That’s what we’ve decided to do. I’ve done everything I know to try and find her owners, and have had absolutely no luck whatsoever. I bought a leash-splitter yesterday to make the act of walking her and my other dog infinitely easier. (They kept trying to remove my legs from my body when I walked them with 2 separate leashes…)

Sorry to hear about your cat, but glad to hear she found a good home (not to imply yours wasn’t a good one, of course!)

Years ago, we lost a cat. She was our favorite cat ever. Great disposition, friendly, cuddly, smart, knew to snuggle when someone in the house was crying, knew to flee with the kids were feeling ornery. Great cat.

One day, she just didn’t come home. We looked and looked and looked for her, without success. Eventually, we gave up, got another cat, moved on.

Years after that (3? 4?), we spotted what looked like our old cat walking around the neighborhood. We caught her and found half of the tag that we put on her collar. It had broken in the car accident that landed her in the street, to be found by distant neighbors, who took her home, nursed her and let her heal. When we talked to her new owners, they offered to return her. We declined. As far as we were concerned, she found a new home. She was happy in the new place, she was safe, she was loved.

We had done what we could to find her, mourned when we couldn’t, and moved on. That she had found a home as good as our home made finding her okay, without sadness for us.

So, if you’ve tried to find the dog’s owner without success, really want the dog, and can provide a safe, healthy, good home for her, keep her.

Really. Keep her.

Zeitlos: If we keep her, we’re going to name her Zoë.

Cas: No pound. No pound! And yeah, a vet visit is definitely in order.

Tom: Well, to be fair, my dog has gotten loose many times. Even after I recently built a pen for him, he’s escaped repeatedly. I ended up having to turn the pen into Fort Gandalf, with various measures to keep him from digging out. Having said that, though, he’s never been missing for days on end, and if he was, I’d be reporting it everywhere I could and driving around looking for him, so…

If you like her keep her and give her the good home she deserves.

I would also head down to your local vet – people put in calls to them when animals go missing, and you can also get her scanned for a microchip.

After that, it is time to make the pound/not-pound decision. If you do decide to keep her, I would still get the vet to give her a full check-up. Sad though it is, people do dump dogs if they get something wrong with them.

Have you considered giving it to RSPCA or the pound? As much as that would sound bad, it does solve your dilemma of not becoming too attached to it in the case of the owners wanting it back, plus it would solve the expense problem of taking care of another dog, something I would consider if I were in your position.