Dickens, border terrier

HOME AT LAST!!!! HERE IS THE STORY OF DICKENS' RETURN
November 12, 2013

I left Warrenton Sunday night feeling dejected, like we were now looking for a needle in a hay stack. Dickens had moved from the Old Town area of Warrenton (where he potentially had thousands of eyes looking for him), ACROSS 29 and had headed into an area populated by large estates and multi-million dollar horse farms. He could travel cross-country in that area for DAYS and never be seen.

He had last been seen on Waverly Dr. on Sunday morning the 10th. However, we didn't learn about that sighting until Thursday the 14th when the family that saw him went into town to the PetSmart and saw his poster!! They called right away, but we were 4 days behind him.

Team Dickens immediately got flyers out in the new neighborhood, and we contacted Ann Wills of Dogs Finding Dogs to alert them of the sighting. A search was tentatively set for Sunday. I arrived back in Warrenton on Saturday, and joined the rest of the team in plastering the new area with flyers and calling, and calling, and calling his name. Saturday yielded no results, and as I mentioned in my last post, we put our hopes on the tracking dogs.

Sunday AM arrived wet and rainy, and we contacted Dogs Finding Dogs to set up a search. I was concerned that the rain would have weakened or washed away the scent, but was advised that in actuality, light rain was a good thing as it would re-hydrate the scent. The problem was that the last sighting was now a week old. Ann explained that her dogs could pick up a scent that was weeks old, but a dog on the run could travel as much as 5 miles a day, and even if we got a good track, the likelihood of catching up to him was nearly zero. It was recommended that we wait until we had a new sighting - one within 24 or 48 hours - and then initiate a search. Ann recommended that in the mean time, we contact FindToto.com and arrange for a blitz of phone calls to neighbors in the vicinity of the last sighting. Rick got on this immediately, and within 30 minutes, 1250 calls had been made to homes in Warrenton!!!!!

Ann also suggested that I go out and purchase towels and rub myself and my other dogs down with them, cut them in to 1" by 4" strips and start laying a track for him to follow. I did this and started walking, with Dickens' mother Pixie and sister Wiccan, from the sighting at Waverly Road, down Culpepper St to Monte Rosa St., behind the American Legion Hall to the Horse Show grounds and back across 29. We went down Locust St to the Co-Op on Washington St. and from there it was up Washington St to the Greenway, and up the Greenway back to Leed's Square, which had been Dickens' "home away from home" for the first week of his adventure. Every 50 feet or so along the track, I tossed a strip of the cloth to help him follow us. Some of you may have seen us walking along and probably wondered what I was tossing onto the side of the road!

After laying the track, I headed home for the Northern Neck, the rest of Team Dickens continued to post flyers until dark. All our hopes were now on someone seeing the flyers in the expanded area, or the phone calls generating a response.

I was at work today at approximately 11:30 am when a phone call came in from a gentleman who said he had seen a flyer and that Dickens had been in his back yard for the last 2-3 days! He said that they saw him early in the mornings and late in the evenings, and he suspected that Dickens' was spending his days in the woods behind his house! In 15 minutes I headed home to collect my mother and my other dogs, and within the hour we were on the road for Warrenton once again!

We called Rick and asked him to get the trap from the Comcast lot and meet us at the new location, which was again ACROSS Route 29 and about 1/4 mile down from the WalMart towards the intersection with Route 17. I arrived at the site at about 3:20 and began walking the property with Pixie. She instantly began air-scenting and looking this way and that and I knew we were getting close. Then she found a spot on the ground and rolled and rolled and rolled in it. I called for Dickens many times and didn't hear or see anything. After about 15 minutes, I returned to the van, and put Pixie back inside her crate. I left the tail gate up as it was a pretty day, and got back inside the van to sit and wait for Rick and Julie, who had an ETA of about another 10 minutes.

As we sat waiting, Pixie and Wiccan began barking wildly at something behind the van. I looked in my rear side mirror and TO MY AMAZEMENT, THERE WAS DICKENS behind the van!!!!! HE CAME TO US! I got out carefully so as not to spook him. I walked calmly behind the van and called his name. At first he seemed unsure who I was, but suddenly the light bulb came on and he realized it was me and I scooped him up in my arms. I got a TOTAL FACE WASHING and his warm little tongue never felt better - even with a BAD CASE of doggy breath! Rick and Julie arrived moments later and the long journey and sleepless nights were finally at an end! I'm sure Dickens was wondering WHAT TOOK US SO LONG?????????

But Dickens' story doesn't stop here. We had previously discussed the best plan of action if - excuse me - WHEN Dickens was found, and we had decided that he should return home to the Northern Neck with me for a period of time to recover physically and emotionally, and then we would take a few weeks and multiple visits to gradually re-introduce him to his new forever family so that he would have a strong and safe relationship with them before he made the final move. The goal is now for us to have him moved permanently to his new family in January, where he will start off 2014 as the unofficial "Mayor of Warrenton."

Tomorrow Dickens will see the vet and begin treatment to protect against tick-borne illness (yes, he had his share of ticks) and will be wormed because heaven knows what he ate on his journey!!!
He is in remarkably good condition given his ordeal - 15 days in the wilderness.

Over the next few weeks I will posting about Dickens' recovery and I will share some WONDERFUL tips that I learned about conducting a search for a lost dog that were shared with me from friends and fellow dog lovers all over this country and even from Canada!!!

I know that many, many people in Warrenton were worrying about and watching out for Dickens. I don't know who most of you are, but I thank ALL OF YOU!!! I do want to acknowledge those who I know were a part of the official "Team Dickens:""

Source: https://www.facebook.com/LostFoundDogs.VA/photos/a.550218351721478.1073741845.125859484157369/550746008335379/?type=3&theater

Nekita, husky mix

Woman, with help from the Network, reunites with lost dog after more than a year
Samantha Wright Allen
July 18, 2014

More than a year-and-a-half ago, Hope Cadieux opened the door for her dog, Nekita, like she had so many times before, so the husky mix could take a run on the family’s St. Albert farm.

Nekita never came back.

But two weeks ago, with the help of the Ottawa and Valley Lost Pet Network, that lost cause became a found dog.

Nekita went missing more than a year ago, but with the help of the Ottawa and Valley Lost Pet Network, owner Hope Cadieux was reunited with the husky border collie mix two weeks ago.

“They gave me hope when I didn’t have any,” says Cadieux of the Facebook page where she posted a picture of the husky border collie cross and its two puppies that went missing in January 2013. Days later, one puppy came back but the other, Ace, is still missing. Up until early July, that was Nekita’s story, too.

“I thought we would never see her again,” says the 18-year-old of the first dog she bought with her own money.

One day Cadieux opened her Facebook feed to find her name tagged many times to a photo of a familiar-looking dog. The woman who found that dog took it to bylaw officers in Casselman, where Cadieux now lives with her family.

Cadieux says she’d been through that drill before, visiting potential pups that never turned out to be hers.

“I didn’t really get my hopes up. I thought it would be a lost cause again.”

But when Cadieux walked in the room and said Nekita’s name, she knew it was the right dog.

“She just lit up and it was really nice to see. She came up to us and started jumping on us,” she says of the dog, who is almost four. “I was overwhelmed.”

Cadieux says she never would have found her dog without the network.

“They work miracles.”

One of those miracle workers is founder Gisele Villeneuve, who started the page in December 2012. Before, Villeneuve managed a lost pet group closer to her home in Renfrew, but she thought, given how far animals can roam, the group’s reach needed to be wider.

“You never know where a lost pet will end up,” says Villeneuve, who owns four dogs. Since then the page has grown to more than 10,000 likes. She says the site tracked more than 150 reunions of pets and their owners in the first five months of 2014. They’ve since stopped counting.

“We have to go through hundreds of notifications every day,” she says, adding the group contacts the owners with any leads posted to make sure all leads are followed up. Villeneuve manages the page part-time with 15 other administrators, four of whom volunteer full time.

Villeneuve lists success stories like so many memories.

There have been feral dogs, caught and adopted or returned. An orange cat, missing for two years, returned to a “little boy who was heartbroken.” And then there was a woman who searched for a stranger’s dog for three days because the Ottawa owner was stuck in Ottawa. She found the dog.

There was also Katy Meredith, who lost her cat on her wedding day. Because of the network, Max was home three days later.

“It’s just amazing. They reconnect animals every day, and people need to know that because those people are the ones who are going to find your pet.”

Now Meredith is a regular poster, and hopes more in the Ottawa Valley will like the page and keep an eye out for missing pets.

“It works like magic, sometimes within hours,” says Villeneuve, adding it’s important to be sure the owner is the correct one — ask for vet bills, pictures and watch if the animal responds to its name. “That’s the power of social media.”

The organization even posts when deceased animals are found because it can give the family closure.

Villeneuve is quick to add it’s important to report through the proper channels as well, like the local animal shelter or the Ottawa Humane Society. She also stresses that a microchip is important to help bylaw officers identify lost and stolen pets.

“This network is a community hero. It’s so heartwarming,” she said, to see strangers helping strangers. “It will restore your faith in humanity.”

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/woman-with-help-from-the-network-reunites-with-lost-dog-after-more-than-a-year

Donald

Donald's Story
July 8th, 2014

Donald started out at a high kill shelter on the put to sleep list (all dogs are on the pts list there) when a wonderful rescue stepped in to save him.

He was put on the transport van, labeled as a flight risk, which traveled from SC to DE on Saturday, 6/28.

Donald - before, during and after trapping

Once he arrived, he was placed into the backseat of a car to head to his overnight stop.  An inexperienced volunteer opened the car door, with Donald in the back, and that is when he made his escape.  People took off after him, but he was off into waist high weeds.

Later that night a search was on for him, with a dog friendly dog (since he loves dogs), but it was getting dark and the ticks were everywhere.  The search was called off.

The following morning at 8:30am, 6/29 Donald was spotted in the same spot where he escaped from the night before. But took off once he saw people.

A trap was borrowed from a local rescue, a trail was set up with food to lead him back to the area he escaped, and to lure him near the trap.  It was baited with food and left set up overnight in hopes of catching him.

That same day 6/29, two volunteers spent over three hours in the woods looking for him, and spotted him with on the top of the hill far away.  The pink slip lead is what allowed the volunteers to spot him in all the green.

Another volunteer traveled from NJ set up a camera, donated two cases of dog food and supplied the two volunteers with 200 large posters with protective covers to hang and tons of hand out posters.  The volunteer from NJ also spent hours waiting on Donald, but he never showed up.

On 6/30 at 7am Donald was spotted in the same spot as he was previously seen, but didn't go into the trap.

The food was changed and later that day the area was blanketed with the posters. Neighborhoods were walked and people were told of Donald's escape by the three volunteers.  The trap was checked three times before it got dark; no Donald.  The clock was ticking.  Fourth of July was just around the corner and the fear was that the fireworks would scare him from his spot.

The plan for the next day, 7/1 was to change the food again, but this time with freshly cooked fatty bacon including the grease, and KFC honey BBQ tenders due to the pungent smell.  Since Donald's feeding time at the shelter was 7:30, the idea was to place the food a couple of hours before his normal feeding so it would be fresh when he came to eat.  Another trapper said that dogs usually come out at dawn and dusk so the plan was changed to dawn.

Dawn the next day, 7/1, was at 5am. So the KFC was purchased the night before, the bacon was cooked the following morning at 3:30am, and the KFC was heated to bring out the aroma.  Both items were packed up and by 4am, two volunteers were at the trap.

Since it was dark when the volunteers arrived, the headlights were pointed in the area of the trap.  As the volunteer's approached the trap, they could see the trap door was down.  At that moment they knew something was in the trap.  Further into the weeds, suddenly barking!

It was Donald!  He was super scared, but safe.

A call was made to a volunteer with a SUV to transport Donald. Another volunteer was called to help lift the trap with Donald in it.  Trappers warned the volunteers never take a trapped dog out of the trap at the spot they were caught.  If they escaped again, the chances of them being trapped again are very slim.  The dog should be taken in the trap to a safe place and then taken out of the trap.  When the two additional volunteers arrived, Donald was loaded into the SUV and escorted via caravan style to a volunteer's house.

The SUV was pulled into the garage where Donald was safely taken out.  Donald was scared and very thirsty.  He was taken to his own room, put in a large crate with fresh bedding, food and a lot of water.  The volunteer stayed with him downstairs as emails & texts were sent out that he was safe.

Later that day he was bathed, had over 300 ticks removed from his body, played with some of the volunteers dogs and was taken to his temporary foster home until he can join the transport next weekend. He will then, finally make it to his rescue.

So many people were involved in his recovery.All the advice given made the difference in his safe capture.

Donald's normal life can now begin!

Josie, border collie mix

Dog Missing for Nearly 2 Months is Found, Reunited With Owner
By Tracy Bloom & Kimberly Cheng
June 21, 2014

A pet owner who was devastated when her dog went missing for nearly two months after escaping from a Culver City boarding facility got the happy ending she had badly wanted: a reunion with her precious pooch.

Lori Tritel was reunited with her dog “Josie,” a Border Collie mix, about two weeks ago after an exhaustive search that ended up costing her thousands of dollars, she told KTLA on Saturday.

Josie went missing on April 18 after she jumped over a 12-foot-high fence while in the care of Doggie Central.

Tritel, who was at the facility at the time in another room and had watched in horror as her dog jumped the fence, was devastated when Josie escaped.

“She ran toward their back fence. I started screaming,” Tritel tearfully told KTLA after her dog went missing. “We just have a bond. I think people with animals know that bond… and I just want to bring her home.”

Desperate to get her beloved dog back, Josie hired a team to find her. After seven weeks of following tips, handing out fliers and searching for her beloved pet, all of the efforts paid off — Tritel and Josie were finally reunited.

Josie
Josie went missing on April 18, 2014, after escaping from the Doggie Central boarding facility in Culver City. (Credit: Lori Tritel)

“I reached out, I held more chicken out for her, and she came right into my chest. It was amazing,” she said, her eyes filling with tears.

Tritel spent about $7,000 of her own money to hire the team of experts and to pay for the cost of supplies that led to Josie being found.

And while she is overjoyed at having Josie back, Tritel — who blames Doggie Central for losing Josie in the first place — said she believed the facility should reimburse her for the expenses related to locating the dog.

“What I want is compensation, I want reimbursement for the cost of the search,” she said. “I think it’s a dog facility’s responsibility to have a fence that cannot be jumped.”

However, Faith Mantooth, the owner of Doggie Central, disagreed that the facility should have to cover the full cost.

Mantooth, who is billed as the “Chief Cuddler” on the company’s website, also contended that the facility had proper precautions in place designed to prevent dogs from escaping.

“She went out the back and scaled a 12-foot fence with barbed wire on the top of it,” Mantooth said.

Mantooth told KTLA in April that no dog had ever gotten over it before Josie did. .

“We’ve never had a dog ever go over that fence, that’s the reason it’s so high and has barbed wire on it. I was in shock,” Mantooth said.

But on Saturday Mantooth said similar situations have happened four times.

“We have been a business 16 years. We have had hundreds of dogs here. To have four dogs get over or out the fence, especially in the beginning years … is to me a perfect track record,” she said.

One of those dogs was killed after running out the facilities front door in 2007 and getting hit by a vehicle.

Mantooth told KTLA on Saturday that she had added additional safeguards to the facility. She also said she has apologized.

Doggie Central has shelled out $2,000 to Tritel, and Mantooth said she did not believe the facility should have to pay her any more than it already had.

KTLA’s Ashley Soley-Cerro contributed to this report.

Source: http://ktla.com/2014/06/21/dog-found-reunited-with-owner-nearly-2-months-after-escaping-from-culver-city-boarding-facility/