SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Up until recently, Rover an 8-year-old Maltipoo, lived with his puppy Harley, his mate Fluffy and his owners Leslie and Mike Giesemann.
Late last month while on a road trip out east, the family got a call that Rover left their Rancho Santa Fe home and was missing.
After frantically calling shelters and putting up posters when they got home, Leslie says she finally got through to someone at the County of Animal Services in Carlsbad.
"The lady goes, 'Oh yeah, he was here,' and so we're like, 'Oh, great!'" said Leslie. "But he was adopted out on the 11th. So I'm like, well, we've been looking for this dog the whole time, we've been calling all these different places. We've looked online, we've done all this."
When the county called Rover's current owners with the situation, the Giesemann's received some bad news.
"They wouldn't even take your number. They were like, 'No, we're happy with the dog. We want to keep the dog.'" she said.
The Giesemann’s admit that a lot of heartache and headache could have been saved if Rover was microchipped, which is a device imbedded in the dog that gives the contact information of the current owner.
Though the family doesn’t know who has their beloved pet, they’re making a plea for them to give Rover back.
"We'd like to have them understand that we didn't abandon him," said Leslie "If it was their dog and someone found their dog, that they would want them to do the right thing and return it."
You can get your dog microchipped at the San Diego Humane Society and most shelters around the area.
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