by Laura Weitner
December 8, 2014
One of my rescue friends contacted me about a lost dog. I was at work at the time, but told them if they didn't find the dog by the time I got off work that night, I would help look.
Shadow was one of our local shelter dogs. A friend of mine who volunteers for the shelter had taken Shadow into her home as a foster. The dog had been adopted out to a couple about a week before. I was told the couple had lost the dog 2-3 days before but the dog was soon found.
On this day, the couple had taken the dog out early in the morning and the dog slipped his collar and ran away. A few rescue friends searched for him all day. When I got off work, they filled me in on what happened.
They had seen Shadow several times throughout the day. He was traveling a pretty broad distance in a short amount of time and was in and out of busy traffic all day.
Shadow is a skittish dog and terrified of cars. So, I was appalled to hear that the rescuers would drive up on him really fast, open the car door and yell his name when they would see him. At one point they said one of the ladies jumped out of the car and chased after him. Of course he bolted each and every time.
After hearing all this, I thought I would never get a hold of Shadow if I saw him that night.
While getting my bearings straight in the area he went missing, one of the rescuers called and told me where he had just been spotted. I was there within 2-3 minutes.
The dog was nowhere to be found. I kept broadening my search are and within 10 minutes I spotted him about 5 blocks away from where he was last sighted.
I drove past him and went about half a block down to park because I didn't want my truck to scare him.
I loaded myself up with treats in a crunchy sounding bag, and I had my snappy snare. I did not have a magnet dog so I wasn't sure if I would ever get close enough to him but I was going to try.
I practiced all my calming signals and it only took a few minutes for me to get his attention. I kept my back to him the whole time but could see that he was slowly getting closer and closer to me.
Finally, when he was right at my side, I captured him with my snappy snare.
This was my first rescue where everything was absolutely "textbook". I used every part of my training with this rescue and it worked with no problems at all! I honestly was so proud of myself for it.
Shadow was captured about 1 to 1 1/2 miles from his home about 13 hours after he went missing. I was able to find and capture him within 45 minutes of starting my search.
Shadow is finally safe and secure!
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