What a difference a day makes.

Everlinda Toledo’s dog, d’Artagnan, had been at Lee County Domestic Animal Services just four days when Toledo found him there.

It was one day too many.

Because the 4-year-old Pomeranian hadn’t been claimed in three days, he became the property of Animal Services. And Animal Services had adopted the dog out.

“Someone lost the dog, didn’t claim it and it was a done deal,” Lee County Animal Services spokeswoman Ria Brown said. “We asked (the new owner) if she was willing to give the dog back, but she wasn’t.”

Toledo says she didn’t know she only had three days to get d’Artagnan back.
He ran away the night of June 8, bolting out of the door to chase an animal in the yard. Toledo spent three hours in the dark cruising her Cape Coral neighborhood in search of her little companion.

She posted signs all over the neighborhood. She called Animal Services on June 11 to see if anyone had turned in the pooch, and was told there were no Pomeranians at the shelter.

What Toledo wasn’t told — but later found out — was that she needed to check the Animal Services Web site (leelostpets.com) and come down in person to see if d’Artagnan was there.

She found that out when she called Friday. But when she got to the shelter, it was crowded.

Toledo waited but, because she’s a bus driver and can’t be late for work, she left without seeing if d’Artagnan was there.

On Saturday, Toledo returned to Animal Services.

When she saw d’Artagnan, “my dog recognized me,” Toledo said. D’Artagnan was jumping up and down, panting. “‘Let me out, let me out,’ he’s saying,” Toledo surmised.

But d’Artagnan wasn’t going home. At least not the home he’d had for more than four years.

Instead, he was waiting for his new owner, Dana Hanson of Fort Myers, to pick him up after he’d been neutered. Under Florida law, dogs are property.

And d’Artagnan was Hanson’s property.

Hanson already owns one older dog and two of her dogs have died in the last couple of years because of old age.

“I go to the shelter on my lunch hour to love the dogs,” Hanson said.

She also was looking for the right dog to adopt.

“You have no idea how long and hard we had to search for somebody who was perfect,” she said of d’Artagnan, whom she has renamed Sunny.

Hanson said she was given the impression that the dog had been there a while and that Toledo was irresponsible and unconcerned about her dog.

“I made my decision based on the facts, with the information I was given, that the dog would be better taken care of with me,” Hanson said.

If Hanson is indeed a frequent shelter visitor, she knows there are plenty of dogs whose owners don’t want them back. I think she needs to adopt one of those.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think Toledo is blameless in this situation. She should have put a microchip in d’Artagnan, registered him and put the tag on his collar. But I don’t think she and d’Artagnan should be permanently separated because she failed to do those things.

According to Brown, Animal Services puts dogs up for adoption after three days because most owners never claim them.

“You have to set up policies for what is going to benefit the greatest number of pets coming through,” Brown said. “Holding them for owners who 90 percent of the time don’t show up is not good for the animals.”

Had d’Artagnan been a pit bull mix, he’d still be there — or worse — have been put to death. D’Artagnan is alive because he’s small, purebred and young.

And by all accounts, he’s a sweet, lovable dog. I suppose that’s the reason Hanson doesn’t want to give him up.

And it’s probably the reason why, every time Toledo talks about d’Artagnan, she starts to cry.

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