Free to a Good Home

Jack Russell terrier, rough coat, white with brown silky ears, 15 lbs, a little chunky. This lovely, well-behaved dog was found wandering on Queen St. W. in Toronto. No collar, no tags, no microchip. A great city dog. Low maintenance, enthusiastic, affectionate, good on lead. Free to a good home.

The backstory
On Valentine's Day, a guy on a bike picked this little darling up so she wouldn't get hit by a car. He went into the adjacent park looking for the owner. No owner in sight. I happened by at just that moment and thought I recognized the dog. Long story short, I took her home and started the search for her owner.

Now a week later, I'm realizing how impossibly challenging it is to get a lost dog home. We think of our world as expansive and inclusive when really it includes our immediate family and home, friends, one or two neighbours and the places we frequent. We are the proverbial needles in a haystack, or like the night sky, tiny points of light separated by light years of darkness.

How to find a lost dog's home
Among the things I've done are:
- posted a "found" notice on our local Humane Society's website (they no longer take phone calls, since this scandal)
- called the city's Animal Services dept, the folks who run the pounds in Toronto, and left a description of the dog with the south area pound (reputed to be the best in the city)
- posted notices on Craig's List and Kijiji, under Community > Lost and Found
- put up paper posters (download the poster in pdf format in the park where the dog was found and around the neighbourhood, other dog parks too
- took the dog to my vet and had her checked for a microchip (none), and to see if they recognized her (didn't)
- taking long walks with the dog, asking people randomly if they recognize her

The kindness of strangers
Small dogs in particular attract smiles from people on the street. It's amazing how often they stop. When they do, I tell them she's a stray and we're looking for her owner. Two people already have said that they regularly foster lost pets and volunteered to take her and help find the owner.

The illusion of neighbourhood and networks
The hardest thing has been posting notices. You start out where you found the dog and you work out in ever expanding circles. But once you get 100m (500 ft.) from the spot, you don't know where to post. You're talking hundreds of telephone polls, doorways, shops and offices and apartment buildings. The possibilities of where this dog lives multiply exponentially. It feels hopeless.

On the other hand, one lady I stopped to talk to referred to a poster in her neighbourhood for a lost Lab. I saw one poster in about a four block area. I was impressed. Maybe people notice more than I'm giving them credit for.

Hide and seek
If no one is looking for a dog, and I mean really looking, not just peering wistfully out the window once in a while, not even Miss Marple or Rockford could find this dog's home. You would think people would know enough to call the Humane Society or the pound. But you can't make assumptions. As my vet pointed out, many people in our neighbourhood don't venture very far outside of their own communities. Many older people barely speak English and can't read it. In these communities, like all communities, dogs have puppies, puppies get distributed and live happy, more or less housebound lives. In our neighbourhood, hundreds of dogs live in the confines of private houses and yards, mostly out of sight, rarely seen on the street.

CSI Lost Pets
Veterinarians are arguably in the best position to network and find out where pets come from. Virtually every pet visits a vet at some point, if only for their initial shots. The microchip system is supposed to be that network but I took this dog in to my vet to see if she had a microchip. She doesn't. They were very nice but what can they do? Apparently there is no database of DNA samples, or diagnoses, or registered shots. Why don't vets have a network by which they could post notice to vets across the city?

Sense and scent ability
We make too much of dogs' intelligence. Apparently dogs do find their own way home; a quick Google search turn up stories: http://pettails.mydogspace.com/2009/11/12/sabi-the-army-dog-returns-home-after-14-months-lost-in-afghanistan/. But 14 months is a long time. Other stories are 6 or 9 years. This seems amazing unless you ask what the dog was doing for those 14 months, 6 or 9 years. For a dog to return home after 9 years is pretty much random luck. It's like me putting up posters. Choose the wrong poll by even one house and the owner might never see it because they turn the other way to go to the bus stop.

Reason and unreason
One begins to search for reasons when a stray pet comes into your life. This dog is a great "ratter," a classic terrier. I happen to have had, right now, a rat problem, so she spent all of one evening this week tearing around growling and scratching. It was unbelievable, relentless, terrifying (to a rat). Good news. No sign of rat since. A Littlest Hobo story? If that were the case, then my Even Littler Hobo should have slipped out the gate the next day, mission accomplished. (Or maybe her job isn't quite done yet:)

Yes, we are getting "attached." But not so attached that I can keep her. I have a dog already and one is more than enough, for now. So if you recognize this dog or know someone who wants a great, easy to look after companion, please contact me, contact info on this notice.

Some useful links
Toronto Lost and Found Pets, a great free service.
Pet Harbour helps you search pounds anywhere in North America to find a lost dog or adopt one. A very interesting idea; why don't vets have a network like this?