weenor, I understand what you're saying - honestly. And I hope sometimes that I can make a contribution. If I don't feel that I have anything to add, I don't jump into a post. But sensitvity really isn't a concern. After 30 years of litigation, I don't feel a need to prove myself by another "skin on the wall" or by validation here. I started posting here because I thought that, with my experience, I could make somethings easier for people who seemed to want help in sorting through problems. If someone thinks "you're doing fine" or acknowledges that they've been helped, that's satisfying. After 30 years of tangling with judges and getting my own "bad decisions", anything here rolls off my back, and time spent here is time taken from other volunteer efforts where gratification can be immediate.
ENASNI is right and wrong too. I'm a product of the UC system and the closest to Harvard is a short advanced study with their Advanced Negotiation Project, when it was the #1 ADR center in the country. Now that's Pepperdine in Malibu, which makes things easier. But it has been pointed out to me recently that I seem to be adverse to smiley faces (true) and now knock knock jokes. I didn't realize that was part of the equation for people looking for help, and it makes me wonder whether volunteer time couldn't be better spent elsewhere.
And yes, I sometimes give short shrift to comments such as made by Blonde Lebinese or Breeze, but there are an equal number of times that I've agreed with and supported them. Both are well-informed senior members. I have no vested interest in the OP adopting or rejecting my advice but let me explain the consequences in my state of someone treating Fido as abandoned property, like pieces of luggage left on your lawn overnight.
If you believe that it has a value of $100 or more, you turn it over to the local police, fill out some forms and leave the property with them to try for 90 days to find the owner. If the value of the property is $250 or more, there's a requirement for the police to publish notice in a newspaper of general circulation for another 7 days. If the value of the property is $250 or less, the original finder can make valid claim for title after 90 days. Then you're not guilty of conversion
If the "property" is an animal abandoned to a vet, kennel or animal hospital and is not picked up within 14 days of the date due, the custodian is to spend 10 days trying to find a new owner and, if unsuccessful, is directed to "humanely destroy the abandoned animal."
Those are the "rules and procedures" for my state. What if there is something similar in Maryland? Should I have explained to the OP that animals are property and that taking and retaining custody and control of someone else's property can expose you to liability for conversion? Was the correct response "you should have turned it over to the police or risk being sued for conversion"?
I'll take a show of hands:
How many think that within two weeks, Fido would be the station house mascot and the duty officer would be walking him and cleaning up "accidents"?
How many think Fido would have been turned over to Animal Control and euthanized?
Because one of those is going to be the result of following the "rules and procedures" with regard to abandoned property in my state.
ENASNI - maybe not knock knock jokes, but point taken. weenor - your point too. Maybe these posts are not as significant as they purport to be and more time in court or somewhere is time better spent.
