Yema, an Azawakh

Yes, pet detectives do exist.

Missing dog's owner hires pet detective to help her find hound
By Amy McRary
Posted January 18, 2008 at midnight

A sign posted Thursday by pet detective Bonnie Hale asks for calls if anyone has seen Yema, a missing Azawakh. Yema’s owner, Margaret Cooter, purposely misspelled the dog’s name on the posters to help people pronounce it correctly if they saw the dog. Yema is pronounced like “Emma” with a “Y.” 

Bonnie Hale has heard the "Ace Ventura" remarks over and over. But animal lovers who call the St. Louis, Mo., pet detective aren't laughing.

Hale's a certified missing animal response technician; she and her 6-year-old Australian shepherd Murphy hunt lost dogs and cats like other search-and-rescue workers look for missing humans. On Thursday, the pair roamed streets, parking lots, back yards and underbrush looking for a shy canine escape artist called Yema.

Yema's owner, Margaret Cooter of Farragut, called Hale after her Internet search found that pet detectives really exist.

Yema, a rare greyhound-looking Azawakh hound, somehow escaped Jan. 9 from the enclosed porch and backyard fence at Cooter's Landoak Lane home. The fast, skittish tan-colored Yema (pronounced like Emma with a "Y") had lived with Cooter for eight days; Cooter bought the 5-year-old animal in Clarksville on New Year's Day.

Cooter had searched, posted $500 reward flyers and called the Young-Williams Animal Center before she dialed Hale. She was willing to pay the $1,000 for Hale's work and expenses. "If I take on an animal, I'm going to do whatever I can for them. I'm responsible for her," said Cooter, manager of contracts and compliance for the Knoxville office of AMEC Earth and Environmental.

"There are no guarantees," Hale said. "By the time I get them, the cases are difficult."

While using a rescue dog is the most unusual and talked-about part of Hale's work, Murphy is just one tool. "And he's not the best tool," she says. Hale also uses more standard methods including hanging large "lost dog" posters and canvassing neighborhoods.

Hale's been a pet detective for slightly more than a year; she and Murphy had worked 11 cases on location. She often helps pet owners through phone consultations. More than half the pets the two looked for were found at some point. Murphy, however, hasn't yet flushed one out.

Pet detectives may be as rare as Azawakhs; Hale says about 25 certified ones are active in the United States.

The sad plight of another lost dog began her work. In November 2006, a car belonging to a couple visiting St. Louis from Michigan was stolen. Their white dog was in the car.

Hale led the volunteers who hunted unsuccessfully for the dog. "My life hasn't been the same since."

Hale, who also does faux finishes and mural painting, decided she also wanted to find animals. She completed 100 hours of training, and Murphy passed a four-day course from the California-based Missing Pet Partnership's pet detective academy.

On Thursday, Hale drove her red Ford Escape Hybrid, with Murphy resting in a large crate in the rear, to various West Knoxville locations where Yema may have been seen. She opened a plastic bag that held a white T-shirt with Yema's smell on it. She put a bright orange harness reading "rescue" on the 53-pound Murphy and donned her own yellow vest with the words "PET RESCUE" across the back.

Murphy works for food treats, and cheese is his constant encouragement.

Cueing Murphy with the question "Do you want to work," Hale held onto the dog's long leather leash as he sniffed and meandered along driveways, around flowerbeds and down streets, "Look for it, find it," she encouraged. Occasionally she told Murphy to "get back to work" or ordered "no squirrels" when he got distracted.

When Murphy found Yema's scent, his stance changed instantly and dramatically. Head up, tail waging and eyes shining, Murphy twice Thursday tracked where Yema had been in a residential and office area between Landoak Road and Center Park Drive.

Employees at Modern Salon at 10133 Kingston Pike spotted the lost hound about 10:30 a.m. Thursday; Murphy found but then lost that trail.

By late afternoon, he'd picked up the trail again and pulled Hale into a Cogdill Road back yard not far from the salon.

By dusk, the tracking duo hadn't found Yema. But Hale was confident they'd outlined a rectangle of about one-half mile where the hound was likely surviving. Members of the Greyhound Rescue Foundation of Tennessee helped search for Yema and set a humane trap near Cooter's residence.

They hoped the dog would be tempted by the tuna in a bowl there.

It was Murphy's tracking, however, that may have pushed Yema home.

At 9 p.m., Cooter and Hale returned from a nighttime search to find the hound sitting by the same porch she had escaped from.

Slightly scratched up, Yema otherwise appeared healthy after her weeklong adventure.

Source: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jan/18/missing-dogs-owner-hires/