Lanky Brunettes With Wicked Jaws

Last week, I came home around 8pm and found a puppy wandering loose around my neighborhood. It was freezing outside, and he was a tiny little thing, so I chased him down - which took over an hour - and got him inside. He had no collar or tags and wasn’t neutered, but clearly had an owner, as he was groomed and had a little kerchief on. At 10pm, with the pup safely in the laundry room, I posted reports with the local SPCA, local pound, and local Craig’s list, then made up flyers that we posted at the exit to our neighborhood the same night. (There’s only one exit from the neighborhood, and we put it where you couldn’t miss it - it had full-color pictures and our home phone number.)

We fed him and arranged him a bed. I stayed home from work the next day to figure out what to do about him. He was dying for some attention, so I sat with him for long stretches playing with and petting and cooing to him. But he was too much for us to handle, so I was afraid I’d have to take him to the shelter. Fortunately, a family responded to our ad on Craig’s List and said they could keep him while we waited to hear from the owner. I talked to them several times before and after they picked the dog up, and they are giving him a wonderful home with lots of attention. They have two kids and are thrilled to have him as part of their home.

Today, a full week after we found the dog, the local pound emailed to say a potential owner had come forward, and demanded the location of the dog. I found the name and address of the potential owner (via various legal wranglings), and she lives in the house immediately behind ours. We have literally never seen lights on in the house, and only twice have we seen an actual person approaching or leaving the place. The only way we know it’s been purchased (the neighborhood is brand new) is that it has blinds in all the windows and no For Sale sign in the yard. We have a dog ourselves, and so are very familiar with the other dogs in the neighborhood, but we had never seen this one before.

Thus, my quandary: Am I morally obligated to tell the pound where the dog is? My feeling is that the dog is better off where he is, where someone is taking care of him and giving him the attention he needs. In the hour my husband and I spent getting ahold of the dog, no one else came out looking for him. In the week the posters have been up, no one has called us. If I reply to the pound, they’ll take him from the family who’d adopted him and send him back to the owner who does not take care of him.

Advice would be most welcome.

1. Make coffee.
2. Fetch him breakfast sandwiches.
3. Tote his briefcase from the lobby up to the office.
4. Slice and serve a variety of pies and cakes brought into the office, even when he’s the only one having a piece, the cake is in his office, and I’m 20 yards down the hall.
5. Transcribe a letter he has dictated.
6. Open and read the mail over the phone to him when he’s out, even though nothing pressing ever comes in that way.
7. Talk to him on his cell phone when he’s bored during long drives, whether I’m working or at home.
8. Deposit a check in his 22-year-old daughter’s account.
9. Go to Dell.com and build a laptop for this same daughter.