have pictures right? I could pull up Kaji's Instagram on my phone to show all the pics I have of my little guy, I only had one personal item at my last job, and that was a picture of Kaji, I have a picture board in my room, and half if the pics are Kaji related. I think I could prove he's my boy any day! (And I also have get records and receipt of purchase from 5 years ago to boot)

You need to make an effort on your part to find the owners. You can't just sit back and look for a flier. Did you look at the link that I posted from the YT library how to make Found dog posters? Put them up in and around your area. I did this before with a rescue that had gotten away from a transport not far from me. It was from an email that I received and I offered to help. I made about 10 posters and before I knew it there were people calling to help me look and it made the local newspaper. The owner would need to provide proof that the dog was theirs such as grooming or vet records even pictures. I also suggested the use of Facebook Lost Pets pages. There are some devoted exclusively to lost Yorkies.

Hold on. Before you tell me what I NEED to do I need you to step back and realize I am a grown woman. Never once have I said I'm sitting back looking for fliers only. Did you not read where I said vets, shelter is on watch? I've also posted in a lost and found group on Facebook. So before you try to tell me what I need to do...know the facts. And if my humble attempts aren't up to par for you, oh well. But don't judge me...you don't know me. I've already stated my intentions for this dog...and if all you can do is criticize me please refrain from addressing me. Thank you.

If my Buster got out (he's chipped and wears ID tags, but if he had neither), if he were on his own for a couple of days he would probably look uncared for. He mats easily, he needs to be brushed everyday, he's on the skinny side, eye boogers have to be cleaned daily, etc. I will be the first to say that all dogs should be chipped and wearing some kind of ID tags but then someone may have taken the collar off for some unknown reason and did not have a chance to put it back on. Where I live it has become the norm to keep the Yorkies if they are found with little effort spent on trying to find the rightful owner. To me, that is wrong!

You need to make HUGE efforts to find the owners. It is just not fair to announce you found and dog yesterday and have already renamed her! All your above mentioned steps were not in your original post!
then you said this:

Since you live in such a small town I'm sure someone knows who this puppy belongs to and hope that she finds her way home to her family. It is very upsetting to me that people just keep "abandoned & neglected pets" assuming so just by their appearance. They are no better than the people trying to falsely claim found dogs as their own.

:thumbup:

Scarlett is the same way. She matts just from crawling under the bed. Cali is on the thin side and even missing a meal or two could make her look uncared for. When my dad takes Oliver out, he comes back covered in ticks each and every time even though he is on preventatives. Rhett is allergic to flea bites. A single bite makes his skin turn red and angry.

There are a lot of reasons a pup can look uncared for in a very short period of time.

As for the lack of a microchip or collar, perhaps the owner was waiting until they spayed the pup to have the chip implanted. As far as the collar, don't we tell people here not to put collars on their yorkies because of the risk of damaging the tracheas? Wouldn't it be really, really horrible if someone didn't get their dog back because of the type of advice we give out on YT each and every day?

I said my daughter named her!! And I also said what the VET said about her health. An expert. So if he is wrong then you can fault his expertise (or lack thereof).

You may be Megan's momma. But you aren't mine. You will not intimidate me. Like I said, you don't know me.

No offense to megansmomma, but I feel that you should ease up a little on your replies. You have offended a few people lately. Now don't go putting me on your list! I know you are an adult and you don't want anyone telling how you should do something so I am just "suggesting" that you think before you type. I don't think you mean to upset anyone, just consider how your messages have received. :)

I refuse to try to prove myself to strangers. I know my intentions for this dog and that's all that matters. For those of you who reached out to me via inbox with kind words thanks. For those that think otherwise, I could care less. I will not comment further on this thread. Have a great day to all.

Wow. Just wow.

I hope that puppy gets home to her REAL owner.

Exactly! This is totally ridiculous and I'm just done! If I picked up someone's animal you bet my last breath I'd try to find the owner. Not come on YT and announce my new pet! I'm just very thankful that when mine did happen to get away that good people promptly returned them.

I do think before typing each and every work. It is and will always be TOTALLY unacceptable and against common law to take someone's pet into your home, make very little effort to find the owner and rename the dog! My GOD if this was your dog how would you feel? The new puppy doesn't have a voice to give an address to this person and the family that lost the dog has no idea that the puppy is sitting safely in a new home with a new name. It's just very sad.

and these types of threads right here are the reason I seriously consider leaving YT. wow. talk about assuming and slandering someone. unreal.

The initial post doesn't say a thing about your immediate searching the internet and neighborhood, calling vets, groomers, shelters to try to connect with the dog's true owner. Your initial post also mentions you'd already allowed your daughter to name her, rather as if you intended to allow her to keep her rather than just calling her "little one" or something rather generic until a proper search could take place. Your initial post sounds as if you're announcing your good luck in finding a Yorkie but doesn't seem to show any worry about where she came from or how you can get her back there. I'm sorry if that's not true but that's exactly how it struck me when I read it!

I truly hope you understand how traumatic it is to lose a precious little Yorkie that you've loved and has come to love you and to know that your dog is out there somewhere but you just can't get to them. It's heartbreaking and utterly miserable for the owner and they spend all of their time wondering, worrying themselves sick, going non-stop to find the dog. It's exhausting and horrible. I pray you are doing all you can to find that dog's real owner and get her home again ASAP.

I know if I found a Yorkie, my first post about it would be to tell approximately where it was found, describe it, mention the efforts I'd already made to start the search and ask what more could I do to locate the owner and, maybe most importantly, post a link to a Facebook posting about the dog being found and asking others to help find the owner.

It does not matter what she says or does no one here has a right to pass judgement. Nor is it ok to tell someone what to do she is an adult. Advice is great but this is beyond that.

Also let me add not everyone who has lost a dog wants them back. My Punkee Princess may she RIP was found. I brought her directly to the vet she was chipped. The owner had dumped her three weeks prior up here in NH, lived full time in Mass and was no where near thrilled when the chip company called them to tell them their dog was found. They let me keep her so there is another side to the story. She ran the streets for three weeks with no food or shelter because her owner was not kind enough to surrender her.

What is sad is that he is trying to find the owner and unfortunately for him, it's not up to your standards. Now that is Wow... Wow! When you have made other feel the same then one would think you might step back and say hmmm... maybe I could have worded that differently.

This is suppose to be a helpful place to go for advice and help, not lectures.

Have a good day.

What I was referring to on my post.

It does not matter what she say but it does LEGALLY matter what she does. Taking in a dog and not making an effort is stealing.

As for your Punkee, there was an effort by the chipping company to contact the owners who didn't want the dog. But there was an effort to locate the owners. What if someone would have stolen Punkee and then abandoned him and his family had been looking for him? That puts an entirely different spin on the story.

I have Bogey who is from a shelter in Portage IN. He was found running on a country road in a thunderstorm with a leash on. He was malnourished, his nails were curled under and he was a matted mess. But the difference is that he sat in a case at animal control for 2 weeks before he became adoptable. Nobody ever claimed him. But he was posted on their site as a lost dog/stray. After the required length of time he was put up for adoption. I'll never know what his story is but I know that it was done under the rules of the laws.

She never stated in stone that she is never looking for the previous owner. I agree that the effort needs to be made it just feels like a bit of bashing on some of the context used. That's what bothers me.

And you do not know for sure that the owner of this dog did not do the same thing as was done to my Punkee Princess. Bottom line it can go either way there are always three sides to a story so unless all the facts on are the table it's a crap shut on what really happened to poor Belle. At least for the time being she is safe and being well cared for and loved.

I understand both sides trust me if I ever lost my babies I would never stop until I found them...I make every effort to ensure that will never happen.

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.

Please look for the owner. Someone could be so desperate right now trying to find this baby.

People seem to think that because they are hungry and not bathed they are mistreated, when really all it is, is that they have been on the street. Of coarse they are hungry and dirty. :rolleyes:

Exactly! And the first few posts were congratulating her on her new puppy! Just because I stepped up and pointed out the a lost dog can get matted (this is a puppy and puppy coat is always a mess), act skittish (xenophobic) behaviors and post links to information, I'm so how painted as an evil bully be a few YT members. There is nothing wrong with what I stated because it was factual information that needed to be addressed. I could care less if a couple of people are PMing behind the scenes accusing myself and Lynzy of being out of line with FACTUAL information pertaining to the things the OPer said were signs in her opinion neglectful.

Yes I've not been on for a while, due to very hurtful comments (bold capitals etc) and I'm very passive in my content. Unfortunately when YT writes saying they miss you, they don't facilitate a response vehicle as to why you have abandoned the forum? Probably too time consuming? A great shame.

I hope you continue to look for her owners. Baxter and Cooper were missing for 18 months before their mom was able to find them. She spent thousands in fliers and billboards and was finally able to get them back thanks to the police.

Good luck finding her owners!

You said it sounds like it needed a wonderful life and you don't know that it didn't have that to start with but just got out. I think you are maybe forgetting what you said or something.

You could still look on craigslist for other people posting about a lost dog or just have an email address for them to contact you back rather then a phone number.