Stolen dog
Rhode Island Jul 25, 2026
Location: Rhode Island Legal question: Are the circumstances enough to prove my dog was stolen from us? Can we even get her back? I'm coming onto reddit because I truly don't know what to do. Here's the context: A little over a year ago my mom's coworker announced that her dogs had accidentally mated and she had a litter of 3 puppies she was selling. Eventually, the only dog she ended up giving away was our dog, the only girl, and she gave it to my mom for free because they were friends, and because she knew we had been looking for another dog after our terrier passed away. The woman said she would much rather give the dog away for free to a family she knew would care for her than to sell all of them off to stranger. My mom's coworker takes the dog to the vet and gets all the necessary immunizations and paperwork filled out (which we own copies of), and as a thank you I give my mother $2,000 to gift to her coworker (puppies from this breed easily go for 5k or more). When she is old enough, we take her home. Because this woman and my mother were friends, we would sometimes drop our dog off at her house so our dog could spend time with her parents and her siblings, and then pick her up promptly after, always making it very clear that these were temporary visits. Even after my mom got a new job this continued because, again, they were friends. We've officially had her as our dog since the spring of 2025. Then we get to the issue. In February of this year, my mother had to undergo a major surgery, and she was advised by her doctor to have our dog stay with our coworker until she recovered. She is a fairly big dog, and because of how dangerous the surgery was, the doctors didn't want to risk our dog getting excited and messing up the healing process. With this in mind, my mom made plans to have our dog stay with her coworker in the few months it took her to recover, again making it very clear that the situation was only temporary, and her coworker agreed. Now that my mom is back to work, we obviously wanted to get our dog back, but as of a month ago, this woman has begun completely ignoring any attempt my family has made to get her. If they're having a conversation as friends and my mom brings up our dog, the woman goes silent, or hangs up. Where before she would send us pictures of our dog, she now refuses to send any updates and ignores texts trying to coordinate a pickup time. I think my mom is also worried about what escalating this would do to their friendship. I leave for college in a month and all I want is to spend some time with my dog before I have to move, or even to be able to see her when I come home during breaks. I miss taking her on walks and I miss laying down with her, and I know my mom and dad and siblings miss her even more. I don't know what to do and because we technically got her for free I'm worried she still belongs to my mom's coworker in the eyes of the law. If anyone can help my family I will be eternally indebted to you.
