Well, I have had an upsetting and stressful afternoon.
Went out for lunch by the canal with Lurcherboy and Mum. When we arrived the carpark was full, so we parked in the overflow and walked up through the shade to have a lovely lunch sat in the shad of a big tree. All good so far.
Walked slowly back to the car and sat around for a while with all the car doors and windows open as it was ridiculously hot inside.
While we were waiting we met a beautiful whippet girl who was just about to go on her walk and got to talk 'love of pointy hounds' with the owner and fuss each others' dogs.
One of the whippet's owners went to get a parking ticket and came back to say there was a dog locked in a car further up the carpark. We checked and sure enough, there was a border collie locked in the boot of a big black 4x4 in full sunshine. It's an unmanned carpark and there was no-one to ask so we waited to see if an owner would return, but no-one did. The 4x4 had been there since we arrived and we had been for a walk and had lunch. It looked as if perhaps they'd tried to squish it into the shade, but if they had, it must have been there a long time, as the sun had moved right round and there was no shade anywhere near it. The dog was panting and obviously hot and they'd only left a tiny pop out window open a fraction.
The other people went off to ask at the nearby business centre, but no joy there and we couldn't imagine where the owner might be. It's just a canal, where people go for walks, with a cafe you can sit outside. There's nothing else there and nowhere you would go and leave your dog in the car.
So, I decided to call the Police on the 101 number. Tried three times and their operator kept putting me through to the local branch and cutting me off. 
When I did eventually get through ... their response? "We don't deal with animals - you need the RSPCA". I explained that I had no way of writing the number down and they said, ok leave it with us, thank you for calling and that was it.
So grabbed Mum's smartphone and googled RSPCA, but we had hardly any signal and couldn't get hold of the number. So we had to drive a couple of hundred yards up the hill to a local pub carpark to get a signal.
Called the RSPCA - it was farcical. It took nearly 15 minutes to get through to an operator on their 'emergency line' the whole time spent with them trying to get donations for money and all the while the poor dog possibly dying and definitely in distress, having been in the car for 40 minutes since we first saw it, probably much longer.
Got through and it took almost 10 minutes for them to take the details. They wanted all my details first and I just wanted them to get someone out to the dog.
Finally they said the call had gone through to the local team and someone would be out asap. Then they tried to get me to donate - again. By this time it had been 50 minutes and I was seriously late to pick up my dcs from school - a half an hour drive away. We were parked in the shade with the aircon on for lurcherboy and the car temp was saying it was 24 degrees in the shade. 
Didn't have time to go back and see if the dog was still there (ds1 has ASD and I can't be late to pick him up) and a couple of minutes into the drive the RSPCA called me back to say they had no-one available so had passed it back to the police and would I give them permission to pass on my details. 
So the police said the RSPCA had to go out and the RSPCA called the police - who could have bloody well gone out in the first place, when I first called what felt like an aeon before.
I checked that someone was definitely en-route to the dog and that was that.
I have asked them to let me know if the dog was ok, but the RSPCA said it would depend on what action, if any, is taken against the owner and may take some time. Not sure anyone will contact me and let me know now it's been passed back to the police.
I was literally shaking and felt sick with worry for the poor dog. The bloody RSPCA asked all my details and phone numbers etc first, then what the dog looked like, including colour etc and was sooo slow. I had the location, car type and number plate - that should have been all they needed - but no - they kept me on the phone for 10 minutes, after 15 minutes waiting to get through and then didn't attend anyway.
I feel so upset now. I can't believe the dog survived and wish I could have broken into the car - but I didn't know how and I would have been charged with criminal damage if I'd tried.
If I could get my hands on the idiot that left that poor dog there in probably 26/7 degree full sunshine where they were Godknowswhere I wouldn't be able to control myself.
I was late for the dcs as well, but fortunately ds1 was also ver late out, so didn't notice. Whereas dd was sitting on her own in the nursery 'helping the teachers' when I arrived. Fortunately the teachers are dog lovers too and completely understood why I was late.