On the transfer to my side account I remember I got several neomails along the lines of "My poogle, I lost it in the pound, I love her very much, may I have her back?" But I brushed it off and went about saving for the brush (600k) and the draik transmogrification poem (1m even was the price of the auction I won). Finally I had all the accoutrement, I just needed the pet. So I attempted to transfer her back.
She was grabbed by a total newbie account. I neomailed her frantically, explaining my situation and begging for the return of my pet. I still remember the gist of what she said "Sorry, I know she's your pet, but I like her and I'm keeping her." Which I know now is really very fair, but at the time it felt unspeakably cruel. I tried to reason with her, eventually she pretended to be her mother neomailing me to yell at me (with the same punctuation, spelling, and grammar issues-- although who knows, it very well could have been her mother). She did promise that she would "take very good care of her". I realized it was out of my hands.
I did check up on her from time to time. Unlike most newbie accounts, this one was played for a time. Then she didn't log in for a year and a half. But then the account was used again, so I neomailed to see how the poogle was. But this time the account was in the hands of a cousin of the first person. She was terribly sorry for what her cousin had done, but she was afraid if she gave me the pet back her cousin and aunt would be angry at her. I told her it was fine. She seemed very concerned that I think so. It had been so long anyway, and the faerie poogle has really not been doing anything for me post-customization.
I saw recently that the poogle was always sad, never fed. I neomailed to see what was up. Apparently the account was back in the first girl's hands again. I could barely keep track anymore. But this time, I had the neomail to cousin's own account. She swore up and down that she still had the log on information, and after playing for awhile she realized that I should absolutely have my pet back. And then, yesterday, Valentine's Day, she actually transferred my poogle back to me.
I really can't believe it, after all this time, I have her back again. It's really got to be some kind of record for a pound swiped pet. She's on my old account for now, which I actually think is a pretty good place for her. And now I have no pound horror story to tell.
Edited to remove names, identifying features, etc.
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)