[TamaraSavannah]

Originally Posted by .sparrow.

Are you making sure the animals don't belong to someone? Other than checking for a chip? Checking with the local pound, putting up some fliers, etc? Some people's dogs get loose, and not all of them are chipped. And lots of outdoor cats out there, that may have lost their collar. (Hope you don't take this as accusatory. It just freaked me out a bit to think of someone just randomly picking up animals and possibly keeping them... lol. I just had to make sure. I don't know what your area is like or what the real situation is from your post.)

All good points.

It's a two sided sword in my area.

It is quite possible that it is the pet that someone lets run free. Seen the same dogs out here, someone lets their peacocks roam free, the same for guinea hens, and I have seen cats as well. The peacocks and hens I assume belong to someone, the dogs are familiar enough (and when I see them, I tell them "Go home" in kind voice), and the cats never get close enough.

BUT ON THE OTHER HAND, there is a college campus near by where just as koi can end up in the fishery ponds so might other animals be driven out to the country and abandoned. Further, with one of Mom's dogs, a chihuahua, she figured due to its temperament that someone must have stolen it from a yard in a distant city and dropped it off in her city.

Finally, part one, when I was a Provost Marshal, we had at least one dog in our pound. Big dog, the joy of the department. My chief of police took a phone call one day, "Let me see," turned to the dog, said "Morgan?" and the dog jumped right up, hearing its name.....and dog and family were soon reunited. All told, I think if my pet were lost, I'd rather they be in a loving (me) home than out there in the wild.........

........and it is wild country for if not the coyotes and wolves, then it is legal to shoot out here.

Finally, part two: I love animals but I am at my limits for permanent residents, so I foster till they can find their permanent homes (long story short).