he and the original owner had been searching for weeks for this dog. The lady that *found* him told the vet at the time that she was returning the dog to the nearby house of where she found it at, so the vet never thought twice at the time, except to check him over as she (lady that found him) thought she might have hit him with her car. So happens to be this lady fosters dogs and brings them to Colorado a few times a year to adopt them out for a fee, in which is how I ended up with him, I paid $250 for this guy.
The vet wouldn't give me the original owners number, so I gave him mine to have them call me....nothing like having a heart racing ninety miles an hour, fearing they'd want this guy back. They finally called about an hour ago, and after looking over the pics I sent them of when I first got Rivers they agreed that he was the pup that escaped the yard. They had just moved into that house from Montana on a job transfer, Rivers was 3 mnths old when they moved to Texas, they bought him from a couple in Montana who had an accidental litter of pups between a male Toller and a female golden retriever mix. They outright stated that the couple had had every intentions of having the female spayed but then she ended up pregnant; the original owners of Rivers stated that they witnessed first hand that his father was in fact a Toller, as the couple that sold them the dog stated that he was not of any kind of purebred and they he was a total mutt. They had the fathers breeding papers, and they picked Rivers out of the litter because of his personality...go figure, that's what I love about him best too.
Then the discussion turned and I thought for sure they'd want him back, but after showing them all kinds of new pictures and explaining how well he'd settled into our home, but that I understood if they would want him back, they pondered for a minute and decided that he really didn't remember anything about them and that he was too young; they asked how he was training wise, told them that he'd past Intermediate obedience training and that I was putting him in advance classes here soon...they were very excited that he was alive and healthy and living in a happy home. I offered to pay them the money that they had paid for him originally and they happily declined, stating that they only wanted me to keep in touch and if I ever came through Texas - we travel a lot, to stop and see them.
I'm glad that I can finally rest knowing that I didn't steal someone elses treasure.