Dog Thief?

Okay. This is kind of interesting. Late last Sunday afternoon, my little pekenese "escaped". He somehow ended up out of his fenced in area (through a hole he had supposedly made that was only six inches diameter, with a cone on) and I went looking for him. The way the town is organized, I thought that it would be faster if I went seperate directions. I would go one direction first, then work my way back, then go the other direction. I went door to door to all my nearest neighbors and talk to the ones that opened their door for me. I also spoke to the people that were out on the street. Every five steps I took, I made sure to yell his name as loud as I could for two reasons: 1) if he could hear me calling him, he would turn back and follow my voice to me and 2) If one of th neighbors had found him or had taken him, they would hear that someone is looking for him. I would think that if you found a dog with a collar and a "biter cone" and someone was looking for a lost animal, it would at least catch your attention. The "biter cone" should have also tipped you off that he was injured or sick in some way and maybe needed some kind of treatment or medication. He also had his tags on, just saying. Anyway, after searching for two hours, I turned to the reverse direction. The neighbor nearly directly behind us aid she had seen him an hour before I got there, but hadn't seen which way it had gone. I continued searching for another two hours and still couldn't find him. I couldn't walk either. It took half an hour to get back home and the sun was setting. We had already checked both the vet, the dogcatcher, and the pound. I wouldn't wander the streets, alone, in the dark. I settled for waiting in a chair in the front yard waiting for him to come back. I had a hard time getting to sleep that night and finally fell asleep around four the next morning. My legs and hips were killing me and I was very upset. My mom woke me up around ten. I still couldn't walk well but I went outside to see if he had come back or eaten his food. He hadn't. I had to clean up and get packed and ready to leave. I did not have time to search the streets again. I did stop by the neighbors who had seen him and asked again. they said they hadn't and that *someone probably had him.*I went home and got a call around 7:00 pm from my grandmother saying that they had found my dog and that the people I had talked to a few times were the ones that had found him. The ones that lives behind us. And that the lady had put him in her neighbors yard because she had other pekenese and thought they would get along better that her large dogs. They also took his cone off. Yesterday, I heard the whole, slightly more true story. The lady that lives behind us had found my dog the day before, but seeing as it was a male pekenese caught him and put him in the neighbors yard with the neighbor's two female pekenese. They then sent me on some wild goose chase for two and a half hours but I came back several times to talk to them again, seeing as they were the only people who had actually seen him. Go figure. I think they called because they felt guilty about lying to me. When my cousin went to pick up my dog, the lady did everything she could to keep from giving him back. She said that in the two days that she'd had him, her son had gotten attatched and they now wanted to keep him. My cousin had to threaten with police in order to get him back. The nerve. I had previously been keeping him in the front yard because there was more shade, but I think I'll make some shade and keep him in the back from now on. Might be less tempting.