We flew up to northern NSW on the weekend for a family reunion. Having arrived on ANZAC day, we swanned into town to watch the traditional march and listen to the service. Partway through the service, this little pittie turned up, running around in the crowd, trying to pick a fight with 3 GSDs and their ACD friend, making parents nervous, you know. I called her over and grabbed her collar, thinking she must have got away from someone. We looked around and no one was in hot pursuit. She was a lovely dog, jumping all over us and loving up to us, and she was clearly someone's beloved pet as she was in good condition and had a nice pink collar and the remnants of matching nail polish on her nails!
Anyway, she didn't have any ID tags, and she was starting to cause trouble with nearby dogs, giving them the eye. So we took her to the back of the crowd, hoping someone was looking for her and would see us back there. But after ten minutes or so no one had turned up, she was getting restless and people were telling me to watch out because there were 3 Alsations just over there and wanting to know why people brought animals to these things in the first place. My partner was demanding to know what I was going to do with her seeing as we were far from home in a rental car living in a hotel. I didn't want to take her to the pound because the owner would have been hit with a $500 fine on top of the fine for her being loose in the first place just because she was a pitbull.
But with no ID tags and no one looking for her, I caved in and finally agreed to hand her over to the nearest cop. She was most likely microchipped as it's the law to get it done in this state, but that doesn't help much when the only ones that have readers are vets and pounds/shelters, and it was a public holiday in a regional town and everything was closed.
I felt really bad. She was a sweetie, and I'm sure she just saw the horses and the crowd and the other dogs and escaped from her yard. Hopefully she was missed before the end of the day. It's a lot cheaper if your lost dog doesn't spend a night in the pound before you get it back! It really drove home the importance of ID tags, though. These days a lot of people here don't put them on anymore because of the microchips. It's no longer the law for them to have ID tags because every dog (and cat) is routinely chipped. But if I'd just had a number I wouldn't have had to send her off with the police. Penny has her ID tag on all the time, and I was considering doing things differently with the new pup and just putting it on when we leave the yard. Changed my mind about that, now. He can wear his tag all the time as well. You never know when it'll come in handy.
BF wants a pittie, now. I pointed out that they're a restricted breed according to Australian law and he ammended that to wanting a staffie instead. I promised the Finnish Lapphund will be every bit as cuddly as a piittie or staffie. He'd better be, or he's gonna get traded in! 
It's a shame she had to go pick a fight with the GSDs. She was doing well convincing people that pitbulls aren't vicious. Although, people seemed more concerned about the GSDs. At least if one of them got loose it wouldn't be a $500 fine right off the mark.