Dog people: What would you do? We found two lost dogs, and decided to keep them, but
 

My girlfriend and I bumped into the original owners last night.

We found some stray dogs quite a ways from our house, but in our neighborhood, a little over a month ago. A ~2 year old black lab and her half lab, half-pitbull puppy, estimated at about 2 months old. A tiny little guy. We have a fenced in backyard and decided to keep them there till we figured out what to do.

We decided against taking them to animal control, as these dogs had no tags at all, and unless they are claimed in 3 days they are put to sleep. Pitbulls are even more problematic because it is illegal for animal control to adopt out dogs that have any pitbull blood at all, so its really a death sentance unless someone claims them. I checked around various lost dog websites looking for a posting regarding these dogs as well as checking around the neighborhood for any lost dog signs.. we see them quite frequently, but nothing for these two.

There is a non-profit, no kill animal shelter here called Project HALO and decided to see if they had room for two more. My girlfriend is good friends with one of the volunteers there, so she got in touch. They said they might have room and she would get in touch after the weekend was over. I'm sure that was really a ploy to let us get attached to the dogs (she knows we are dog people) as they really try to encourage people to take the dogs in instead of sending them to the shelter. She came back and said they could take them, but if we wanted to keep them, they would provide financial assistance to pay for the vet bills, including things like de-worming, vaccinations etc. We decided to hold off for a while, and keep them while we continue to check around and see if we could find the owners. We were also walking the dogs daily around the neighborhood, and hadnt bumped into anyone claiming the dogs.

A week later we went ahead and made an appointment at the vet to get them fixed, vaccinated, check for worms, diseases etc. The appointment wouldnt be for two weeks. I kept looking around a few more times up until the appointment, but still couldnt find anyone that had lost a mother and her puppy, so we went through with it. We got them fixed, they both had some bad cases of round worms, and the mother had hookworms too. At this point we had decided to keep them.

We had begun slowly integrating them into our lives, and bringing them inside (neither are housebroken ). Fast forward a couple weeks (we've had them for a little over a month now), as we were on our way home from walking the dogs at a park we've been taking them too, a latino lady in her driveway stops us and says that these were her dogs!! This is on our street and is actually only about 2 or 3 houses down from us on the opposite side of the street!

Communication was pretty bad, she obviously didn't speak much English so there wasn't a whole lot I think she understood.. but she really wanted the dogs back. I guess she had seen us walking to the park and mentioned something to her husband about it (who we didnt ever see). She mentioned to us that he had basically said they are our dogs for all intents and purposes and if we didnt want to give them back there was nothing they could do.

She seemed to want to work out that maybe taking one back and lettings us have the other. As it turns out, they had gotten the lab pregnant and sold the puppies, but kept just the one. Before this point, I had already kind of demonized the previous owners in my head, seeing as how they didnt have tags on their dogs, both dogs obviously weren't very cared for and had bad cases of worms, not housebroken etc, so we had already decided the owners got what they deserved, and the dogs got what they deserved.. a better home.

Needless to say, the whole thing was very awkward. I got their phone number and pointed my house out to her. I told her that we are going to finish the walk, and if she wants to talk to me, she can knock on my door anytime, and we would think about what to do. We left with both the dogs.

I know if the shoes were on the other foot, I would definitely be insisting on getting my dogs back, but at the same time, I feel pretty justified in keeping them since, they didn't seem to be very cared for. I got the impression they had the dogs more as a way to make some extra bonus money as backyard breeders. My girl has already become extremely attached to the dogs, and really is not OK with the idea of giving them back, and I dont want to either.

The bitch of it is, these people are literally almost across the street from us.

What would you do?

do what's best for the dogs - and according to you they are better off with you. the lady didn't sound demolished over it.

If the dogs were in poor health in need of medical attention as you say, I'd keep them. They didn't really even make an effort to get the animals back it would appear. It's a tough call, because nobody wants to lose their pets but since they don't seem like very responsible owners, fuck 'em.

how bout u time share the dogs with ur neighbors?

tell them you'll keep them for the first 6 months..then its their turn...in 6 months..they wont care =)

Oh yea, the vet fixed them to... so no more puppies for the mother.. I didnt mention that to her, I wonder if theyd still want them back.

The mother seemed a bit emotionally attached to the dogs, but from what she said her husband had said, it seemed like he might be releived. :P

Show her the bills and ask to be paid in full before any transaction takes place.If they refuse ,keep the dogs

If they want the dogs bad enough they will just take them. That is what most people would do if they actually loved their dogs.

explain to her what you did and because she never posted anything or even came looking for them that you have the right to keep them. Just talk to them because if those were your dogs that you lost ...

I agree with you :thumbsup

Did they post any lost dog fliers? I know where I live when people lose their dogs they post fliers all over the place and go around to the neighbors asking if we have seen their dog. It seems like they would be better off with you and your girlfriend. If they were not taken care of before, it will probably happen again. You have to think of what is best for the dogs, and that seem to be the two of you.

No, no fliers or postings on the internet, matching these two dogs. There are all kinds of lost dog flyers at every exit point of this neighborhood, just none for these two.... I told her i looked all over the internet for lost dog postings but didnt find anything, and she just looked at me funny like she didnt know what this interwebs thing i spoke of was.. either that or she didnt understand my english.

She did say she called animal control looking for them, but it looks like thats all they did. Funny thing is, we've walked these dogs every day theyve been with us, and gone right by their house every time.

i am such an animal lover that if i lost my dogs i'd be absolutely heartbroken. doesn't really seem that she acted that way, at least from my interpretation of what you wrote. i would've probably started crying if were her. anyways, because of that, coupled with the fact that it seems that they weren't cared for properly, i'd say that you two should keep them. obviously you care about their well being and they're probably much better off in every way, in every possible way, with you. but what a sticky situation. good luck.

best answer so far

I would keep the dogs and offer to call the police for them if there is any disagreement. After all, does she have any sort of proof they are hers, or is she just claiming them 'cause she wants to?