The dog in the vacant yard

Today's story is an item from a police blotter, or more to the point, animal control's blotter, as published in a newspaper. But it's very thought provoking. Did someone steal the dog and then change their mind? Did someone find a stray dog, intend to try to find the owner, but then get too busy to finish the job? Why didn't the woman tell the man that the dog was not her dog that she was asking him to watch? Thankfully the ending was good other than costing the dog's owner $35, but how the heck -- and more intriguing, why -- did that all go down the way it did???


Fairfax Animal Watch
Friday, April 27, 2007
Fairfax County


DALE DR.,10200 block,
Compiled by JEAN MACK
April 14.

A woman noticed a dog in the fenced yard of a vacant house and asked a man next door about it. He said that he had placed the dog there after a woman asked him to briefly keep the dog.

When the woman did not return after several hours, the female neighbor took it to police headquarters. The dog was transferred to the city shelter.

The next day, the owner, who lives on a nearby street, contacted animal control and said the dog was missing after her gate was left open. She said she did not know who had left the dog with the man.

The animal was returned to the owner after she paid $35 in boarding and pickup fees and for a rabies vaccination.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/27/AR2007042701148.html