Lost and Found

Battleship came into our shelter in early January 2015. He waited through the mandatory hold period but no one came looking for him. He was a sweet dog so he made it to the adoption floor. He had been on the adoption floor for two weeks when someone came in and said that Battleship was really their lost dog Junior who had went missing in November 2014.

When staff looked into how Battleship had ended up at the shelter, they realized he had been owner surrendered so he couldn’t be their dog…or could he?

After looking into Battleship’s background, staff found out that after he went missing in November, a family found him and decided to keep him. The law states that you should turn lost animals into the shelter or at least report to the shelter that you found them. The family that found him did not do that and so Battleship’s family continued to worry about him not knowing that he was in someone else’s home.

Fortunately, the circumstances worked out and Battleship ended up at the shelter where his family could find him but things could have ended a lot differently. Battleship’s family may have never found him in the finders hadn’t eventually surrendered him to the shelter, or he may have run away from the new home trying to get back to his old home. And once he was here at the shelter, he may not have made it to the adoption floor or he could have been adopted before his family found him.

It’s important to know that if you find a lost dog you need to report it to Animal Control. You cannot keep or rehome the dog until a mandatory hold time is up, a found report has been filed and you have made a diligent effort to find the owner.

Also, make sure that if your pet is missing that you check the shelter every three days. Minimum hold time is four days so if you check every three you won’t miss them. Don’t rely on computer pictures or filing a lost report. Most importantly, never give up! Sometimes crazy circumstances like these keep a lost animal from getting to the shelter right away so please continue to check back.

We are happy that Junior is now back where he belongs!