ShallowsNole said:
...but lots of people get lab puppies - and want desperately to get rid of them when they get to be six months to a year old....
Why do people do that?
I, too, have seen several cases of this. One neighbor, who still has the dog, got a Lab mix pup because he thought it would turn out to look like a Lab. After the dog didn't grow more than one foot tall, the owner lost interest. That dog has stolen a shoe off of our porch, and stole another shoe of mine while I was visiting another neighbor (shoes on the porch), but I still think that is the sweetest dog, and would take her in a heartbeat if her owner decided to get rid of her.
The sweetie in the photo looks cute, perhaps a little Chow mixed in?
Big question -- have you taken him to a vet to see if he has a micro chip which could identify his owner? If my dogs ever lose their colar and someone else picks them up, I hope the finder has them scanned for the chip.