Look what I found!!!! I ed the number on his tag, but it is not in service. The animal hospital is trying to track down the owner. He is very sweet. And BIG.

It's your birthday week, You going to keep him if no one steps forward? And happy belated birthday

He is much bigger than he looks in the picture He is a great dane, maybe mastiff mix. Very sweet, but HUGE. He came right up to me in my car and let me grab his collar to check tags. He is on the list of breed restrictions for the complex I live in. Besides, I could not afford the care that this breed requires, let alone the food!!! Somehow, I managed to "lose" the metal claw choke chain he was wearing.

I knew that I was teasing, but kudos to you for caring, he is lucky fate put him in your hands.

Is it wrong that I *so* want to cuddle with him.

He's gorgeous. That is disturbing that the number is not in service. I bet the owners moved very recently and didn't yet update his tags. The #1 way dogs get lost is on moving day. They get freaked by all the activity, the owners are preoccupied, moving persons are in and out, in and out; one of the hundreds of times the door opens and freaked dog makes a run for it because he just doesn't know how to cope with all that is going on. I really really hope he's micro chipped because if the owners moved to the other side of the country, no amount of flyers distributed in the area are going to help. Poor thing, he's really really really lucky YOU came along. At least he's out of danger for the moment and you are trying to help him get home. It could have been any nut job that picked him up and he'd be at their mercy. God only knows what horror could have befallen him; for example he's the perfect size for dog fighters to train their dogs -- big enough, but also guaranteed to lose so their dogs get the taste of blood. And that is not the worst case scenario. BTW: they start teaching dogs to fight using using rodents -- rats and rabits for example, then graduate to the smaller breeds and then graduate to larger breeds as the dogs become more vicious. Nice -- huh?

Maybe you could put a warning on that I feel kind of sick now.

I'm sorry about that. You're right, I should have given a warning.

No, maybe I am sorry I need to be reminded about the horrors of blood sport. The house next to my dad's was busted for hosting cock fights in the 1970's, I thought that was funny till I was taken to one. Even running wild bores with kevlar clad dogos (sp?) discussed me, there are better more humane ways to control populations

Another fan of disclaimers for graphic posts about violence. I know you meant no harm, nupo - and I rescue dogs as a volunteer too, and know bad things happen - but I can't stand the images conjured by such detailed reports of animal abuse, so I definitely prefer to be warned. Same goes for abuse to humans, natch. Just a wee disclaimer in the subject line is fine.

I don't think there is such a thing as a great dane fighting dog, fortunately.

No there isn't, that' s why they use them for training purposes. They are pretty much guaranteed to lose. For training the violent dogs, that's what they want, a dog that will fight but will lose.