Update on Otis

mckayleesmom wrote: or Ottis as dh accidentally spelt on his name tag.... As most of you remember I searched and searched for his owner to no avail for a long time. I tried newspapers everyday, online when my computer worked and the free magazines that let you put ads in. I put up a couple fliers and kept in contact with the the shelters to see if anyone came looking for him. They told me that after a month that I can go ahead and consider him ours because most owners find their pets in that time frame. We have had Otis for a long time already. We have done everything short of taking him to get fixed and getting his official tags....which are not far off. He had become a beloved part of our family...if not a third child. The kids have become his world and vise versa. He cries if they leave the room without him and he can't get to them....if they shut a door or something.


FAST FORWARD TO THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving day I realized I was out of mustard....so I went to go to the store. Dh was getting the fireplace going and I went out the door thinking the kids didn't see me. When I got into the car...Russell came running out the door for the car...and let Otis out the door.....He likes to run if he gets out...usually only a few houses away....he has to pee on everyones lawns....You know dogs....Anyways...dh went running after him and this man accross the street said that the dog was his that had gotten out a couple months ago. The guy said that his name was Charlie.....The guy tried to call him by name and Otis didn't even respond to him. The guy didn't ask for him back or anything.

Here is the thing......I know part of this is my selfishness talking, but Im not going to volunteer Otis back I also think the guy is lying by alot of his inconsistancy's......

1. Otis had deep deep cuts on him when we first got him and he was really dirty. If he only ran away a couple houses...that means that those cuts happened at these peoples house....they were not just scratches...they were deep cuts that were infected and had no hair covering them...Nicole watched him for us and she probably remembers....That means he wasn't being taken care of there. If other owners came forward I could understand the cuts because he could have gotten them running the streets, but going next door and then accross the street? That to me is a sign of abuse.

2. If you loved your pet....why wouldn't you look for him? Otis isn't a cheap dog...he is a pug....I think the guy hasn't asked for him back because he isn't his and doesn't have the papers to prove he is....

3. He said that Otis was 8 months old when he went missing.....Otis is like 5 or 6 years old....

4. Otis first spent the night at the people directly accross the street from our house. I know for a fact that the lady there is on speaking terms with this "supposed owner" and they even borrow lawn stuff from him. Wouldn't she have known the guy has a dog? We asked neighbors and nobody knew where the dog came from.

5. The kids have played in the front yard while this guy was outside....wouldn't he notice his dog accross the street a long time ago?


Here is my theory. Otis is a very very loving dog and just a perfect dog all around. The guy accross the street said that he wanted to keep him, but then it got out and came to our house. I think that the other guy wanted to keep him also and he ran from there. I think that is why the guy hasn't remotely fought us on it....,I think that Otis probably did go there first and the guy thought about keeping him , but he got out. Seriously...why wouldn't you look for your expensive dog if he was yours? I think Otis ran away and the guy figured that the real owners would find him so he didn't look for him....Why look for a dog that you didn't invest in?

Part of my thinking is logical and wanting to protect Otis and my kids feelings, but part of me is also being a 5 year old kid and not wanting to lose my dog.....Im really hoping the guy just lets it go.....which he probably will because I don't think he is the real owner. Everyday for over a month Mckaylee asked if Otis was still lost and I finally gave up and told her that no he wasn't...he was now home. Im not taking that back...I just can't....She is so attacked to this dog. I just can't do that.

mckayleesmom replied: Also...that night me and dh called him "charlie" a numerous amount of times and he didn't even bat an eyelash....We even tried calling him that name from another room and he didn't come. We yelled "Otis " and he came. He does know his new name, but wouldn't he remember his old one?

luvmykids replied: That guy sounds pretty fishy to me, all of the points you brought up are reasons it doesn't vibe but especially since you went around asking and put up fliers, etc. And the cuts would be a BIG red flag if the dog really was his.

I've had pets go missing and believe me, I would have been knocking on your door asking if you'd seen him ..... no way could one of my pets been on the same street and I didn't know it

mom2my2cuties replied: What a pickle - I wouldn't want to give Otis (or OTTIS ) I think if this guy wants to push it I would get ANYTHING and everything I could from a Vet...ESPECIALLY about the cuts and stuff. And get an age approximation from the Vet as well to prove Otis is older than this guy is claiming his dog is...I would also NOT volunteer ANY information or Otis to this guy - He could use it to try to take Otis from you by force.

CantWait replied: Brianne, I think you're doing the right thing. That guy is full of s***. It sounds like Otis has got a loving family now and I don't he needs to give that up.

mckayleesmom replied:
Here is the thing....My dh kind of fibbed and told the guy that we adopted Otis from the shelter......We didn't adopt him, but dh's protective mode went into effect as he was talking to the guy. The guy wasn't mean or anything like that, his stories just didn't add up.....When my dh mentioned that we got him from the shelter....he just dropped the conversation basically and they said their goodbyes....He didn't ask for him back or anything....I think he was afraid he would be charged with abuse or neglect so he dropped it.

We did take Otis to the shelter and kept in contact, but they didn't have room to take him and we wouldn't have left him anyways. They just told us to wait a month and to please get him vaccinated and fixed....Which is what we are doing.

I don't have pictures of the cuts, but I have witness's....The lady accross the street that took care of him the first night and Nicole saw the cuts Im sure.......I gave him a bath before dropping him off to Nicoles, so that wasn't really something to witness besides the fact that he had dry skin pretty bad and his nails weren't trimmed in a long time.


Now his cuts are healed, the hair has grown over again and his coat is shiny. The only problem we have with him now is getting him to eat dog food because we have tried every type of dogfood known to man and he won't eat it......Whoever owned him before fed him people food. Its kind of hard to break him of that because he has 2 toddler food sources now....but he is healthy. We are getting his shots when we go to my mil's for xmas....my SIL is a vet tech.

mom2my2cuties replied: I think you are doing the right thing! I am so glad Otis has found such a loving and wonderful family! He really took to his name - Makes me wonder if he even had a name before you guys found him, because it is so hard, especially for older dogs to take to a new name.

mckayleesmom replied: Thanks....Im just really hoping my instincts were right....I just really think he is lying.

C&K*s Mommie replied:

Kaipo is still young, but he had a different name before we renamed him. And to call him by Chase (his original name) even a few days after we renamed him he did not respond. Even when we first started calling him his new name (Kaipo) he immediately took to it.

mckayleesmom replied:
A young dog I can understand....but Otis is like5 or 6.....not young.....And why would the guy say he was 8 months.....

C&K*s Mommie replied: I had some pics of Otis and only in one of them can you see the abrasions on his skin. But yes, I remember seeing the abrasions on his back. Poor Otis.

But he is in a loving place, so there is no turning back now to whatever abuse/neglect he suffered before he got with your family.

mckayleesmom replied:
And you saw him dry....when he was wet the cut was actually alot bigger...part of his hair had grown over some of it.....It was actually really long and deep.....You can still see where the hair grew in because the hair is darker where it grew in.

mckayleesmom replied: Either way...if they loved him, they would have looked for him. We love him so much already and I can't see how someone would just not look for him. When my husband first told me the guy said he was his...my first thought was.....We are moving so they can't get him back.....I know thats not rational but that is how much we love him.

~Roo'sMama~ replied: It doesn't sound like he really is his dog. I wouldn't give him up to that guy either!