Is he our dog?? (Pup pics at the end if you read all the way)

Ok so basically, this girl I was friends with in college lived on her own in her parents’ house with just her dog for a couple years when her parents moved to Florida. She was commuting to college every day, and wasn’t really taking great care of the pup, but she’d had him for almost 10 years and she obviously loves him. Her dad is kind of verbally abusive and super manipulative and he always hated the dog, so when the pandemic hit, he kenneled the dog and made her move down to Florida with the rest of the family. Long story short, he wouldn’t let her go back and my parents and I offered to take the dog in after he had been kenneled for a few months because we felt awful and like…you don’t treat a dog like that?? So we picked him up in August and figured “oh, she’ll be back by next semester, January at the latest.”

WELL she did come back in January, but her dad refused to let her or the dog live in the house, so she lived on campus and he stayed in our house. At the time I was still in school and I would bring her to my house almost weekly to see him, which continued into the summer where she and I would hang out every Sunday to watch TV and she would spend the night to see the dog. The show we were watching stopped airing new episodes and we each got busy with other things, and she’s only been back once since July, when I had a graduation party and she hardly interacted with her dog at all and told me she was uncomfortable when people would joke that we’d had him for a year so he’s ours now. She never asks about him anymore, but my parents have totally fallen in love with him.

Anyway, my mom keeps calling him “our” dog, and I totally get that my friend is uncomfortable with that, ‘cause I would be too, but she really is showing no efforts to take care of him or take him back and we’re doing all the vet appointments, getting his nails trimmed, paying for his food, replacing his leash and collar, etc. so I also get where my parents are coming my from, especially because when my mom and my friend are in the same room, he gravitates more towards my mom now. Which of course makes sense, ‘cause she’s been a better owner to him in 15 months than the girl was over 10 years.

Basically, I get uncomfortable on her behalf whenever we call him “our” dog, but like. She’s not being his owner anymore??? I keep telling my parents to say that we’re fostering him but they really want to call him ours. And until she shows that when she graduates in May she plans to take him back, I can’t say he’s HERS. He’s almost 12, we might end up with him until he’s gone at this point. I just want some outside perspectives. Do you think it’s ok to call him our dog?

As a reward for reading this far, here are a couple pictures of the pupper.