A California woman said she was "devastated" to learn that her pet dog had been brought to a shelter and adopted by another family, whom she doesn't know.
"We are hurting," Robinson said, crying. "Our family is not complete without her and her playmate Laddie [the dog] is depressed because she's not around. They’ve been together since they were pups."It upsets me because I know she's waiting for us to come and get her and we don't know exactly where she is."
Sharon Robinson, 71, of Stockton, California told ABC News that she and her husband Larry, 73, took a trip to Boston on Dec. 4.
But while the couple was away, Robinson's son, who was caring for her two dogs, called to inform the couple that their female dog, Tipsy, was missing.
Robinson said she's had Tipsy, a 9-year-old Shetland sheep dog, since she was 5 months old.
"There's a doggy door, our yard is fenced in, so I'm not sure how she got out," Robinson said. "She's not a real friendly dog. When you’ve been around her for a while she warms up to you, but otherwise she stays away from strangers."
"I was at fault for not having her microchipped, but my generation, we don’t even think about that," she added. "I realize on my part it should've been done differently, so I'm at fault also."
Robinson said a friend advised her to share Tipsy's picture on a Facebook group for lost and found pets.
Soon after, she received word that Tipsy was at the nearby City of Stockton Animal Shelter, but when she arrived there on Jan. 12, shelter employees informed Robinson that Tipsy had been adopted.
Robinson was also told that the family who adopted her dog had lost the same breed a few weeks prior and refused to part with Tipsy.
"Evidently, they love her and don’t want to give her up," Robinson said. "I feel their pain because they’ve got my dog."
A spokesperson from the City of Stockton Animal Shelter told ABC News that Robinson's dog came into their care on Dec. 5 as a stray.
"Ms. Robinson did not show up at our shelter until Jan. 12," the spokesperson said. "At that time, we advised her who the dog had been transferred to and that the dog was adopted on Jan 2 [through] the Valley Humane Society. We want the dog to be returned, but unfortunately we cant make these people return the dog."
A spokesperson of the Valley Humane Society located in Pleasanton, California, where Tipsy was adopted, told ABC News that they cared for the dog beginning Dec. 7 and eventually placed her in foster care for 10 days until she was permanently placed in her new home.
Since learning that Tipsy had belonged to another, the organization said they've been communicating with the dog's new family on behalf of Mrs. Robinson, but still, the pup's fate remains solely up to her adopters.
"We successfully placed her [Tipsy] in a home on Jan. 2 and as far as we know, an owner did not come forward," the spokesperson said. "On Jan. 12, Sharon [Robinson] called to say she’d been searching for the dog and she wanted the dog back. That was the first day that [we] started reaching out to the new adopters to see if they'd be willing to return the dog.
"[We've] spoken to them multiple times and have been hugely unsuccessful in convincing them to return the dog," the spokesperson added. "Talking to them, they just see a dog who’s super happy and they just don’t want to give the dog up."
While Robinson's aware that there are confidentiality laws forbidding the humane society to give up the family's identity, she's hoping they read her plea to get Tipsy back through media platforms.
"I have offered to pay for all the expenses they’ve put out and for an adoption for a new animal," she said. "I would like to tell them I'm grateful and thankful that they took care of her...[but] 'Please, let us have her back.'"