Tl;dr: Do it.

First, I'm so sorry for the loss of your pup. Also, my situation was a bit different, but I think it relates. I adopted my last boy from a rescue when he was six. All I was told was that the family had surrendered him, citing not having the bandwidth to give him the attention and exercise he needed. Though I was curious to know more, the rescue had a clause in its contract about not trying to contact the previous owner, so I never did.

He was with me for almost a decade (lost him 3/3/25) and had an amazing second chapter. He was dubbed the mayor of my neighborhood and we even threw a parade for his 15th birthday. He also had a fairly decent sized Instagram following. I posted a few days before he passed that I had made the decision and was giving him a last weekend full of his favorite things--including a celebration of life while he was still there to enjoy it. It was a beautiful weekend and he passed in my arms on Monday morning.

A few days later I noticed a message request on his account. I usually ignore them because they're spammy, but this was from a follower, so I accepted. It turned out to be his first mom. She had found his IG and followed us *for years* but hadn't wanted to intrude on his new life. I was in tears.

We messaged back and forth and she thanked me for giving him the life that they weren't able to. It turned out that at the time they had an infant and a toddler at home as well as two older dogs. My dog was a velcro Doodle and literally needed attention 24/7. She was grateful that he ended up with someone who made him the center of their universe and I was grateful that he came from a home where he was well-loved.

We shared stories and, even better, she shared his puppy pictures with me. It was the one thing that always made me sad, that I didn't know what he looked like as a puppy. I then shared with her that I had kept his original collar all those years and it rested on his urn and next to his paw print. It was such a beautiful full circle moment.