Years ago,while my dog was being watched by a friend while we were out of town, he bolted through our fence during a storm. We returned home as soon as possible to call shelters and post reward flyers. We heard nothing but a few false leads for weeks. Then one morning I get a call at 8 a.m.

She said 'I think my sister has your dog. I don't think she wants to give it back though. She really loves that dog. She even took it camping with her and her family.'

'Well, Weebie' s family is right here missing him very much. Why did you even call if you weren't going to let me have him back?!'

I'm pretty sure she was angling for reward money at this point because she starts talking about how Weebie was infested with fleas and 'her sister' had taken him to the vet for flea medicine. I agreed to $50 (all I could afford). And had to drive to a grocery store parking lot in the next town over.

The story as I have pieced it together is that one of them worked in a factory across the street from our house, saw the dog standing in the road and opened the car door. I don't doubt that he jumped in their car to get out of the rain. They continued to drive right past the flyers we had posted and not respond day after day, even taking him camping with them for a week and letting him become infested with fleas. He was well groomed when he left our home. It was obvious she hadn't given him any medicine other than a flea collar as her story about the vet kept changing. (The vet she first claimed to have taken him to was his very own office whom we had contacted of his disappearance.) Not to mention, he had old chewing gum matted in his dirty fur. We were disgusted and frankly scared to even be interacting with people who had essentially become extortionists in our eyes.

I am just thankful that greed won out for this soulless person and we got our Weebie back!