A New Home for Piper

Our neighbor found this cute little dog over a week ago, but she had to go out of town so we kept him so he didn't have to go to the pound, in hopes that we'd find his owners and get him back home. We decided to call him Piper while he was with us. 

We thought he was a Yorkie, but we since learned that Yorkies should be 5 to 7 lbs, and this guy is 10 lbs. Apparently there is another breed called a Silky Terrier that is almost exactly the same as a Yorkie, but should be 8 to 12 lbs, so we think he is a purebred Silky. We assumed that since this is a rather expensive kind of dog, that his owners would be searching for him.  

But we had this little dog for some time, and no one came forward to claim him.  We had the vet scan for a microchip, but they didn't find one.  After we hung up signs around the neighborhood and at the local vet's office, posted info about him on numerous websites (Craigslist, lost dog websites, several local neighborhood Facebook pages, the Helen Woodward Animal Shelter page, and several different San Diego lost dog Facebook pages), contacted all the area animal shelters and animal hospitals, talked to a friend who is a Yorkie breader, and talked to lots of neighbors, we felt like we had done everything possible to locate this little guy's owners. They definitely could have found him if they had been looking. We were contacted by a handful of owners who had lost their silky terriers or yorkies, some locally and some from other states, but each of them determined that this isn't their dog. 

He needs some more work on house training, but other than that he is a great dog -- good on a leash, good with kids and dogs, not too noisy, extremely friendly to everyone, rides well in the car, and never tried to jump on the furniture the whole time we had him. He is a sweet little lap dog, curling up and sitting in my lap for hours or snuggling next to me in bed at night. He has such a good disposition and is so affectionate that we seriously considered keeping him ourselves, but with 5 kids and 2 big dogs to keep us busy, we reluctantly decided it would be better to find him another home. 

So we searched a bit and found a wonderful family here in our neighborhood who will be good owners, and who will really love this little dog for years to come. So even though I miss him a bit, I don't miss the extra work that came with working on house training him, and I know he'll be happy with such a good family. So I'm glad it all worked out well.