by Angela Song, Scared, Lost Dogs: San Diego on Facebook
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
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| Millie, chillin' after her capture, following 76 days on the lam |
On the day/night of trapping, we had our team of five. We each had a pre-planned role with specif...ic responsibilities. We were positioned in different locations with different equipment. I was with Jen who had the baby monitor, I had the binoculars. Pattie and Lynn were in a parking lot just adjacent with Lynn's high powered scope aimed at the from the of trap.
There were several hours of planning and deliberation and detailed testing and retesting of all the moving parts. We set the trap at 6 pm to sync it with her usual feeding and activity time.
She really made us work for her capture. Although she came out a few times from 8:25 pm onward, she kept us on the edge of our seats as it grew dusk then very dark. Jen and I worked back and forth with me letting her know if Millie was approaching the trap so she could turn the baby monitor on. We had limited battery time so the monitor could not be kept on. Becky, Pattie, and Lynn called in from their vantage points as well. We were all in constant communication (even if words were not spoken). The dark hours between 9 pm and midnight were pretty nervewracking to say the least. Millie went back and forth between the humane trap and box, to the east, disappeared to the west, napping here and there, multiple approaches without eating, a LOT of looking out into the parking lot.
When she finally approached the box trap the final time, she went in for the hanging hot dog first then went right back in to try for the chicken. It took her three good tries to get the bait chicken. It was a super dry, nuked chicken breast attached to a papattachéattached to the wire at the very end of the trap. Thank goodness she didn't accidentally trip the wire during these initial attempts because she was doing her crazy lean-ins and looked out at the parking lot. She did this several times before she actually committed to pulling the chicken. She walked all the way in and the door slammed shut.
From the nanosecond we saw the door shut on the monitor, Jen and I flew to the trap (I think our feet touched the ground, but can't remember). Car doors still swinging open. I know Jen will give more details on this, but it was so critical that we got there within a miniute. A minute! Millie was already frantically clawing at the door and sides and started barking as we approached (a scared bark, not aggressive) and we know even a couple of more minutes and she could have lifted the side of the door and gotten out. Thank goodness for the box trap and the ingenious custom-made flanges from Pattie's friend, Glen, to help keep the door down. It bought us precious moments.
As soon as Millie heard Jen's soothing voice as Jen was tying the door, and Millie realized we were not there to harm her, she immediately calmed down, sat and allowed Jen to reach in and put a collar (three in total) around her. She is SUCH a sweet girl.
By this time, Pattie, Lynn, and Becky were there and with all of us guarding the door, we lifted it for Jen to go in and sit with her baby. It was an incredible moment.
Jen and Becky were able to calmly walk back down with Millie on the lead(s), put her in the back of Pattie's truck which had the crate ready to go and off to the vet we went. ... The rest of this happy ending to be continued...
Video 1 - Testing of trap door in daylight view. It works!
Video 2 - Millie finally in the trap!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scared-Lost-Dog-San-Diego/210446905654052
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