This was actually a case of two things. The first was that a pet was left out when the player logged out. Pets left like that get increasingly unhappy and eventually go wild after an hour or two (whether bonded or not). Always shrink or stable your pets before logging.
The second issue was that the player had shrunken pets that showed an owner of "nobody". That means they belonged to a player who no longer has an account in WP. These pets are no longer valid and cannot be unshrunk.
Ghost