Which Animal Shelter to Visit?

One of the most confounding tasks I have encountered with losing my 10-year old dog Hildie is where to go to find her. Because my home is located in Sunland in the City of Los Angeles, if she is turned in or found by our local Animal Control, she would be taken to the East Valley Animal Control shelter in Van Nuys. That's about 18 miles from my home but takes about 30-45 minutes in traffic to get to.

However, we live adjacent to La Crescenta and Lakeview Terrace. If she was found in Lakeview Terrace or Kagel Canyon, she would be taken to the County Animal Shelter in Castaic, which is 29 miles away. If she were found by someone in La Crescenta, she would be taken way over to the Baldwin Park Animal Shelter, 32 miles east of where I live.

There's also the possibilty that someone may have turned Hildie in to the Burbank or Pasadena Animal Shelters, which are no-kill shelters. If that were the case, Burbank is about 8 miles and Pasadena is about 20 from here.

You can see my dilemma when it comes to checking the local animal shelters every day. There's no way anyone could cover that much ground in person. As a result, I have relied on the online postings the animal shelters offer as a way to see, visually, if any of the dogs housed at any of these shelters look like Hildie. If they do, then I have no problem with taking time off from my business to drive wherever.

This task is daunting, at the very least and time consuming and expensive in terms of gasoline. However, I would welcome a call from an animal shelter any time of day or night if they did have Hildie.

If anyone finds a dog, please bring them to a local shelter so that if an owner is looking for them, they can be reunited with their dog. That is the right thing to do and it is wrong to keep a dog just because you may have found them without a collar. Many dogs - like Hildie - get loose or loose their collars when they are in a panic. 

To whoever has my dog, please bring her to a local vet or animal shelter so that she can be ID'd and we can bring her home! That is the "right thing to do."