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Location: UK
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 9,065
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22-03-2011, 08:20 PM
Originally Posted by Pilgrim 
Well done Lozzi
You did a very good and very kind thing. Ignore the 2 bullies seemingly intent on being rude and aggressive for the sake of it, trying to bring you down, the rest of us think you are fantastic
I am glad the OP managed to catch the dog, like I am sure everyone else is.
But there are many things we don't know.
If Zeff was going through one if his 'thin' stages, you could easily conclude that he was mistreated....
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Location: Sheffield, UK
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 623
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22-03-2011, 08:33 PM
Secondly, and this is the big one for me - even if the dog warden had concerns about the dogs health this is not something she should have been discussing with anyone other than the owner of the dog.
There may be a miriad of reasons for the dog being "thin" - unless it was showing any other signs of neglect it may well be just how that particular dogs is predisposed to be. My own dogs, who are not (in my opinion anyway) neglected, abused etc who probably be extremely scared if they got out, and ran miles away, and were then approached by a total stranger chasing them about the golf course for an extended period of time attempting to catch them. Not saying leaving her would have been the right course of action, but it would at least go some way to explaining her fear - which she may not display at all in "normal" circumstances.
Years ago this sort of jumping in with both feet and making an assumption of neglgect had fatal consequences for a cat which had been brought into the practice I was working at by the CPL, one of the vets had out of her own money spent months and probably over £1000 in getting the cat back to health, one day whilst she was on call he snuck out the house, neighbours who hadn't seen him before took him in and called the RSPCA thinking he was a stray - jumping to conclusions about the cat's health and probable age they simply put him down on the spot....... There is a real danger in jumping to conclusions which in the case of animals can cost their lives.
Luckily in this case it was the dog warden that was contacted and is responsible for reuniting owner and dog, and will, as is their job and not ours, discuss any concerns she may have with the owner.
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Location: Bad Fallingbostel, Germany
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,180
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22-03-2011, 08:52 PM
To those saying they wouldn't go shopping if their dog were missing. If Rupe had gone missing with my husband away I wouldn't have had much choice as I had 1 2 hour opportunity a month to go shopping, if I didn't take it then tough luck.
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Location: Leeds
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 60
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22-03-2011, 08:55 PM
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Location: UK
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 9,065
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22-03-2011, 09:00 PM
Originally Posted by Jacquiestringer
If I lost my dog (god forbid) I would search the ends of the earth for her until I found her and shopping would be the absolute last thing on my mind. It sounds likely that the dog has been mistreated given it was very thin and scared of people...but I do hope we are all jumping to conclusions for the sake of the poor dog
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Location: North Wales
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 2,037
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22-03-2011, 09:06 PM
BUT all this detracts from the fact that Lozzi did a wonderful thing today and helped to save a dog. That is to be commended.
Also, I have learned a lot of great things from young people, and I'm 42, so maybe it's a bit unfair to say because she is 21 she knows nothing!
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Location: East Midlands, UK
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 8,775
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22-03-2011, 09:10 PM
Originally Posted by lozzibear
I was sitting this morning with my morning cup of tea when I got a call from my dad. He had just left for work, and heading to the bus stop saw a GSD running around the main road. The dog ran down a side road the goes behind my house, so I threw clothes on as fast as I could, over my jammies and went in search of the dog. It only took about 5 minutes to find her, but she was terrified. She ran back towards the road, and somehow managed to cross it safely even with all the rush hour traffic
She ran into the golf course two minutes from my house… I spent an hour and a half following her trying to catch her. I took it slowly though, kept my distance and crouched down not looking at her, trying to gain her trust. I tried to coax her with biscuits but she wasn’t interested. Eventually, in the middle of the golf course with people playing golf all around us, she lay down. I sat down a wee bit away from her and just waited… she started to slowly approach so I tossed a biscuit to her which she ate eagerly. She then got so close and happily took them out my hand. I managed to get a collar and lead on her (I took Jakes spare ones with me). She was also limping a bit, so i was worried a car may have clipped her but it went away a bit so maybe just tiredness.
I took her back to my house, and she walked perfectly on the lead. I figured she had been missing a while coz she was really underweight, and that going by her teeth she must be quite old. Me and my mum gave her a fuss, and some food (which she ate like she hadn’t seen food in ages!) and water. We then let Jake out to meet her, he loved her! I called the dog warden, who said that a GSD had been reported missing this morning and was called Tara. I called her using Tara, and she responded. So, I was all happy thinking about her going home (although, I had already started falling for her
). When the dog warden arrived, she wasn’t happy… she said that given she had only been missing since last night, she shouldn’t be the weight she is. You can see all her ribs, and her waist is so small. She was reluctant to take her back, but said she had to… not only did the weight worry her, but also that when the owners called this morning, the dog warden asked if she would be able to get hold of them and then said they would be staying in all day… and not looking for their dog! Then, when she called to say she thinks Tara had been found, they were out shopping
their dog was missing, and they were shopping! 
it turns out that she had travelled about 3 or 4 miles during the night. Its great they called to report her missing, but I guess that was just so someone else could do the work
she isn’t chipped, and she didn’t have a collar on… She is such a sweet natured dog, and was following me around the house, she doesn’t deserve owners who don’t even give a s*** about her… not even enough to look for her. I wouldn’t stop looking if that was Jake. I searched more for Tara, than her owners did So, i went from desperation trying to catch her, to happiness when i did, to more happiness when i found out her owners had reported her missing, to sadness that they dont care enough to look for her...
I may be totally wrong, but I thought it was illegal for a dog not to have a collar with an ID disc? Of course, collars can be slipped, but usually with a dog of this age you can tell if it has been habitually wearing a collar because there will be an indentation in the fur.
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Location: Berks Uk
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 1,036
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22-03-2011, 09:46 PM
We lost our gsd - also named Tara - in the forest late one afternoon a few months ago. As we searched it began to get dark. I spoke to a few dog-walkers on their way home and asked them to call me if they spotted her and that she was friendly if they approached her.
We then went home to get torches and returned to continue searching. My brother-in-law and his son joined us aswell and we had a little search party out for her. We called and called and searched high and low in a forest we are not over-familiar with by torchlight. After nearly five hours of searching we realised we would have to call it a night. We decided to circle the area by road as a last attempt before retiring to bed (I doubt we would have slept) and that if we did not find her we would return in the morning with notices after calling the dog warden.
After 5 hours she could have covered a fair distance and may not have still been in the forest or anywhere near. Luckily for us, a tired and stiff Tara was walking the country lane towards our headlights on our return home.
Had we not found her - we would have returned in the morning with notices and probably had a last search before continuing with our day, even if that included shopping, to try and take our minds off worrying and hope that we would hear that someone had found her.
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Location: w
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 10,769
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22-03-2011, 09:49 PM
Lauren - huge well done for taking such time and effort for a dog that isnt yours, and i would hope that if any dog of mine ever went missing then someone like you would make the effort to get him back.
I can understand the owners having to go shopping if the dog had been missing for days/weeks, but come on the dog was missing since the day before and there first priority is to go shopping really???
I would have been up all night and out with every friend I could to get Bruno back if he had went missing.
totally did the right thing, and you should be commended for that.
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