Can I get in trouble for this?

So I found these 2 yorkies about a week ago ... I looked in my front
yard to make sure that their owner wasn't in the front and there was
no one outside .. so I took them into my house because it was cold and
they were really dirty and I felt bad b/c they looked lost ... I gave
them a bath and I was trying to find their owner .. even my neighbors
knew that I had them and found them and was looking for the owner ...
so yesterday my neighbor said that they belonged to these people down
the street and I was like okae I'll go after dinner and give them back
then ... but then about an hour later some people came and said they
were their dogs so I was like "great .. my neighbor called them and
told them I had them so now I don't have to go to their house" so they
showed me pictures and papers and I was like .. okae take them cuz my
mom was getting really pissed b/c they kept peeing everywhere and
pooping everywhere ... so then today the real owner came and got mad b/
c they said I gave their dogs away to the wrong people ... and they
called the police saying I stole their dogs ... and I was like ...
what? I did not ... I had them for a week ... and I wasn't going to
keep them and there weren't even any signs on the mail box and no one
came knocking on my door looking for them ... but anyways .. the
police are on their side and they think I sold the dogs or something I
don't know ... and they said if I don't return the dogs by Saturday
I'll get arrested for theft ... how am I supposed to find these dogs?
How was I supposed to know if they weren't the owners? the dogs
responded well to them and wanted to go to them ... can I really get
in trouble for this? The number the people gave me was wrong but I
didn't know that ... they said they'd called me so they can reimburse
me for food and other stuff so I thought they were sincere and for
real ...

you can't get in trouble for that, no.

wrote:

police are on their side and they think I sold the dogs or something I
don't know ... and they said if I don't return the dogs by Saturday
I'll get arrested for theft ... how am I supposed to find these dogs?
How was I supposed to know if they weren't the owners? the dogs
responded well to them and wanted to go to them ... can I really get
in trouble for this?

It depends on what the law is in your jurisdiction, but yes, you
might get in trouble for it.

This is a good lesson in why it's important to go through legal
channels when you find a stray or dumped animal. You should contact
the local shelter and police to file a report, and you may even have
to surrender the dog to animal control. If you then want to keep
the dog, you can usually adopt it when its hold period is up. That
way, you will have legal ownership of the dog *and* you will be able
to prove it. Otherwise, the owners could show up weeks, months, or
even years from now and take the dog back from you.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

wrote:
So I found these 2 yorkies about a week ago ...

Yes. Posting rambling stories with no punctuation, sentence structure
or white space violates ordinance number 24.5 of the Usenet Code.


--Lia

Shelly wrote:

wrote:

police are on their side and they think I sold the dogs or something I
don't know ... and they said if I don't return the dogs by Saturday
I'll get arrested for theft ... how am I supposed to find these dogs?
How was I supposed to know if they weren't the owners? the dogs
responded well to them and wanted to go to them ... can I really get
in trouble for this?


It depends on what the law is in your jurisdiction, but yes, you might
get in trouble for it.

This is a good lesson in why it's important to go through legal channels
when you find a stray or dumped animal. You should contact the local
shelter and police to file a report, and you may even have to surrender
the dog to animal control. If you then want to keep the dog, you can
usually adopt it when its hold period is up. That way, you will have
legal ownership of the dog *and* you will be able to prove it.
Otherwise, the owners could show up weeks, months, or even years from
now and take the dog back from you.


Everybody has 20/20 hindsight. I'd have taken the dog(s) up to my vet
and had them scanned for id chips. And I'd have posted "Found Dog"
flyers. But beyond that, if someone had turned up on my doorstep with
pictures and papers I might very well have done the same as the original
poster - I'd probably have handed the dogs over with a sigh of relief.

But I'll betcha I'll think twice about that in the future.

The kid acted in good faith. And the dogs' original owners are not
without fault in the situation. Why weren't they wearing collars and id?

Our last encounter with a stray happened last summer. My daughter saw
an unfamiliar dog running up and down our fairly busy street. She
caught her, slipped a lead on and used her cell phone to call the Avid
hotline number on the collar's tag. She read off the id number to the
Avid person who then contacted the dog's owner and gave her my
daughter's phone number.

The owner called my daughter back immediately, nearly hysterical with
relief, and arranged to meet her at the corner. 15 minutes later the
dog was scrambling into the back seat of her owner's car.

Kathleen wrote:

Everybody has 20/20 hindsight. I'd have taken the dog(s) up to my vet
and had them scanned for id chips. And I'd have posted "Found Dog"
flyers. But beyond that, if someone had turned up on my doorstep with
pictures and papers I might very well have done the same as the original
poster - I'd probably have handed the dogs over with a sigh of relief.

I *have* done exactly that. I'm not sure I would do so now, though,
because I have a better grasp of how it can go pear shaped.

But I'll betcha I'll think twice about that in the future.

Yep!

The kid acted in good faith. And the dogs' original owners are not
without fault in the situation. Why weren't they wearing collars and id?

Who knows? Lots of things can happen to collars and ID, so I don't
automatically assume that the lack of them is necessarily significant.

The owner called my daughter back immediately, nearly hysterical with
relief, and arranged to meet her at the corner. 15 minutes later the
dog was scrambling into the back seat of her owner's car.

I've done the same thing, only it was to call the vet with the
rabies tag number. Got the owner's phone number and the little
Miniature Schnauzer was quickly picked up by a very grateful young man.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

In article ,
Shelly wrote:

Kathleen wrote:

The kid acted in good faith. And the dogs' original owners are not
without fault in the situation. Why weren't they wearing collars and id?

Who knows? Lots of things can happen to collars and ID, so I don't
automatically assume that the lack of them is necessarily significant.

When David rescued Peanut, he had a collar but no ID, and no rabies tag
either...collar had evidently been through several dogs just judging
from the wear. Peanut had evidently been on his own for a while,
judging from his physical condition (skin and bones, sores, and [we
discovered later] a tapeworm), so David took him to the vet and had him
scanned for microchips...nope...put up posters...no response.

The owner called my daughter back immediately, nearly hysterical with
relief, and arranged to meet her at the corner. 15 minutes later the
dog was scrambling into the back seat of her owner's car.

I've done the same thing, only it was to call the vet with the
rabies tag number. Got the owner's phone number and the little
Miniature Schnauzer was quickly picked up by a very grateful young man.

There is probably someone somewhere worried about Peanut, but they
didn't make it very easy to locate them. The only call David got was
asking if "the dog" had an injured shoulder "because the last time I saw
him he looked like he'd been shot." Said without much concern or
emotion. David said "This obviously isn't your dog, but even if it were
I wouldn't give him back to you!"
--
boss, sometimes i think * * * * * |* kevin michael vail
that our friend mehitabel * * * * |*
is a trifle too gay * * * * * * * |
* * * * -- archy* * * * * * * * * |* wotthehell wotthehell