So we're in a bit of a weird situation. The other week a dog was running around in the road, dodging cars near our house. He was in pretty rough shape, hungry, and clearly had some skin and coat issues. My wife brought him in and, eventually through pure luck, we actually located the owner later that day. She was an elderly woman, and it was pretty clear that she wasn't really in the best state (house in disrepair, beer cans everywhere, etc). We had the dog for four or five hours at this point, but she didn't even realize that the dog was gone. We returned him, and the next day he came back to our neighborhood, which is roughly 0.5-0.75 miles from her house. We brought him back again, and she said "oh yeah, he kinda roams." We talked to some of our neighbors, and, apparently, they had helped the dog in the past, but never could successfully find the owner. The dog does not have a collar or a chip or anything.
Two days later a neighbor brought him to our house after finding him wandering the neighborhood. We told her we aren't the owner, but we found the owner the other day. This time we called animal control and they returned the dog to her. The next day the dog showed up to our house again. We called animal control, they brought him back again and cited her. We asked what we could do about it, and they said they wish they could do more, but the pound was full.
Last night, he showed up yet again, but this time he was crying at our front door. It was raining, and with the lows in the low 40s, we brought him in, fed him, and let him stay in one of our extra crates for the night. We have two other dogs already, and can't really take care of a third. He is very friendly, and not aggressive. We don't really know what to do, as he keeps wandering through the streets to our house, and we are very concerned that if we return him, his neglect will continue, and he will end up getting hit by a car. My wife suggested letting him stay with us for a few days or so, then trying to find a loving family for him, and pretend we never found the owner. I'm not sure since then we would technically be stealing the dog from the owner, but the owner is clearly neglecting them. The dog is clearly malnourished, and ragged, but he technically is not our dog to find a home for.
We just want what's best for the dog, who we have temporarily named "Shaggy". What do we do?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/qse2a4/dog_keeps_showing_up_to_our_house_owner_cited/
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