Courtney H
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- California
I purchased a bichon/poodle in June of 2018. I have pictures and videos of the dog from the past year. Recently, my 2 dogs have been getting out of the backyard gates multiple times per day. On the 19th on this.month, June 2019, my neighbor told.me if the dogs got out on more time, he was calling animal control. I had decided about month prior that we did not have the amount of time for the dogs, that they deserve, due to being gone too much and decided to start looking for a new home for them. After my neighbor said he would call animal control, I decided I would rather take my dogs to a no kill shelter rather than they end up at spca. The morning of the 20th I went to meet a psychiatrist for my job and on the way I stopped for a drink and began talking about the dogs with someone who parked next to me. They were playing with the dogs through the window and after telling them my intentions and what had been happening they wanted to take the dogs home. So I let them, thinking it was a better situation then the pound. Not more then 2 hours after I got home, a lady came to my door with pictures of my dogs, which had been posted on a neighborhood watch due to them getting out of the backyard so frequently, claiming one of my dogs were hers. She is now threatening to sue me. The police did come out and provided me with an event number saying that I'm fine because I have proof of having him for the past year, while she claimed her dog had been missing for 3 months. The officer said she cannot claim anything criminal because obviously I did not steal the dog. But he said she could try to take me to civil court. But now I'm afraid that I will have to go to court to prove my own dog, which I no longer have. What are possible outcomes to situations like this?