DOG Stolen Just now 1635 RETURNED

[alice]

Chiwawa Okay I can?t spell it?s not my dog has just been stolen from outside the hospice shop. Owner distraught.

[first mate]

How awful. Any witnesses? Would shops adjacent or opposite have cctv? Is there a description of who took the chihuahua?

[alice]

Thanks fm. Dog Owner doing the above. No witnesses.

I just thought someone may have seen something.

[muffins78]

Oh gosh, any update? I can only imagine how terribly upset the owner will be!!

[Rosetta]

Any news? I hope they posted on the Dog Lost site.

[tiddles]

Yes watching this anxiously also. Please keep us posted

[Sue]

Very sorry to hear this, and also sorry to ask a stupid question, but is it absolutely beyond doubt that the dog was stolen?

Could it have somehow got loose from wherever it was tied up (I presume) outside the shop?

[alice]

Sorry I just don?t know.

[Mystic Mog]

Apparently the dog was taken to the vet across the road by a concerned person and has been reunited with the owner.

[tiddles]

Brilliant news thanks for the update

[d walker]

Brilliant news, so pleased to hear this. Please dog owners don't leave your dog alone tied up in the street it just makes them so very vulnerable to being stolen or being attacked by another dog. Its not worth taking the risk.

[KidKruger]

I think there's arguments both ways for leaving your dog tied-up outside a shop for a couple of mins.

It seems pretty sad that one has to fear losing their dog just because they take it out with them when they're shopping.

[Pete Burtonshaw]

Coincincidentally, a chap I don't know just knocked on my door to ask if I knew anyone who had lost a white Chihuahua....said he had caught it and was going to take it to vet on Norwood Road (by Rockwell Park)....same dog?

[Penguin68]

Whilst it is great that the dog has been reunited with its owner, could the opening headline be changed? It appears the dog wasn't stolen, from what I can see, but (wrongly) handed in to a vet as being lost or abandoned. The change to 'Returned' is great, but maybe 'Stolen' to 'Missing' as well?

Too many people judge the area based on the headlines on e.g. this forum. This says that there is a dog stealing issue locally (which may be so, but which this thread isn't, it seems, evidence for).

[Sue]

Pleased that the story has a happy ending, however if a person was sufficiently concerned to take the dog to a vet for safekeeping, the owner must have been gone a long time?

[KidKruger]

It?s easier to ask in the adjacent shops whether anyone has a dog tied-up outside.

[alice]

I wasn't totally convinced by the 'only taking it to vet' story.

[Sue]

alice Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I wasn't totally convinced by the 'only taking it

> to vet' story.

But the vet can confirm or otherwise, surely?

[Mystic Mog]

The vet has confirmed.

[alice]

So you're the vet?

[Mystic Mog]

No, I just happened to be in there on Sunday and asked if they knew anything about the "theft" and I was told someone had taken the dog in to them.

[alice]

Just seems weird

[Sue]

alice Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Just seems weird

Well if you don't believe Turtle, I guess you could always go and ask the vet yourself :)

ETA: I have sometimes seen dogs who didn't look very happy tied up outside shops and have wondered whether I should do something about it.

If this dog was distressed and/or had been left there for a long time, it doesn't surprise me at all that somebody might have taken him/her to the vet, since there is a vet more or less opposite the shop in question.

[alice]

No I wasn't doubting t's report.

[Blah Blah]

It sounds to me as though somehow the dog got loose before someone caught it and took it to the vet (not knowing what else to do). Surely the important thing is that the dog has made it back to the owner? And maybe to also say that whilst most of the time a dog can be safely left outside without anything happening to it, that there are people out there, who do steal dogs, especially pure breeds with a resale or breeding value. Even someone just being mischievous in letting the dog loose could have led to a tragic accident. It just takes one scoundrel to lose a beloved pet and always better to be safe than sorry.