Thank you for your response.
I do have written documentation of the kennel having the dog, and they are licensed by the state. In fact, they are a national chain, and gave us the number for their risk management department. I have not called them yet both because I have been concentrating on finding my dog and I wanted to be more informed of my rights before talking to them.
The kennel has typical cages for the dogs, in fact the same kind the have at our county shelter. There is an indoor portion with a doggie door that lifts during their "outdoor time". The outside cages have gates with a small gap at the top (although actually a little bit bigger a gap than at the shelter). On the other side of the kennels is a small yard with a high (concrete?) wall around it, with a chain link gate. One of the employees saw from the inside of the building that our dog, Sadie, was climbing the gate of her cage. The employee ran around to the outside but by then Sadie had squeezed out of the gap in the cage, crossed the yard, and scaled the chain link fence. The employee then ran around to the outside of that fence, and was joined by two other employees in chasing Sadie, but were unable to catch her. Again, I am not sure how long they chased after/searched for her before giving up. If it would help, I can send pictures or a map of the area she escaped.
According to the employees, they called the local Humane Society everyday and visited the county shelter several times. They also put up 2-3 signs, (pretty weak ones in my opinion) and ran a free ad in one of the two major papers in the area for approximately two weeks. The other paper charges for all ads which may be why they did not list her.as lost in that paper. I also did not see any listings for her the the smaller local papers (such as "The Flyer: or "Tampa Bay Times") or at any of the lost dog sites online. They did not mention whether they called other vets/animal hospitals in the area and did not distribute flyers. Since we got back in town, they have apparently assumed we would take over the search, and seemed to have ceased their efforts.
Sadie was not the only animal we were boarding at the kennel at the time. We were also boarding our older dog, Happy, and our cat, Percy. The kennel wiped out all charges for all the animals, including the charges we had incurred about two weeks before when we first brought the puppy (Sadie) in to be checked. We have since adopted another puppy and they did not charge us for her initial examine today, except for the cost of fecal testing ($50.00). Despite the fact that we have adopted another puppy we are still hoping and praying to find Sadie, and are continuing our efforts to find her (placing ads, signs, flyers, driving out to the shelter several times a week, etc.) and are still quite devastated by the loss.
Joanne Hall
Customer (name blocked for privacy)@hotmail.com
