More: Lily had been lost from her original family for two weeks when I found her living in a dirt hole in an abandoned yard. She was emaciated and deeply fatigued but showed enthusiasm and gratitude for the food and water I offered her. Lily then came home with me where I cared for her while I searched for her family. It took about six weeks, a family member recognized her while we were out for a walk one day. I told them where and when I found her, and that she'd been to the vet and gotten all her shots. The family then told me I should go ahead and keep her, since I had cared for her so well and that her previous owner ( the girls mother) had not even bothered to go looking for her when she went missing. The really sad thing was they would have seen her from the back of their house had they just looked out their window. The hole she was living in was just across the back alley and behind a chain length fence. Lily could see their house from the hole. That was 6 years ago, she has been a wonderful little companion and a great little hiker to me since. Their loss, was definitely my gain. I have never leashed her, as she has a fierce independent spirit and resisted being led by leash. To date we have hiked over 600 miles together , mostly in the White Mountains of Arizona. She has never run off and remains a faithful although sometimes grumpy ( due to stage four heart disease for which she takes vet prescribed daily medicine) little companion.