Update for April 25 from the Seattle Animal Shelter:

"On Sunday April 21, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) removed a small dog, Zipper, from a vehicle in a West Seattle parking lot. It is alleged Zipper may have been in the car for up to six days. The SPD turned Zipper over to the Seattle Animal Shelter, where he remains, contrary to public perception that he has been returned to the caretaker who left him in the car. Zipper is happy, energetic, appears to be in good health, and is being well cared for by animal care staff. As with any similar case of potential animal cruelty, the Shelter has opened an animal cruelty investigation and will keep Zipper in custody until the investigation is complete and a course of action is determined."

Original post on April 24
Southwest Precinct Officer Katrina Stuckey located and saved a pug/beagle mix who had allegedly been abandoned by a dog sitter and left in an abandoned car left in a Westwood Village parking lot for nearly a week.

Here are the details from SPD's Blotter:

Seattle police and the Seattle Animal Shelter are working to reunite a cute little dog with his owner after the dog’s sitter left him in the parking lot of a West Seattle grocery store.

Just after 1 AM on April 21st, security officers at a grocery store in Westwood Village called police after they spotted a small frightened, shaking dog in the back of a car parked outside the store.

SPD Officer Katrina Stuckey arrived at the store and spoke with a security guard, who told Officer Stuckey he believed the car had been parked in the same spot in the lot for at least six days.

Security officers weren’t sure how long the dog—a “very cute and sweet” pug/beagle mix, according to Seattle Animal Shelter Manager Don Baxter—had been alone in the car, but they could see he didn’t have any food or water.

After Officer Stuckey tried to tried to track down the car’s registered owner—and learned the car had recently been sold to a new, unlisted owner—she called for a tow truck, removed the dog from the car, and had the truck towed.

Officer Stuckey and the store security officers then gave the dog food and water and turned him over to the Seattle Animal Shelter.

The animal shelter has not yet been able to contact the dog’s owner, who is apparently out of state. However, Seattle Animal Shelter staff have been in contact with the dogsitter, and plan to have a chat with them about how pets need to have water and food available at all times and shouldn’t be left alone in cars when the weather gets warm.