4.5k
u/NewSubstance7 2d ago
They wanted to keep the dog so they made the real owner go missing so they could keep the dog
1.1k
u/Illustrious_Quiet907 2d ago
I thought he had dementia. Sometimes people with dementia go missing because they wander and forget where they are or how to get home.
268
u/yet-another-redd 2d ago
Yeah.. it’s painful to watch someone like that.
134
u/LoudAd7294 1d ago
I once saw a lady leave at a clinic, like 5 am, through the yard in her gown with a old lady vest on.
She had wandered off the dementia ward and made it to the street when the caretakers were informed.
I saw her being brought back by police half an hour later, but she had lost her Jacket.
How horrible it must be to live in such haze, to want and need without logic, to fear without sense, to run but nowhere, only to lose more every day.
86
u/Fair_Project2332 1d ago
Some dementia care facilities place a fake bus shelter near their gate. A large number of wanderers will stop and sit to wait for transport, and can be collected and led back to safety.
36
u/GladdestOrange 1d ago
Imagining a sitcom episode where a character's new to driving a bus, with one of these near their route, now, thanks.
12
u/sorehamstring 1d ago
Harvey Crumpet
Edit: Harvie Krumpet
It has exactly this. If you haven’t watched it you should. It’s a very bittersweet stop motion animation.1
50
u/Bwint 1d ago
I was working the Front Desk at a hotel when a woman came up. She said she had gone for a walk, but had gotten turned around and needed some help getting home. OK, no problem.
....Except that she didn't know her address, had no phone, credit cards, or ID on her, and didn't know the phone number for any relatives. She gave me her name, but it's a little unclear to me if it was her legal name.
Eventually, I called the police. The officer very kindly asked her many questions, and eventually the lady said "I don't understand why you can't just get me home!"
"Oh, we'll get you home! Don't worry about that, we'll get you home. It's just... It would be extremely helpful if you had... anything at all."
17
u/FreeFortuna 1d ago
So what ended up happening?
19
u/stay_curious_- 1d ago edited 1d ago
My city has a registration program for people who may become lost due to dementia or disability. They can take them to the hospital and check for notable features (height, eye color, location of moles or birth marks, earlobe attachment, scars, piercings, all sorts of stuff), and then check against the database to figure out who a person is and contact information for their caregiver.
25
9
6
u/VecnaWrites 1d ago
One of my old coworkers went to a restaurant that was spitting distance from work, then ended up driving around the parking lot in a circle for a half hour due to not being able to find her way back.
2
u/Johnny-of-Suburbia 23h ago
Wow that's kind of scary.
In the past I have had some very bad moments of disorientation. Sometimes my brain struggles to recognize things at different angles or lighting. It's very embarrassing because it means, once in a blue moon, I get stuck walking in circles somewhere.
Like I said, my brain is failing to recognize and remember the things around me, so looking around I can't effectively use the environment to navigate.
Since I can't figure out where I came from, I can't figure out where to go. So I'm stuck.
Usually I can figure things out on my own after a short amount of time. Then its like "What the hell why couldn't my brain recognize [insert detail here]?!"
Brains are crazy. Can't imagine how horrified she must have felt inside knowing she was stuck somewhere that should have been easy to get out of, and that she was expected to be back at work.
1
1
6
u/SpaceLemur34 1d ago
He's wearing an orange jumpsuit in the poster. He's an escaped prisoner.
13
u/anonadvicewanted 1d ago
posters for escapees don’t usually say “missing” on them, they say “wanted”
6
1
44
u/Active_Lifeguard_335 1d ago
It would be more obvious if, in the second panel, you could see them walking the dog
46
u/FormulaDriven 1d ago
Yes, and I think that's clear from the fact that the cartoon is titled "Finders Keepers" -> source: https://www.atrandomcomics.com/at-random-comics-home/2026/6/24/finders-keepers
4
6
u/Odd_Tap_1794 1d ago
I thought he was an escaped convict baiting people into being his next victims
2
u/LadyKlepsydra 1d ago
Damn, I did not get the joke, I thought the dog put up the other missing posters. So the man was looking for the dog via posters, and from the dog's perspective the man was missing, so the dog was looking for the man via posters.
1
1
1
1
u/TonberryHS 1d ago
If this is the joke then the 2nd panel should show them walking the dog, having kept it, alongside the missing poster, implying the connection.
1
1
1
1
-2
u/JoeJonnyJeff 1d ago
He's in an prison jumpsuit in the missing photo, he's an escaped killer.
3
u/FormulaDriven 1d ago
No he's not, that doesn't fit with everything else we see in this cartoon. The cartoonist entitled this "Finders Keepers" and when he originally posted it, he tagged it with references to dog theft.
1
u/JoeJonnyJeff 1d ago
That's not a color people just wear.
1
u/FormulaDriven 1d ago
In this cartoonist's world, you'll find people wearing all kinds of bright colours. You'll probably want to point out that rabbits don't wear scarves either - by the same cartoonist: https://www.atrandomcomics.com/at-random-comics-home/2026/5/6/sledding-friends
1
u/Samael13 1d ago
I'm literally wearing an orange shirt right now, and I'm definitely not wearing a prison jumpsuit. Lots of people "just wear" orange.
638
u/handmetheparachute 1d ago
For a second, the orange shirt on the man on the poster made me think he was an escaped convict.
31
u/brother_octopuss 1d ago
Wait, its not?
39
u/GrizzlyRoundBoi 1d ago
It's a missing poster not a wanted poster.
-23
u/JoeJonnyJeff 1d ago
It's AI slop, that's why it doesn't make sense. It's supposed to imply he's an escaped killer.
11
u/blueisthecolor13 1d ago
Apparently it’s implying the kids kept the dog and now the owner is “missing”
5
u/TheShizknitt 12h ago
It's implying that the people killed the man and he is nw missing because they wanted to keep the dog.
The shirt color is irrelevant.
Just because it doesn't click with you immediately, does not mean it's ai slop.
4
2
654
u/Downtown-Campaign536 2d ago
Here is the order of events:
An old man owned a dog.
The dog ran away.
The old man puts up some missing dog signs, and searches for the dog.
A young couple found and adopted the dog.
The young couple grew extremely attached to the dog, and had the dog for an undisclosed amount of time lets say that it weeks or months.
By chance the old man while putting up missing dog posters again comes across the young couple that has found his dog.
The old man insists they give the dog back. The young couple doesn't want to.
Things get out of hand. The old man is killed, and the body is disposed of by the young couple.
The old man had a wife, or kids that put up missing posters for him.
It's dark humor.
144
u/MacSchluffen 1d ago
In my head canon the dog put up missing posters as well and it is the reason they found the guy..
4
2
18
u/Funny-Oven3945 1d ago
My first thought was.
"People care when dogs go missing and help look for them but when an old person goes missing society doesn't care" 😂
3
u/AnthroJoyce 1d ago
Silver Alert is issued in the US.
1
u/Funny-Oven3945 1d ago
Right instead of your amber alert? So is amber reserved* for children or something?
6
u/AnthroJoyce 1d ago
Yeah, Amber Alerts are for missing children. Silver for missing elderly. Blue Alerts are when someone flees after attacking law enforcement. Purple Alerts are for those missing with cognitive disabilities.
2
u/Funny-Oven3945 1d ago
Wow thanks for sharing, I'm honestly surprised more countries don't have this alert system in place.
Alot have emergency alert systems but that's more like "incoming nuclear missile say goodbye to your loved ones now" ahahaha
2
1
u/Delicious-Ad5161 1d ago
I've never seen a silver alert, but I did just get an amber alert for an older man with dementia thirty minutes ago.
9
1
1
u/FormulaDriven 1d ago
I think that's more or less it (it's in line with this cartoonist's kind of humour), but I don't think the young couple adopted the dog. I think it makes more sense that the dog has only gone missing in the last day or two and the couple have just found it but have already decided they would like to keep it. So as soon as the old man shows up they glance at each other and make a decision... .
-2
u/MrLead69 2d ago
My version is that The dog is already dead, maybe from being run by a car or something, the old man has dementia and ran off on his own and now passed away.
The couple are angels and they've been taking care of the dog in the old man's stead, now he reunites with his dog.4
u/Polyglot-Onigiri 1d ago
I would believe that order of events if they looked happy or welcoming, but they look kind of upset in meeting the old man.
1
52
u/jitterscaffeine 2d ago
Hm, my first instinct is that they killed him so they could keep the dog maybe?
3
u/BoBoBearDev 2d ago
I thought it means human likes pets better and willing to help out. But.... yours is more accurate.
6
u/FormulaDriven 1d ago
Yes, and I think that's clear from the fact that the cartoon is titled "Finders Keepers" -> source: https://www.atrandomcomics.com/at-random-comics-home/2026/6/24/finders-keepers
23
u/NoiceM8_420 1d ago
Because I’m fried i thought it was some commentary about people not caring when it’s the elderly that go missing. But yeah kidnapping the guy makes sense here.
7
u/_Leaf_Lagoon_ 1d ago
I originally read it similarly. Like growing up ive always been on the lookout for missing dogs but never people once I see posters. But yea the kidnapping fs.
38
u/Aphtanius 2d ago
So the real answer is that they made the old man disappear because they wanted to keep the dog.
But alternatively: The old man has dementia and he wasn't actually holding up a poster of a missing dog, but his own poster.
10
u/Obsidian-Phoenix 1d ago
Potential alternate explanation: Random people will search for, and find, a missing dog.
No-one cares when a person goes missing, and so won’t search for them.
7
8
u/godlesszq 1d ago
I take it to mean that the couple who found the dog fell in love with it, and so when the actual owner came to claim his dog . . . they murdered him.
18
u/talkmemetome 2d ago
Am I the only one who saw the orange shirt on the poster and thought it was an inmate that escaped and is using dogs to get close to kids? 🤣
3
u/PumpkinBrain 1d ago
Yeah, orange is a really specific color to have him wearing in the poster…
But, I realized we have more specific posters for escaped criminals. I’m just not 100% sure the comic author realized that too.
10
u/-McLaren-F1- 2d ago
Here I was thinking the owner put up missing dog posters and the dog put up missing owner posters
3
5
u/AcesInThePalm 1d ago
2 ways of looking at it.
People with his dog are his family and he has dementia, so he wanders off looking for his lost dog that may not be lost at all. Child safe version.
He doesn't have dementia, family found his and grew attached, murdered the old guy. NSFC version.
6
u/HystericalGD 1d ago
it looks to me like they either killed the old guy and kept the dog
or people care about missing dogs, but not missing people
1
4
5
u/JackeyWetino 1d ago
My interpretation is that people don't give a damn about missing people, but do for animals
3
1
1d ago
[deleted]
4
u/redknight1313 1d ago
Because they found the dog, fell in love with it and don’t wanna give it back. So they killed the old man. That’s how I interpret it anyway lol.
4
u/MrCobalt313 1d ago
Either the old man had dementia or something and wandered off in search of his missing dog, ironically becoming 'missing' himself. or the family that found the dog 'made him disappear' so they wouldn't have to give up the dog.
4
4
u/spicy_feather 1d ago
They tried to steal the dog and got caught so rather than returning the dog they dissapeard the old man.
6
u/NoDifference3349 1d ago
I thought it was because grandpa has dementia and he walked off and his family was trying to find him. But that would be a depressing joke...so maybe it is not meant as a joke?
3
u/Exit_Save 18h ago
The family liked the dog enough to kill the old man.
Either they stole the dog or just found him, then when the old man ran across them, he attempted to take his dog back, and failed.
3
3
u/IGGINS81 1d ago
I think the dark humor is less complicated.
People are more likely to search for a lost dog.
But people are less likely to search for a lost person.
3
3
u/SecureExplorer1255 1d ago
Oh thats dark.
Dog was missing, people didnt want to give dog back, now that old man is "missing"
3
3
9
2
2
u/tucker_sitties 1d ago
I interpret it as people will go out of their way to find a lost dog. Lost human? Not so much
2
u/StoicScaly 1d ago
The way I interpreted it is they went out of their way to find the lost dog, but nobody gives a damn about the man who went missing.
Maybe I'm wrong, but that's my first guess
For context: people are shockingly more sympathetic to animals that people on average
2
u/hotsizzler 1d ago
Oh I thoight it was about how people care more about missing animals than missing people.
2
2
2
5
u/FrostyNature2223 1d ago
I feel like everyone's misunderstanding this. When there was a missing dog poster, the dog was found and returned. When the person himself went missing, no one bothered to look. It's a commentary on societal priorities.
8
u/FormulaDriven 1d ago
They're not misunderstanding it, given the cartoonist entitled it "Finders Keepers", and tagged it dogtheft and keepingthedog.
It's in line with the cartoonist's dark humour - the child doesn't want to give up the dog, so the man arranges for the old man to "disappear" and ensure "Finders Keepers".
2
u/KnightofPandemonium 1d ago
I don't think it's fair that you were downvoted for this. It's a grim, cynical take, but it's a valid reading of the comic.
2
u/hello-random-person 2d ago
They murdered the old man in order to keep his dog. His spirit now haunts them driving them both closer and closer to insanity. Their greed and desire has become their own undoing.
2
u/silverfoxxflame 1d ago
I got a different take away from most of you clearly.
I thought this was a play on the idea of if a dog goes missing people will find it and return it... But if a person goes missing, especially an elderly one, no one but friends and family will really notice or care.
Doesn't explain the frowns on the first panel, but still
3
u/FormulaDriven 1d ago
Sorry, that doesn't work, as many have explained. The cartoonist gave this the title "Finders Keepers" and added tags like "keeping the dog". The old man cheerfully expects them to return his dog, but these people have other ideas to ensure the dog stays theirs. It's in keeping with the cartoonist's dark humour. https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ-WREmFHUl/?hl=en
1
1
u/Funkopedia 1d ago
The real answer is they killed the old man, but i prefer to think that the dog put up the old man missing signs and simply forgot to take them down.
1
u/Iceologer_gang 1d ago
He escaped from prison and that dog was a police dog sent to track him down so they had to put it down so it wouldn’t snitch on his location.
1
1
1
u/aydey12345 1d ago
I read it that they gave the dog back and he made a shirt out of it Simpsons style.
So they made him go missing.
1
u/Neil_Salmon 1d ago
Completely blindsided seeing all the comments saying they killed him etc. Didn't even occur to me.
Here's how I see it. When a dog is lost, people put in the effort to look for it and return it to the owner. But when an old man is lost, people don't really care and society moves on as normal.
Edit to add: My interpretation is likely wrong. The frowny faces in the first panel indicate they're not really returning the dog.
1
u/Extra_Philosopher_63 1d ago
I don’t know what it’s actually referring to, but my best guess is that most people love dogs, and so if they go missing, people are quite quick to find it and pretend to uphold their due duties as a citizen.
Yet, when a person goes missing, who cares? Why should I risk my safety to look for some guy I don’t know I can trust? Afterall, he’s just an old man! And I don’t know if he’s crazy!
So it’s kind of how people justify themselves into being right when they have the halo effect towards physical appearance or basic nature on given creatures. Dog is lost, dogs are usually good = I save dog and make myself feel good about it.
Human is lost, nobody trusts anyone anymore, therefore that human is bad = I ignore missing human poster and make myself feel good about it.
1
1
1
u/JadishRadish 1d ago
This is a great example of the different ways our brains work. So many interpretations of a comic called Finders Keepers, the title alone being the biggest clue. If you don't know what it is called, though, it stands to reason that you'll come up with your own theory.
1
u/Shiro-Yuuki 1d ago
Damn. And I thought it was just the difference on how people treat missing animals vs missing people...
1
1
u/Realistic-Size-6612 1d ago
People are ready to search for a lost pet but nobody cares about lost human. It's 2 separate parts
1
1
u/rocarson 1d ago
I'm going to choose to believe that instead of giving up the dog, the young couple decided to adopt the old man as well and his previous family is looking for him. The other is a little... dark. Plenty of darkness in the world right now; so I'm choosing wholesome for this one :)
1
1
u/pondeneering 1d ago
They didn’t want to give up the dog, so they adopted the lonely old man too and now live as a happy family, posters are put up by neighbours. The dog and the old man voth likes the new home better.
1
u/Honest-Ruin305 1d ago
My headcannon for this is the old man is on the run and escaped from jail, but he is happy his dog is being taken care of by somebody because he can’t while he’s on the run.
1
1
u/3_Year_Old_Girls 1d ago
The Take: The dog put up the flyer of its owner to get the owner to find it to reunite with its companion.
this take is inspired by Gary Larson
1
u/crimsonrn100 1d ago
I thought it was saying people would look for lost dogs but not missing people
1
u/Murky-Golf-239 1d ago
People will look for your dog to help you, people won’t take the time to look for you when you’re missing.
1
u/faratnight 1d ago
The old man was dead and the dog still alive. Now, some freshly dead couple brought him his just dead dog.
1
1
1
u/Sakoto_Galaxia 10h ago
Based on my understanding, it looks like people care more about, and therefore look for, lost pets than they do people, especially elderly
1
1
u/TheGamingSpin0 3h ago
The man is wanted by the police. You can tell by the orange jumpsuit.
I think it's supposed to be misleading that the dog was looking for him (or maybe he was idk)
1
u/PixelGMS 2h ago
All these answers saying that they killed the old man or he had dementia or whatnot
I thought it was a social commentary that people are more likely to pay attention to missing pets than missing humans
1
u/reddedumption 1h ago
It's mostly what the top 2 comments says. But when a dog goes missing everyone cares and when old man goes missing nobody cares
1
1
0
u/Niggly-Wiggly-489 2d ago
It illustrates people care more about missing animals than missing people
0
0
u/StoryBard 2d ago
I think the implication here was that they did a disappear on the old man so they could keep the dog, ifyaknowwhatImean.
Either that or they kept the old man as well so they could keep him AND the dog, lol. I'm going with that bc it's the funnier interpretation to me. "OMG where could grandpa be?" Meanwhile at the new family's dinner table, there he is. XD
0
u/J_Stubby 1d ago
As of me typing this: the top comments are saying the old man lost his pet, this young couple pictured found him and took the dog in, and when the old man finally found his long lost dog and confronted the couple they killed him. But there's still the fact he was wearing an orange jumpsuit different than the clothes he is presently pictured wearing.
I agree with some commenters that the old man has dementia, or some mental ilness that has progressed to such severity as to have him confined to a psych ward at least.
Here's my take; the old man had a dog, and that dog died either right before or when he was institutionalized/imprisoned for whatever mental disorder he has, possibly brought on by old age and a weary/fractured mind. He escaped confinement, dressed himself in the clothes he remembers wearing regularly, and one of the few concrete memories he has left is of his beloved pet, so he starts putting up missing posters.
While putting them up and with a poster in hand, he saw this young couple with their dog that looks similar, so with a diminishing mental state he approaches them saying "this is my dog, it looks just like them, ergo you've found my dog that I don't remember seeing for quite some time." He thinks his dog is missing, and his brain is foggy enough to only recognize the similarities + not realize the passage of time. Meanwhile, officials have put up posters of the old man with the last pictures they've taken of him (explaining why he's in an orange jumpsuit), and are actively looking for him while he thinks he's found his "missing" dog. In this case, it is possible that his mental state is so unstable that he killed the couple and is an escaped convict, hence the orange jumpsuit reminiscient of a prison uniform. Or he's just deluded and breaking down in the park at the realization that the memory of his life is fading or generally in shambles.
Tldr: whatever the case, it's a play on the missing posters that people put up when looking for their lost pets. Not only is the old man's dog missing (to his knowledge), he himself is missing and people are looking for him. The fact that he is in an orange jumpsuit indicates that he was in a controlled, uniform environment, and has likely escaped while trying to recollect the pieces of a life he can only remember, hence the change in outfit. The conclusion of this comic strip is inconclusive, adding to the need for discussion on what these images ultimately mean.
1
u/FormulaDriven 1d ago
I don't buy the orange jumpsuit theory - it's just an orange shirt out of the bright colourful palette that this cartoonist uses. Of course, concerned relatives would be using a photo showing him in different clothes to the first picture because it would be a photo taken some time in the past before he encountered the people with his dog. If he were an escaped prisoner it would be a more official poster with "WANTED".
Anyway, the clincher is the title and tags used by the cartoonist when he originally published this, as mentioned here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PeterExplainsTheJoke/comments/1ugz8i5/comment/ou4rayh/
0
0
0
-13
u/Affectionate-Push758 2d ago
He’s an escaped convict planning to do unspeakable things with the Dog.
-9
-2
u/Worried-Penalty-3642 2d ago
Social commentary about how people are more worried about missing pets than missing people. Which is a . . . take.
-4
u/Antique-Calendar-466 2d ago
guys he had dementia or sm and he was missing from the hospital so he was delusional and thought the dog was his. hope this helps
-11
•
u/post-explainer 2d ago
OP (Quirky_Sell_1289) sent the following text as an explanation why they posted this here: