Here's a question for you:

If you find a stray (or more correctly, if the stray finds you ) and it ends up having a microchip, how long do you give the old owner to contact you before you officially (legally?) take possession of the dog? (One number for the old owner was disconnected, one there was no answer but a message was left.) Also, how would you go about changing the registration of the chip?

To add to the conundrum, this dog is SKINNY (like eats-a-bit-of-food-then-hides-the-rest-for-later skinny). I want to give the owner the benefit of the doubt --dogs get lost or stolen-- but I'm really not sure this person needs the dog back. At one point she was someone's baby --she's chipped and spayed and has decent manners-- but there haven't been any reports at the animal shelter/humane society of a lost dog matching this description. Soooo, I'm kind of at a loss about what to do.



Clarification: Though the dog has been with me about a week, it was only today that I was able to get her scanned for a chip. I'm going to try the vets' offices on Monday to see if anyone has reported her missing but again, does she need to go back to that owner? I'm afraid she might go back to a neglectful situation.