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Topic: Stray dog turned up on our back porch, what do we do?

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Retrowire

My wife and I are watching A Bugs Life, we hear a commotion on the back porch. We own 4 small dogs that roam our yard outside, they're great surveillance! So, I go out on the back porch and there's a full grown, black German Shepherd staring back at me, wagging it's tail. It's cold and raining outside. I go outside to the dog and all of my other dogs are just barking at it, basically trying to tell the German Shepherd that "This is our turf! Leave now!"

I call them off and check the dog. It's a girl and she's sweet right off the bat. I pet her and noticed that she was REALLY bony. Her ribs are visible, but her coat is a fine pitch black. The worst thing I noticed is how loose her collar was. It was loose enough to be at least 4 inches from the neck when pulled. The collar had no ID tag, no info, no nothing. The collar being as dirty and old as it was, as loose as it was told me one thing... She's been away from a home for a long, long time. Either that, or the former owner neglected her that badly.

Though the neglect theory is hard to believe because surprise, the dog is well trained. She sits, stays, shakes hands and hugs on command. It's very impressive. This tells me that the former owner put enough time into her to train her, and take some care of her, but why is the dog so thin?

It's 10:09pm where we live right now and there isn't any no-kill animal shelters open at this time. If there had been one that was open, we would've taken her immediately but that's not the case. Now we're at a dilemma. We can't let this dog go back into the wild, she deserves better. Our neighbors already fired a gun on their property to scare her off (They had a bad incident with a stray dog last year so I don't blame them. Very heartbreaking.) so we don't want the dog to wander to their property again. We certainly aren't calling animal control because we don't support the killing of any innocent animals.

So as of this moment, we have an adult Black German Shepherd hanging out in our washroom until tomorrow. When tomorrow comes though, we'll have to make some decisions. We would check the newspaper or even make an ad to see if anyone is missing a Black German Shepherd but in the world of "Class B" dealers, that's a terrifying risk. Class B dealers are people who pose as animal lovers or good homes that will buy or adopt animals to sell them for research. Here's proof of that: http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pets_experiments/ Knowing these facts will break your heart but it's true. Our friends in nature deserve better.

We are unsure of taking in ANOTHER dog. We have 4 chihuahua/pug mixes that free roam the property, 1 Chihuahua that lives inside along with a Rat Terrier and a Cat. All of these pets are smaller than the Black German Shepherd however when on the property, when she was being threatened by all of our dogs outside, she did nothing to attack them. She gave a warning growl once but that's to be expected. We just aren't sure what to do. We'd love to keep her but there's a risk of the smaller dogs. Our only other alternative is to give her to a no kill shelter but we still fear Class B dealers in that environment as well.

Also, to top it all off, my wife already loves the dog, has cried and calls herself the dogs "mama". What would you do?

Edited on by Retrowire

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Eel

@thread: it's destiny, adopt it.

Only If you can really take care of it of course. It seems you have many dogs already.

Edited on by Eel

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Retrowire

shaneoh wrote:

Take it to the vet and see if it is microchipped, that would be a good place to start

Question: around how much would that cost? Also, don't vets put a little green tattoo on the underbelly of the dog if they are microchipped? Some visual marker outside the dog? I know they tattoo a dog if they are neutered/spayed but don't they do that as well for microchips? If so, I'll check for a tattoo tomorrow.

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Retrowire

WaveVorhees wrote:

Stick a crown on it's head.
Untitled
I now dub thee'Sir dinamus

Sir?! It's a girl!

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OptometristLime

Nice save 'Wave!

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You are what you eat from your head to your feet.

Sleepingmudkip

Feed it and name it Mightyena then dye it and groom it to look like mightyena Untitled

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shaneoh

Retrowire wrote:

shaneoh wrote:

Take it to the vet and see if it is microchipped, that would be a good place to start

Question: around how much would that cost? Also, don't vets put a little green tattoo on the underbelly of the dog if they are microchipped? Some visual marker outside the dog? I know they tattoo a dog if they are neutered/spayed but don't they do that as well for microchips? If so, I'll check for a tattoo tomorrow.

To be honest I've never had to do it, a phone call should get you info on costs (if any), same with the tattoo (they don't tattoo for microchips in Australia, but then we're a different country, so possibly different rules for the US).

The green tattoo on the underbelly is to indicate that they have been neutered (its placed there so if they go to perform the surgery again there is a mark telling them not to bother). Source: http://voices.yahoo.com/why-does-dog-tattoo-her-belly-1215577...

If you want to advertise the dog as lost, leave out details like gender so you can quiz callers EDIT: Leave out the colour and markings too, most people would go for black and brown if asked to describe a german shepherd.

Edited on by shaneoh

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LzWinky

If you have no intention of keeping it, the best thing to do is call your local animal control. If the condition you claim is true, the previous owner can be arrested for animal negligence.

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Retrowire

ScroogeMcLz wrote:

If you have no intention of keeping it, the best thing to do is call your local animal control. If the condition you claim is true, the previous owner can be arrested for animal negligence.

It'd be grand to get someone for neglecting the well being of an animal, but I'm avoiding animal control. They'll put the girl down faster than these forum members can post "OMG"

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FishieFish

You should take her to the vet, make sure she doesn't have any problems with her or something.

And the only thing you could probably do is put it up on Craigslist or something, and hope someone will take her.
I hope she is okay,

Also, you should advertise to see if anybody is missing a dog, if she can shake, give her paw ect, she is probably somebody's pet,

Edited on by FishieFish

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LordJumpMad

Take it to a rich neighborhood and drop it at someone's door step.
That what my dad did to my dog......I think.

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iphys

Feed it. Search lost dog postings on kijiji/craigslist for the owner. Sounds like you care about the dog enough to keep it, but if it's not practical, try asking your friends on Facebook or whatever if anyone can take her in.

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KittenKoder

Having them checked for a chip is free, and many animal organizations can do it for you, the owner of such an animal already paid all that for the service. If the animal is a stray and you can, adopt it, seriously. It sounds like she chose you, and that's the best kind of friend anyone can have. All my pets through my entire life have always chosen me, I never chose them myself, and the kind of friendship you get from that is beyond comparison, no human friendship can compare. If you must give her up, to interviews for potential matches, see how she reacts to them before deciding to let her go. If she is more friendly with someone than she is with you, then you can rest easy knowing she will be well cared for.

As a last resort, call the Humane Society, they do what they can but are not as capable as individuals are in finding good homes for strays. Canines are more prone to abuse than most other animals, due to how easy it is for them to become loyal to whoever feeds them, and no animal deserves abuse. Just please, do what you can to keep her safe and happy, the guilt you can feel from not doing enough will haunt you.

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Snagrio

As an animal person myself (heck our family dog is also a girl German Shepherd), take my advice. Get her to a vet, make sure she doesn't have an owner and that she doesn't have any disease/pests, take her home, and KEEP HER! Like what others here have said, this friendly dog choose you, and 9 times out of 10 such an animal is well worth keeping.

Snagrio

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Kyloctopus

Isn't there a certain maximum of dogs you can have in the United States? I know in Canada, we can have 3.

Edited on by Kyloctopus

Kyloctopus

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Snagrio

Kyloctopus wrote:

Isn't there a certain maximum of dogs you can have in the United States? I know in Canada, we can have 3.

Depends on individual state or even county laws. Most places don't have limitations for number of dogs, at least where I live.

Snagrio

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mamp

3 options
1) keep it and give it a loving home (if it doesn't have an owner)
2) Let it go and whatever happens to it oh well
3) Dog pound where they get put up for "adoption" if they don't have an owner.

Edited on by mamp

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