Karen gave a disheartened shake of her head. “I can count his ribs from here, though I’ve been in this business long enough to have seen worse. But I know when you risk life and limb to save one of these fellows like you two have, it gets personal. I’m sure you’d like to hear otherwise, but we’d risk our license being called into question if we didn’t follow procedure.” She turned up her hands and looked at the dog who was still standing on all fours and looking between them. “Like it or not, his owner has seventy-two hours to claim him. What I can do is list your grievances with the county. When there’s a neglect complaint, sometimes it can move things faster. Don’t hold your breath on it though.” She gave an apologetic shrug of her shoulders. “In the meantime, I’ll post this guy’s picture online. Maybe someone will come forward with more information.”

“I know the perfect shelter to take him if no one comes forward,” Ava piped up. “I went to a fund-raiser there recently. It’s no-kill, and they vet adopters heavily, so he’d be sure to be in good hands.”

“Near you?” Olivia asked.

“Yeah, like ten minutes away, maybe less.”

“You know, I’m going to have to come back for my car,” Olivia added. “If that works out, my sister and I could come get him when we do.” She hooked a finger around one of the bars, and the pointer leaned close to give her finger a sniff. His nose was warm and dry. Hopefully he wouldn’t get sick from having expended so much energy in his already-weakened condition. “He’s such a sweetheart. I’d adopt him myself, but without a place of my own, that’s out of the question.”

Rhonda patted Olivia’s arm as she stood up. “If the shelter will take him, call me. I could use one more animal off my plate. Most days I feel like I’m playing solitaire when it comes to finding places to take these guys.”

“So that you know, underweight as he is, we stopped him short of a full meal tonight,” Gabe said, hooking his thumbs in the back pockets of his jeans and drawing Olivia’s attention to his wide, rounded shoulders. “I’d recommend smaller meals more frequently over the next few days. Plenty of water and a real checkup as soon as he gets where he’s going.”

Rhonda agreed before pulling Gabe to the first row of dogs to look at one that had come in this morning, an energetic Lab-collie mix who was running a fever. Olivia took the opportunity to walk her sister around the other cages and share some of the rescue stories she’d heard this afternoon.