

Abandoned Animal
My partner and I have been pet sitting for some extra money here and there because we love animals. We've hosted at our house and pet sat at the owners houses several times.
Two weeks ago, a beautiful golden retriever named Cookie was booked in for one week's stay. On the same day the booking was supposed to end, an informal request was made to look after him for three more days. After we said yes, but to make an official booking through the app (Mad Paws), there was no response. Several calls have been made and many texts/messages sent, but still no response. Even Mad Paws said nothing could be done until 48 hours after the "last agreed upon stay" (those extra three days).
It's shocking to me that booking management companies like Mad Paws don't have any sort of contingencies for this sort of thing. I understand that there probably isn't a great deal that can be done on their end, but it's such a sad situation.
Now our only choices are to submit a missing person's report for an owner who we only have the first name of and nothing more, and to surrender a super lovey-dovey almost 11-year-old golden retriever to our local Animal Welfare people. Cookie has been nothing but amazing during the stay. He's such a happy old man and has become really good friends with our 1-year-old border collie named Loki.
Obviously, Cookie is not ours, but we would gladly welcome him into our home. If possible, we're planning to foster him until he finds a new home, because we hate the idea of him being in a cage for the rest of his limited life.
Animal/pet abandonment is disgusting, and I have no idea how people can even willingly do that.
What would you do in this situation? Does anyone have similar experiences?