By Michelle Hiskey
January 10, 2011
The owners of a dog lost near Mason Mill Park hired a pet detective, and now Henry's home.
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| Eddie Stenehjem hugs Henry after his return Sunday -- just before the storm hit. |
By Sunday morning, Henry had been missing almost four days. The big winter storm forecast added to his owners’ worries. They had put up posters and gone to animal shelters looking for their 1-year-old mutt. The shelters turned up nothing except memories of adopting Henry from one as an abused puppy.
“Just fear of him being alone on the streets,” said Eddie Stenehjem, Henry’s owner who lives near Ponce de Leon Avenue and Clifton Road, of what made him and his wife pay a professional to recover their dog. “Fear is a great motivator.”
Eddie’s wife, Sarah Stotz, searched online for help. She found the website for Carl Washington, a nationally-known pet finder based near Augusta.
He’s no Ace Ventura. Washington makes $900 a day, with no shortage of work. On Friday, he instructed Henry’s owners exactly what to put on their posters, where to put them and where to search.
When Henry didn’t show after 24 hours, the detective came on the scene in a white SUV plastered with his business sign and Henry’s picture.
On Sunday morning, Washington parked on Desmond Drive just off Clairmont Road, about a half mile south of where Henry had bolted four days earlier from his pet sitter’s home.
Two trained tracking dogs in the back of the SUV barked, ready for Washington’s phone to ring with their next lead.
Rocky, a Jack Russell terrier, and CoCo, a poodle, have solved cases from New York to California. They race the clock; a scent lasts only three hours.
Hopefully, the third tracking dog wouldn’t be needed: Gizmo, a terrier mix trained to find cadavers.
“I give him [Henry] an 85 percent chance of being found,” said Washington, who had searched overnight Saturday for Henry in the neighborhoods around Mason Mill Park.
“He’s got some hound in him and the weather’s not bad – yet. In this brush, a dog will burrow down and stay warm.”
His phone rang. Henry had been spotted near Toco Hill Shopping Center. Washington took off.
Stenehjem later recalled what happened next. He, his wife and eight friends joined Washington and his tracking canines. For four hours, they combed the area around Azalea Circle.
They knew Henry would be elusive and had said so on their posters: “Call if you have him, or see him and can’t catch him – he’s very shy.”
But Henry’s odyssey ended when he passed through a gate into a fenced yard.
“Fortunately there was only one way in and out,” Stenehjem said.
Finding Henry “was indescribable,” he said. “It was like bringing home a child.”
As for Washington, it was another solved case – the result that had earned him coverage on Fox and CNN, and a pilot for Animal Planet.
“I’m glad I didn’t end up doing that,” said Washington, 54, of the TV series. “You could be out there showboating while pets are dying.”
Instead, Henry was back, and Washington was headed to his next case.
Source: http://northdruidhills.patch.com/articles/with-storm-coming-pet-detective-locates-lost-dog
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