This is a strange story about a Yorkie who escaped from a house, was found by animal control, and given away as a gift.

It all started when Janet Torren took her 4-year-old dog Shai over to her son’s house for a visit. When the two of them went out Shai managed to get out a sliding door and was eventually picked up by animal control. Torren searched for her beloved dog for 12 days, knocking on doors and making phone calls.

She had called the Stoughton Animal Control many times but was always told her dog was not there. Shai had a microchip so Torren called the company to see if any vets had scanned it in, no one had. However, she decided to call another company and then learned the chip had been scanned by the town pound in Stoughton, the one she had been calling.

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Sadly, it’s official, California has cut the holding time of shelter dogs from six days to three.  In 1997 the Hayden Bill, otherwise known as the Animal Adoption Mandate, required shelters to hold  abandoned animals a minimum of four days and usually up to six.

The passing of the new budget has undone what this bill was meant to do, give owners time to find their lost pets. It’s not always easy to track down your pet when there are multiple shelters in the area.  Having extra time also gave kill shelters a chance to transfer some of the animals to rescue organizations or no-kill shelters. Now that the time has been cut in half not nearly as many animals are going to be saved.

“It makes a difference because for some animals every day counts,” said Cindy Machado of the Marin Humane Society, which does not euthanize animals that can be adopted. Instead, the society rescues thousands of animals facing death at other shelters.

“The new law will affect a lot of the shelters that we rescue animals from because, especially in this economy, they are bursting at the seams,” she said.

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The owner of a missing chihuahua in Cincinnati, OH. offered a  $1,000 reward for the safe return of her beloved pet. Carmen Dominguez and Sheila Miller say they found the dog and returned him weeks later after seeing the online ad advertising the reward.

The owner refuses to pay the reward because she thinks they stole her dog. The women claim they picked up the dog when he was about to run into traffic. They say he had no identification.

Here’s where it gets interesting, the women are now suing the owner for not paying out the reward. According to the GrandForksHerald.com the lawsuit, filed by Carmen Dominguez and Sheila Miller, alleges breach of contract and fraud and seeks damages up to $15,000.

I don’t know if the women stole the dog or if the owner just wanted to back out of paying, either way, I can’t imagine suing. So much for just being a good Samaritan and returning the dog because it’s the right thing to do.

Would you ever sue someone if you found a dog and the reward wasn’t paid?  Or do you think the whole thing is ridiculous?  Give me a bark.

There was no picture with this story, the handsome boy above is from Dogster’s Adoption Center. His name is Poindexter and he lost an eye after being attacked by another dog. He is very sweet and loving and in desperate need of a forever home.  The poster lives in Calgary, Canada but he’s being fostered in California. He can be brought to Alberta if anyone there is interested in adopting him. For more info send email to muttsnstuff.

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A severe car accident left a family in the hospital and a rottweiler named Ella lost in Tenn. woodland. CBS cameras caught the touching reunion weeks later. WTVF’s Jeff Tang reports.

Watch CBS Videos Online

If you can’t see the video click here.

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Earlier this morning I posted about an Australian dog who was lost for 9 years and just reunited with her family thanks to a microchip which provided owner information.

I just came across another story reinforcing how important it is to make sure your dog has proper ID, tags and a microchip.

Haley Cyr, a professional dog trainer for more than four years and the Manager of Training at the Animal Defense League, shares an incident that happened to her just a few days ago.

I want to talk about something that happened to me two days ago. It is a long story but it has a moral, I promise! As I opened my front door Sunday evening, there he was; a small tricolor beagle whose name I would later learn was Rocco. He was blindly running through my apartment complex, obviously panicked and in pain. After a few minutes of coaxing and using my shoelace as a leash, he was in my arms. By his panting and the appearance of his gums, I thought he had heat stoke. When I got him inside, I realized that he also had blood on his face and back. Horrible things ran through my mind! Had he been hit by a car? Had he been in a dog fight?

Once he was cooled down and safe, I decided to drive around my neighborhood and look for lost Beagle signs, hoping to find an owner with tears and a leash looking for their dog. Rocco hopped right into my car; he was obviously somebody’s baby. He was neutered (hurray!), but had no collar. I prayed that he had been micro-chipped. We drove around my neighborhood with no luck. I decided to take him to the emergency vet to be checked, and hopefully to find his parents through (still praying) his microchip.

As I drove out of my neighborhood hood, I heard sirens. Nothing I could have imagined could have been worse then what had really happened to him. My heart dropped into my stomach. A little Mazda had apparently crashed into a parked 18-wheeler at full speed. The entire roof of the car had been ripped off. Read the rest of this entry »

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If you’ve ever lost a dog you know how devastating it is. This story  proves no matter how much time has passed there’s always hope for a happy ending.

SYDNEY – Nine years after vanishing from outside her Australian family’s home, Muffy the dog was found alive and well this month in another backyard – 1,200 miles away – officials said Thursday.

Inspectors with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals were investigating a possible animal cruelty case at a home in the southern city of Melbourne two weeks ago when they found the fluffy white mutt sleeping outside on a scrap of cardboard, Victoria state RSPCA spokesman Tim Pilgrim said.

A microchip in Muffy’s neck identified her owners, and, after a few days of searching for a current phone number, officials tracked down Natalie Lampard, who hadn’t seen Muffy since the pooch disappeared from her backyard in the eastern city of Brisbane nine years ago.

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There’s nothing better than a happy reunion story, this one definitely fits the bill. A dog that got lost after Hurricane Ike has been wandering around for 10 months, until last week when the family received the call they’ve been waiting for.

It all started when the Bauer’s fence was blown down during the hurricane, they took their two dogs to the Pet Palace to keep them safe while waiting for repairs to be done.

“We ended up getting a call at 10 a.m. saying the dogs were gone. Both of ‘em,” said Joe Bauer.

The owners of the Pet Palace tell 11 News the two dogs dislocated a metal guillotine-style doggy door, worked their way through the initial set of gates of their outside run, then destroyed a section of chain link gate in the facility’s inner yard. They escaped through a 4- to 6-foot iron fence at the perimeter of the Pet Palace property.

They found Hank that same day wandering in a wooded area behind the boarding kennel, but Daizy was gone.

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Catching a Duke is easy, open the doors to your bus and let him in.  A city bus driver in Calgary, Alberta was driving her route when she spotted a dog surrounded by coyotes.

Dawn Hagel said she was driving Tuesday when she spotted the 16-month-old Australian cattle dog cringing beneath a parked pickup truck at the side of the road and two coyotes circling it.

Hagel, who owns two dogs herself, told the Calgary Sun she pulled alongside and opened the door.

“He was in the bus in a heartbeat — he knew it was a much better fate,” she said. “That dog was breakfast.”

The dog was bleeding from two bite marks on its rear right leg, and passengers comforted it. Its owner, Hugh Magill, was tracked down by tags on its collar, the Sun said.

Duke’s owner was found by the tags on his collar.  His owner said he had been walking him without a leash when the dog spotted a coyote and bolted. He searched and called for him to no avail, eventually going home.

Kudos to Dawn Hagel for stopping to help a dog in need. Who says buses are never on time?  I think this one had perfect timing.

*ADOPTABLE: Bandit is an adorable one-year-old who needs a forever home, he is being fostered in Chandler, AZ.

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In case you haven’t read about it on Dogster Site News, today is the end of National Pet ID Week and the last day to save $3 when you order the Together Tag. Every pup on the planet should know by now that’s Dogster’s great new pet ID and recovery service.

April 18 – 24 is National Pet ID Week, and we’re barking all about it over here on Dogster. We love our community of pooches (as do you) and are determined to make sure that we don’t let one single pup go unprotected. One in three pets will get lost in their lifetime and sadly, most of these dogs and cats do not find their way back home. You can reduce the chances of losing your dog by preparing for the worst today. The steps are simple, quick and will save you from unnecessary heartbreak should your dog ever go lost or missing in the future.

Grab your owner and run on over to Dogster Site News to find out how to order the Together Tag and get a $3 discount. Don’t wait until it’s too late, act now.

* Tinker Bell Forever is stylin with her new tag, don’t you wanna be stylin too?

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In Snowville, UT a group of dog lovers came together to help find a dog who went missing after being in a car wreck that killed his owner.

Two weeks earlier Joyce Moore of Kelso, WA was killed when her car rolled over on Interstate 84. Neo, a Siberian Husky, had watched as rescue crews worked on his owner but took off when someone approached him.

Volunteers went door to door telling ranchers and farmworkers about Neo. One estimated she had spent 60 hours “networking for Neo.”

On Thursday, a man at a ranch the team had already visited waved a searcher down, saying a dog had been found in a shed. He said he backed out quickly when the dog growled, latching the door.

Volunteers quickly notified Joyce Moore’s sister, Deborah Moore, also of Kelso. A volunteer was going to take care of the dog until Deborah Moore could pick him up.

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