Emma, trained tracking hound

THE SEARCH IS OVER
MISSING TRACKING DOG FOUND IN HER OWNER'S DESERT TENT
Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer, Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
Jan 24, 2006

LAKE LOS ANGELES, Los Angeles  Missing for a week, the 4-year-old trained tracking hound mix wandered into the tent that owner Bob Wells had pitched Saturday in the desert in hopes that his dog would find him.

``I was viewing the area with night-vision goggles. I called her name. A couple of minutes later, she came up and nose-bumped me and laid down in my lap.'' Wells said 55-pound Emma was in good condition, though she had a few bruises and was dehydrated, thinner and very hungry.

Wells, resident sheriff's deputy in Lake Los Angeles, picked an area near 150th Street East and Avenue M to set up camp after spotting the dog about 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

Wells radioed search volunteers who went to the area but Emma ran away from them. ``She had probably been hunted by coyotes. She was a little bit skittish when people approached her,'' Wells said.

``The idea was to sit out there with food and her blanket, the blanket that smells like her, and wait for her to come to me,'' Wells said.

When Emma wandered into Wells' tent shortly after 8 p.m., he petted her and ``got a leash on her really quick,'' radioed the other searchers and let them know he was bringing in the dog.

Sixty to 70 people helped look for Emma after she disappeared out of her fenced yard the morning of Jan. 14. People looked for her while riding their horses, others on their all- terrain vehicles.

``We had people coming from as far away as Fresno. The search and rescue community is pretty tight,'' Wells said.

About 100 calls came in reporting possible sightings of Emma, and from that information, Wells narrowed the search area first from about 1,000 acres to 300 acres, then to two square miles.

``I'm glad to have her back, and I am really grateful to the people of Lake Los Angeles and their concern and to search and rescue folks who took time out to find Emma,'' Wells said.

Emma has stitches from a stray dog attack and also is blind in one eye and takes glaucoma medicine. Wells speculated the medication she was taking for both conditions may have caused her to become confused and to run away.

Emma herself has searched for more than 50 missing people all around Los Angeles County, ranging from missing children and lost hikers to Alzheimer's patients who wandered away from their homes.

She is not used in criminal searches. Emma is particularly good at picking out the freshest scent trail. Emma's last search was about two months ago in Littlerock, looking for Looking for a runaway boy. The boy was found at a house where he'd gone after hurting himself trying to climb onto a passing freight train.

Source: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/THE+SEARCH+IS+OVER+MISSING+TRACKING+DOG+FOUND+IN+HER+OWNER'S+DESERT...-a0141304698


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