Now that I somewhat have my wits about me...
Cristal our French Bulldog was missing for about 6 hours(the longest six hours in recent memory) today. Our one year old managed to let her out while daddy wasn't looking and was being kind enough to let me try and sleep in. When I woke up and started feeding the dogs I realized she wasn't on my heels as she normally was. A quick search found she was not there...and no, the family had NO idea!
Many of us order our microchips online or even through ebay...it's so incredibly important to make sure whichever microchip company you use HAS your dogs info. With us, I knew they did as Edgar had called to request confirmation recently. If you order online and assume the company has your info but they don't it could be a disaster! For us being in Ca, the microchip could have come from New York...so if the company didn't actually have our info, and the dog ended up in the shelter...they would have contacted said company in New York and the search would have ended there. Our girl would have been held for the mandated time and if we didn't find her...could have been adopted out. I had this EXACT scenario play out with a cat of mine...so it is a very real problem!! There was no legal way for me to recover the cat from the new owner and so, he was gone.
The other point, is make sure you have an adult picture of your dog as well...and not a show photo. The show photo will undoubtably make any finder think the dog is worth more than your reward.
Within 5 minutes of me realizing Cristal was actually missing...I was printing flyers...we SATURATED the area with flyers! Edgar drove and I walked, talking to EVERYONE that was out. We knew from speaking to people that she was nearby. The people that had her admitted they thought about keeping her, but realized even walking her would risk being spotted. (I won't even discuss how angry this made me.)
Make your flyers in bold print and include REWARD...money talks...call the shelters, emergency vets and even your police department (The police have records of dogs loose in the area...call the NON emergency line)...
We were blessed that a lady with a kind heart basically threatened to "out" the people that had our girl if they didn't do the right thing...SO if your dog goes missing...POST FLYERS ASAP!!! Cristal was on our street but the people kept her for 6 hours...this could have ended so badly! They even had an Am Staff that they just threw her in with and were surprised that this sweet dog turned on their dog. We're lucky that she is #1 ALIVE and #2 that we got her back!
Thank you guardian angels!
Posted on Nov 16, 2008, 5:36 PM from IP address 76.126.125.41
