Dog missing from south side home after fire, still not "home"

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- A fire breaks out at a south side home, and when firefighters enter, a dog escapes. Then, the dog was found. But that was just the beginning of this story.

When a fire broke out at Lucinda Powell's south side home on May 15th, a neighbor called her after firefighters entered the apartment.

"She said 'your dog took off running and I haven't seen her since,'" Powell said.

Days later, Powell's niece began looking for "Lovely" on the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission's (MADACC) website.

"She ID'd the dog off a picture on our internet site. She actually picked out the wrong dog. She called subsequent to that and identified a different dog apparently," John McDowell with MADACC said.

"It was the wrong dog, but then she called them back and they told her they picked Lovely up," Powell said.

A dog that looked like Lovely had been found six days after the fire, and nearly six miles away on Milwaukee's north side, near the Metcalfe School on North Avenue.

"Officially she never came down here to identify. We don't positively put somebody on a record as an owner unless they come down to identify it," McDowell said.

"My niece went down there. They wouldn't even let her back there," Powell said.

The family and MADACC say the bill for the dog was $286.

"We was trying to get it together. But then it was like why should we even have to pay?" Powell said.

MADACC says nobody came by to identify the dog or pay. After eight days, MADACC's policy is to move the dog, which happened on Wednesday, May 29th when the dog was taken to a rescue.

"It's nothing I can do but just hope they find her a good home or they feel pity and bring her back to me," Powell said.

MADACC says that because nobody came down to identify the dog, they couldn't release it to the family. The family says they will try to find Lovely and go through the process of adopting her.