I'm a little confused Mugsy. Don't you have to have dogs licensed in your state? Here in New York, all dogs must be licensed in the county and /or city where you live. These licenses are like proof of ownership. If ownership is "transferred" form one person to another, there are forms that need to be filled out and turned into the county clerk along with a fee. If a dog is found as a stray and there are no county records for that particular dog, assuming no tags, microchips, dogs reported missing that match description, etc. the dog becomes the "property" of the county animal shelter for 30 days, gets shots and if necessary, gets neutered or spayed. If this man claims to be the "real" owner of Tobey, then he must have his early shot records or his license. Right? If not then he is in violation of the law and will get a citation. In our county, the parks officer issue a ticket on the spot for an unlicensed dog and the fine is $500!! How does it work where you live? Perhaps this could be incentive for you and Mike to petition the county for some new rules and regulations... The licensing fee is $4.50 for a fixed animal and $10. for an unfixed animal. Not a huge amount of money, but alot of piece of mind... I hope you get Tobey back and everything works out. And I hope my sharing my county's way has been useful to you. Good Luck!!