A few nights ago, my aunt and uncle found a miniature poodle wandering through their backyard.
The little black dog came running right up to them when they called, and was wearing a collar and ID tags. My uncle tried the phone number on the tags, but there was no answer. It was late at night, so they set up a nest in the garage for Foofy the poodle.
The next day, they called again. No answer. My uncle is a pretty web-savvy guy, so he looked up the owner’s name and address on the internet. It seemed unbelievable, but Foofy the poodle came from a town some thirty miles away. They kept calling the number on the tags and didn’t get an answer.
A call to the police pointed my aunt and uncle to the local animal shelter, who handles all animal control calls for the town where they live. The shelter offered to come and pick up the dog, but my uncle wanted to keep trying to find the owner — rather than send the dog to the shelter.
Back to the internet. My uncle looked up the man’s last name and found two other people with the same last name in the same town. He called the first name and found the brother of the dog owner. The two brothers were estranged and hadn’t spoken in years — so no help there. A call to the second name found the owner’s sister. The sister said that yes, Foofy was her brother’s dog. She told my uncle that dog and owner were often in town visiting the owner’s girlfriend. As it happens, the girlfriend lives in the same neighborhood as my aunt and uncle!
Another day passes and my uncle sees a man walking through the brush on the side of the street. “Are you Foofy’s owner?” It was! The man was very grateful that someone had found Foofy the wandering poodle and taken good care of her over the few days of her absence.
Even when a lost pet is wearing tags, it doesn’t always mean finding the owner will be easy! I’m glad this story had a happy ending — I know my aunt wasn’t looking forward to giving a home to any wandering poodles any time soon.