This is a problem that is happening more and more, we brought Emma in to join us for this podcast. The subject is strays that caring people find and pick up. They look for their owner, check for a microchip, post them on all the things, Ring, Next Door, local lost and found pages and zip….they get nothing, they find nobody. After several days of this they ask us if we will take them, here is where the bullcrap starts to hit the fan…

If we start vetting them for what they need, vaccines, are their ears infected?, is their skin infected?. Are they Heartworm positive, are they hurt in some other way?. Then two weeks later boom here comes an owner that says “hey thats my dog”…

We have researched the law here in Texas and discussed with at Collin County shelter and they said its all very gray, some say as soon you establish care they belong to you, some say 3 days and some say 5 and some say none at all.

We have had this happen multiple times now, the scruffy dog that looked like Sweeps, the finder had that dog for 5 or 6 days, she was posted on all the social media pages, we all saw her multiple times. Then we took her in, had her for several days, took her to the vet, torn ACL and Heartworm positive and we spent over 1,000 on her just with initial exams, bloodwork, worming, and begin Heartworm treatment. Then poof here comes a guy that says thats my dog and I want her back. He will not compensate us for her vet bills and sadly, we had to give her back, her story was awful, and so was her owner, she lived in the front yard in a pen and he said she was keeping the coyotes and bobcats away, she would never be treated for Heartworm and would die from it, her leg injury, you guessed it, it happened from a coyote almost getting her.

This is where the anger coms from, we cannot and will not use donor dollars for attorneys, it’s just not right so where is the line? Doing right by the dog, doing right and owner…what is the right thing?

It’s a lot harder than you might think and its all on a case by case basis, we encourage you to listen to understand it all.