Saw something involving a dog today that really bothered me. Long shot but any help? Aldi Maribynong on Edgewater Blvd.

There was a dog in bad looking shape today outside that Aldi. It had a rope for a collar and wasn't tied to anything, was just sort of hanging around by the entrance near the trolleys. My wife and a couple of other women were all a bit concerned since it had some fresh looking scar/wounds on it, looked malnourished and just generally not in good shape. Also the lead was a two foot piece of rope, for fuck's sake.

I got there a minute later and my wife and I were on the verge of chucking it in the back seat and taking it to a vet, but then decided to go inside Aldi and ask if they could put out a call on the loudspeaker to see if it had an owner inside.

I went inside and within 10 seconds I saw this guy and I just had a sinking feeling like AH, no need for the intercom call. That's the owner, isn't it? Tall caucasian guy about 6 foot with long dirty blonde hair almost to his shoulders, wearing a black singlet, black pants and just looking generally grimy, you know a deadshit on sight. Ten utterly blackened inch long toenails too, I was sure as soon as I saw him that it was his dog, since it was a bully breed/american staffy/pitbull type dog and...you know the deal, shitcunts getting big scary looking dogs for the street cred or whatever, but they never treat them right.

The dog was really friendly but in a scared and earnest way, if you know what I mean. I have a previously abused dog I got from a shelter and for the first year or so he would look at me the same way, like he was desperate to please me but only because he was clearly scared something bad would happen if he didn't.

So I didn't get the staff to do an intercom call, and instead went back and waited outside, and the guy was out there within the next minute after he'd paid for his groceries. My wife and another lady asked him if it was his dog, and paid it compliments, to which this guy responds "yeah great dog, as long as nobody tries to steal him"

This turned into a minor carpark scene as my wife followed him going off at him that she wasn't trying to steal him, she was concerned since he had scabs and fresh looking wounds and gummed up eyes and looked overall malnourished. The guy just rolled his eyes and said pretty much yeah whatever and kept walking.

The bit that fucking kills me is that after this cunt and the dog walked off, about 20 meters later the dog stopped and looked back at all of us. I don't care how woowoo you think I'm being, it felt like the dog picked up on the genuine concerned and friendly energy all us strangers were giving to him, and he looked back at us like he was watching his last chance at a better life vanishing.

SO. I didn't know what to do at the time. If the dog had been actually abandoned or stray, I would have taken it to a vet. IN HINDSIGHT I wish I'd at least told the guy to take it to a vet and I'd pay for it right then and there, but I doubt he would have taken me up on that.

We're talking about it now and my wife thinks we should have followed him and found where he lives so we could at least call a dog welfare check, if that's a thing?

I dunno, I realise you can't save every animal in plight you see but I really feel like we had an opportunity today to help one, but somehow failed.

Thanks for reading. It's a very distant and belated long shot (I should have posted this hours earlier when it happened) but is there anyone in the area who has perhaps seen this guy before? I want to help this dog.