Rusty, a golden retriever

Recovery Stories - Reunited
Rusty
Posted 5/8/2008

Recently, I received an email from one of our volunteers (who I’ll call Robert) who had found a skinny stray Golden Retriever. Read what Robert emailed to me and see if you can identify what he could have done differently to reunite this stray dog with the family who lost him”

“I found a stray on Tuesday on Thurston Road just north of Market. He’s a Golden Retriever, un-neutered male, about a year old. He has beautiful white teeth and a perfectly full, wavy coat. He’s skinny but not emaciated so he must have been getting nutrition from somewhere and then was dumped or wandered away. Here are the details of how I found him –

Tuesday when I was driving to work, I saw this dog standing with his body pressed up against a wall under an overpass. He was so still and pressed tightly against the cement wall that I didn’t see him until I was right up on him. I drove past him but then slowed, turned around, and pulled over. Traffic was light so I was hopeful that he would not get bolt and get hit. Rather than getting scared and running, all he did was turn his head to look at me. As I approached, he didn’t run. He just stood frozen, so I held up my hand for him to sniff as I approached. He touched me with his cold wet nose but didn’t sniff much. Ultimately I won his trust and wrapped my arm around his waist and carried him to my car. He didn’t have a collar on and had a big fat tick on his forehead, so it didn’t look good that I’d immediately find his owners.

I was running late for work, so I decided I would take him with me and figure out what to do once I got to work. He rode pressed up next to me. When I got to work, I lifted him around the waist again and took him to the sidewalk. When I sat him down, I realized that he was injured. His back leg was swollen and he was not putting weight on it. In addition, he was covered in ticks. I picked him back up and carried him into my office. I found an old sleeping bag in the trunk of my car that I used for bedding. He seemed content to lie down and sleep.

I called a few of the local vets but because he wasn’t a client they couldn’t see him for a few days. Plus, they were all tapped out by charities, so I couldn’t get a reduced rate. I have four dogs of my own and I was broke, so I knew that I could not afford to pay for his vet bills. I didn’t take him to the local shelter since they would likely just kill him. So I have him here with me. He’s sequestered in our barn until I can place him. I’ll will monitor his condition and keep him comfortable until I can get him to the vet and then place him in a new home. If you have any leads on a new home, please let me know.”

Right away, I knew that this volunteer needed to adjust his line of thinking. According to his email, he never made an attempt to find the owner. He did not contact the local shelter where he could have researched lost dog reports, he did not place a FOUND GOLDEN RETRIEVER poster at the location where he picked up the dog, nor did he have the dog scanned for a microchip. Instead, he jumped to the conclusion that the owner of this dog did not care for it properly because the dog had no collar and a few ticks. But I knew better.

So here’s what I did. Rather than embarrass this new volunteer and discourage or discount his willingness to rescue a stray like he did, I began to research missing Golden Retrievers on lost dog web sites. After about forty minutes on-line, I found what sounded like a match. Rusty, the intact Golden Retriever, had pushed a board out in his fenced yard (losing his collar in the process) three months prior. I contacted Rusty’s owner, who lived about ten miles from where the stray dog was found. These folks were absolutely thrilled to hear that someone might have found their dog. They had nearly given up hope.

When I called Robert to tell him that I might have located the owner, I explained that Rusty had been missing for months and his collar had come off during his escape. Robert was relieved to hear this and we arranged a meet between Robert, myself, and Rusty’s owner. With a telltale black spot on his tongue, the owner positively identified the dog as Rusty. It was thrilling to be there for the reunion!

Robert learned a valuable lesson that day. He learned that what a dog looks like and how it behaves could be deceptive. Dogs slip out of collars, and dogs that have been missing for months will often lose weight, have cuts and injuries, and be covered with fleas and ticks. Dogs like Rusty don’t need to be “re-homed” – they need educated rescuers who can work to reunite them with the families who lost them.

Source: http://fpblogengine.com/PetRescuerStories.ashx?blogid=1&postid=37