I had a dog ... We found out when walking in an area of town we never used to go, suddenly the dog stuck his head into a butcher's and the staff all started greeting him and giving him cutoff bits.
They knew him well they said, comes by several times a week they said, so polite, never comes inside just waits at the door.
Free dog in the city; those days are gone.
Where I worked as an Apprentice Mechanic, we had a Basset Hound that would come wandering (more like 'trundling' if you know what I mean) in at 3:10 sharp, every day. We would be on the lookout for "Hank the Tank", just to make sure he didn't get run over. Then he'd make a wandering tour of the shop, getting pets, ear scratches, and a dog cookie or two... or three... or four... He was really smart, staying out of places that would have been dangerous to him. Saw him every day for years, then didn't see him for a while, then saw him again a time or two. We figured that he'd been getting out when some child in his family got home from school and kept leaving the gate open. I understand that Bassets are wanderers, and "Hank" was apparently no exception.
The next time we saw him, the boss tied a note to his collar that told how we'd been taking care of him and had missed his coming in every day. Then we started seeing him regularly again for a long time.
Then one day, he stopped showing up altogether. A week or so later, a lady in a blue sedan rolled in, weeping, wanting to speak to the boss. We learned that afternoon that "Hank" (his real name was Charlie) had passed...