Makeda, an Australian Shepherd

Once this dog’s family members had spread the word about the missing dog and gotten a call from someone letting them know that the dog was basically living on his property, the dog was not so much “missing” as she was “at large”. In a case like that, humane trapping is the way to go. But the average person that loses a dog doesn’t know much about humane trapping. That’s where experienced and trained pet detectives come in. Even from a couple of states away, the pet detective was able to give Makeda’s people the information they needed to acquire and set up humane traps that contained her, and helped them bring her home.

Makeda
by Lori and Michelle, on Scenttracker

April 29th, 2008

This is my best friend and I’s Blue Merle Miniature Australian Shepherd named Makeda (Ma-Kee-Da).

Plant City FL  On Tuesday morning March 7 my friend Michelle took her to get groomed. About 45 minutes after she had been dropped off the owner of the grooming parlor called her and said that Makeda had gotten out the front door. A customer opened the front door and Makeda ran out.

Michelle and I went to our local office supply store and had around 600 flyers made with pictures of Makeda on them and posted them all over town. I emailed the local news station and asked for their help. We searched for Makeda for 8 days from dusk till dawn. .

We got a call on March 13 from a farmer saying he saw her in his strawberry field; of course we drove like crazy to get there!! No sign of her. The neighbor living next to the field said Makeda had been staying around their horses for several days.

About 4 days in to the search for her, Michelle had contacted Millie “The Pet Detective”. I thought Michelle was CRAZY!! I had no idea that there was any such thing. Anyway, Millie had suggested us getting humane traps and putting them in different locations of the horse pasture and woods behind the strawberry field.

March 15, we finally saw Makeda with our own 2 eyes. We called her name and she ran from us. That broke our hearts!! We never did see Makeda anymore that afternoon.

Millie told us to put Makeda’s toys, our clothes and some dog food mixed with tuna (for the smell) in the trap, leave and let the trap do its work.

Around 10:30pm that night, the owner of the horses called me and asked me if we were ready to come get our dog. WE COULD NOT BELIEVE IT!! We ran down through the pasture and sure enough there she was!!! Makeda was lost for 8 days! We NEVER gave up looking for her.

When we knew there was nothing else we could do, we contacted Millie. WE OWE HER OUR LIFE!!

With the help of her knowledge and the caring person that she is, we couldn’t have done it without her. We plan on making a trip to N.C. to meet her and let her meet Makeda.

Source: http://www.scenttrackers.com/pawsabilities/?p=78
More of pet detective Millie’s stories are at: http://www.scenttrackers.com/Found.htm