Zoe or Sky

Sky's Story
Jim Branson
May 17, 2014

Useless Bay Sanctuary received a call about this dog running around Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Everett.

Residents of a nearby community saw her every day and wanted her to be safe.  She had been roaming the cemetery at least two months, and possibly as long as four months.  Several people were feeding her, but she wouldn't let anyone touch her.  I saw her for the first time on May 10th, 2014, and lured her within 3 feet using teriyaki chicken.   I named her Sky because of the beautiful sky above us as we got to know each other.  

On May 13th, I spent seven hours with Sky.  She barked at me at first, but soon remembered I was the one with teriyaki chicken.  I brought her hotdogs and cheeseburgers.  I would run away from her, and she had fun chasing me all over the cemetery.  I would run and then fall down, and she would run up to me, playfully.

After five hours of gaining her trust, she finally let me pet her.  Then she wanted to be petted all over.  She fell asleep against my legs for about twenty minutes.  I put a leash on her and was able to walk her around.

When we approached my open car, she would turn to stone.  I tried to ease her over that way, but I could see I was undoing the relationship I had built with her.  It killed me to do it, but I took the leash off and let her go back into the woods, knowing I would go back again, and build up to getting into the car at some point.

I visited Sky again on the 14th.  She was happy to see me and forgave me for putting the leash on her previously.  It finally occurred to me to bring the scanner to her.  She didn't mind at all when I scanned her for a chip, and a number popped up right away.  We called the microchip company, and the chip was registered to a shelter in Hawaii.  We left Sky in the cemetery one more night.

On the 15th, we contacted Sky's former owner.  He had been overseas, and left Sky with someone he trusted.  That person gave Sky away to another owner (without his consent).  He had had her since she was a puppy and named her Zoe.  He agreed to come to the cemetery.  I warned him Zoe might not respond as if she recognized him.

When he arrived at the cemetery, he called to Zoe and she stayed away from him.  I was able to coach him on Calming Signals, and after a couple of hours, Zoe let him pet her.  It took still more patient coaxing to get her in a car, but she didn't fight it.

Zoe is now in a foster home.  Her owner can't keep her because he lives in an apartment where dogs aren't allowed.  We will get her checked out at the vet, and she will be available for adoption.

Watch Sky's video, and see the transformation from frightened stray to happy pet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P81qA3FAaI&feature=youtu.be

Source: http://www.uselessbaysanctuary.org/sky-at-cypress-lawn.html

Oban, whippet/shepherd mix

Dogged Pursuits: Tails from a Dog Rescuer
By Jim Branson for Seattle DogSpot
April 2, 2013

Dogged Pursuits is a new feature on Seattle DogSpot. Each week, Jim Branson from Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue will write a post about a search he conducted for a lost pet in the Puget Sound region with his dogs Kelsy, Porter, and Komu.

Oban before he went missing

I hope Jim's stories not only entertain you but also provide insight into the most effective ways for searching for/finding a lost pet.


Jim's first post is about the search for Oban, a dog he found over the weekend. Oban was lost for almost 2 months after escaping from a parked car in Bellevue on February 2.

We're excited about this new feature - please let us know of you like it.

Oban, a whippet-shepherd mix, went missing on February 2nd. He was playing, "You can't catch me," with his owner when he was struck by a car and ran off into the fog. Sporadic reports of Oban came in over the next two months.

When reports came in that he was seen very close to the accident site, I set up an "Intersection Alert" where several volunteers held up large neon posters about Oban's plight.

We received at least eight tips that afternoon. He had been seen ten blocks away, but he was seen most recently very near the intersection - 150th Ave SE and SE 37th Street - where the volunteers were standing.

Just before dark, someone pulled over and said they had just seen him on the off ramp from eastbound I-90 to 150th Ave SE. We went to check it out, but Oban slipped back into the woods before we could spot him.

A narrow strip of trees and brush grows between the off ramp and a tall retaining wall. Oban couldn't go south from there, and going east, west, or north would just put him on the freeway. I set up a humane trap in the woods at the end of the off ramp, but Oban didn't go in it the first day.

Many volunteers checked the trap every few hours, just in case any animal was trapped.

The next day, I moved the trap to a quieter area and someone put a couple of articles of clothing (belonging to Oban's owner, who was out of town) into the trap. They placed his favorite bed beside the trap.

As I was looking around the area to see how he might be getting around, I received a call that he had just been seen again poking his head out of the woods beside the off ramp. Knowing exactly where he was at that moment, I called for volunteers to help me keep an eye on the area and make sure he didn't leave.

We often use a "Magnet Dog" to lure a skittish dog to safety. My little dog, Fozzie, works sometimes. In this case, because Oban was so skittish and traumatized from the accident, I contacted his owner and learned of a dog named Sonia that Oban likes.

Kendra brought Sonia to the off ramp for the luring attempt. I told Kendra not to make eye contact with Oban or call his name, to focus her attention on Sonia and ignore Oban while giving Sonia treats. I also told Kendra that it would be better to not catch Oban today than to lunge for him and risk scaring him away to a new location.

Kendra walked Sonia down the shoulder of the road as cars whizzed by at 60 MPH. Kendra and Sonia made one pass back and forth along the strip of woods, one thousand feet down and one thousand feet back.

Nothing.

Kendra took Sonia for a second pass, and Oban popped out of the woods to see his friend and get some treats. He allowed Kendra to snap a leash on his collar with no trouble. Kendra rushed him to the nearby emergency vet, where Oban is staying overnight. He was very thin.

Oban when he was found after 2 months

When I called Oban's owner to tell her he was safe she screamed into the phone.

He needs more evaluation, but at this point it appears he will make a full recovery after being lost for two months. Many volunteers helped bring Oban to safety, including Irene, Krystina, Jacintha, Dina, Dori, Shawna, Julie, Lara, Sheri, Sam, Ilse, Kendra, Stephan, and Sonia the Vizsla.

Jim Branson is a certified Missing Animal Response Technician with four years of experience finding lost cats and dogs for Missing Pet Partnership.

Source: http://www.seattledogspot.com/blog/dog-blog/post/dogged-pursuits

Katie, sheltie

Lost dog found after 25 days at Lake Crescent
By Leah Leach, Peninsula Daily News
November 21. 2010 2:01AM

LAKE CRESCENT -- Katie, a sheltie who was lost for more than three weeks, is now home safe.


Katie, a Shetland sheepdog who was lost for more than three weeks, is home again with John and Donna Fabian. The Fabians live in the Port Ludlow-Shine area near Hood Canal.

She was brought home Friday "after 25 days in the wilderness," thin, but apparently healthy, said John Fabian, 71.

"I'm kind of an old fellow, and I've been down through a lot in my life, but it brought me to tears."

Fabian is a former NASA space shuttle astronaut and a founder of the Hood Canal Coalition, an environmental group that opposes industrialization of Hood Canal.

He and his wife, Donna, live in the Port Ludlow-Shine area near the Canal.

Mrs. Fabian spent a sleepless night in a cold car before she saw the Shetland sheepdog and coaxed it to her as she knelt on a trail near the Olympic Park Institute on Lake Crescent on Thursday afternoon.

"She's our Thanksgiving miracle," she said.

Two get reward

The reunion resulted in a Thanksgiving gift for two other people as well.

They had spotted the dog and notified the Fabians, who had offered a $1,000 reward for Katie's return.

Fabian contributed $250 to the Association of National Park Rangers in the name of Mark O'Neill, an Olympic National Park ranger, and wrote a second check for $750 to Maggie Van Catfort of the Olympic Park Institute.

O'Neill reported last week the first sighting of the 4-year-old dog since she had run off from the Fabians during a visit to the lake Oct. 24.

The Fabians, who had owned her for only three months, and the dog's breeder, Cindy Wilson of Bremerton, searched for her the first week and nailed up posters near the Lake Crescent Lodge, which is about 20 miles west of Port Angeles.

After a story in the Peninsula Daily News, the Fabians received calls of commiseration from other dog lovers -- but no one reported seeing the 4-year-old sheltie.

"We decided it was fruitless until we had a sighting," Fabian said. "We didn't know where to search."

That changed Wednesday with the call from O'Neill, who had spotted the dog on the road between the entrance to the lodging area and the lodge itself.

"He followed her slowly in the car as she traveled down the road, then lost track of her," Fabian said.

Mrs. Fabian and Wilson raced up to the lake, picking up a live animal trap from the Olympic Peninsula Humane Society on the way, and spent the night in their cars outside Lake Crescent Lodge, which is closed for the season.

Snow on ground

When they awakened, snow lay on the ground.

"We hardly slept at all, it was so cold," Mrs. Fabian said.

And they hadn't thought to bring breakfast.

"We made sure we had dog food, but we didn't have food for ourselves," she said.

They snacked on some Kashi bars Mrs. Fabian found in her glove compartment, set up the trap with the help of some workmen -- and continued to search.

"We felt we had to get her that day or the next because . . . it was so cold," she said.

At about 4 p.m., a call came in on Wilson's cell phone.

Spotted on beach

Van Catfort had spotted a sheltie on the beach near the Olympic Park Institute and had called numbers she found on posters -- first the Fabians' home, then Wilson's cell.

"We were yards away from her when she called," Mrs. Fabian said.

"Cindy said, 'We are right here. We will be there in seconds."

When Mrs. Fabian saw Katie, she dropped to her knees and pulled out food, speaking softly to the dog.

"She walked back and forth, very nervous, and finally took the food. I grabbed her collar," she said.

Fabian had delivered supplies to the two women, updated the posters and returned to the Port Townsend area to get another trap from the Jefferson County Humane Society.

"While I was getting the trap, my wife called and said, 'We have the dog.'"

O'Neill and Van Catfort recognized the dog because of the posters the Fabians had put up -- and because of the PDN.

"We had been up there and everybody we had talked to said, is this the dog that was in the paper?

"The PDN did an amazing amount of good," Fabian said.

Mrs. Fabian and Wilson stayed overnight at Indian Valley Motel, part of the complex that includes Granny's Cafe, which allowed the dogs to stay with them.

They brought Katie home about a half-hour before the Fabians were interviewed.

"She's excited to be here. . . . She's very thin. She's extraordinarily hungry," Fabian said.

Wilson, who Fabian described as "an amazing dog lady," had owned Katie for three years before the Fabians adopted her, and had dog-sat Katie while the Fabians were out of the country for three weeks.

"This was like a loss for her family, too," Fabian said.

Katie, who the Fabians figure lived on bear droppings and other unsavory fare, was to be taken to the vet for a check-up.

And the couple now has "increased security awareness," as Fabian put it.

"We're going to be awfully careful about not allowing her to bolt away. . . . She's going to have to learn how to go out and poop on a leash."

Source: http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20101121/NEWS/311219985/lost-dog-found-after-25-days-at-lake-crescent

Baxter, a brown dog

Finding Baxter: The Skeptic's Story
(From the files of Sam Connolly, Pure Gold Pet Trackers)

I was very skeptical about hiring a dog tracker, but I am sure glad I did! My dog, Baxter, had been missing for over a month. We were from North Carolina, and he had run away in Maryland. Numerous animal agencies, websites and shelters had been contacted and his posters were posted online as well as hung around the neighborhood. I had to be off to Texas for a while and was relying on my brother to be the point of contact in Maryland for any sightings. It was not long before a wind storm had blown away most of the posters, but luckily someone had seen them and had sighted Baxter on their farm.

Baxter had been spotted off and on for around 2 weeks at the farm, but being a very shy, scared, and untrusting dog, he ran away from everyone calling his name and trying to catch him. The sightings eventually stopped and the food, kennel, and toy we had placed on the farm remained untouched. More posters were hung and blown away (Sam has some good poster-making advice as well). Neighbors near the farm had been talked to and received flyers. Two more weeks had gone by with no Baxter reports and things were looking dim.

I was doubtful that I had enough of Baxter’s scent for him to be tracked, not to mention that it had been a month since he had touched his things and two weeks since he was last seen. However, I decided as a last effort before going back home to North Carolina to go forth with the dog tracking.

I contacted Sam Connelly of Pure Gold Pet Trackers from her website. She was very honest with me about not knowing if there would be enough scent on the articles that I had to start the tracking dog. She also said that since it had been so long as well as hot and dry, that there may not be enough of a trail left to follow. She encouraged me to give it a try, though, and I agreed.

Sam and Brando met me at the farm where my dog had last been seen and I gave her one of Baxter’s toys and his hairbrush. She let Brando smell the articles and we started the search. After checking a few spots on the farm where my dog had been seen we finally found a good trail to follow. We wound along through a couple of back yards near the farm, crossing the busy Rt. 32 three times and into a small wooded area behind some homes across the road from the farm where we had started. The trail went through the edge of the woods and eventually came out to a barbed-wire fence around a small pasture. As my brother and I talked to the owners for permission to cross their property, Sam and Brando waited at the place where the trail went under the fence. Sam heard a noise behind her and turning to see what it was, found Baxter standing about 20 feet away at the edge of the wood. He had been following us through the woods and came looking for me but came upon Sam and Brando first.

After being spotted, Baxter ran back to the woods to his safe spot where he had been staying. Sam yelled to me that she had seen Baxter. As I ran up to her she handed me a small can of cat food with a pop-top lid and told me to go into the woods, find a place to sit on a stump or fallen tree somewhere, open the can, put it on the ground in front of me and call softly to Baxter until he came to me. She also gave me a bag of dog treats to toss into the woods all around me to lure him in. After a month wandering on his own he had to be starving and food was definitely going to be attractive to him. Within half an hour of waiting in the woods, I had him back with me.

I cannot thank Sam and Brando enough for leading me back to my dog! He is right now lounging in his favorite spot: the bed. I highly recommend the Pure Gold Pet Tracking team and urge anyone to use them before too much time has passed. I found it well worth the money and effort.

Thank you,
Elizabeth

Source: http://www.puregoldpettrackers.com

Koko, a Chocolate Labradoodle

This story came from the Missing Pet Partnership website, from their Testimonials section. (I actually did some cut & pasting so it's close but not word for word the way the dog's owner told the story.) It's a good illustration of why it's good to seek help from the experienced when faced with the task of looking for a lost dog.

Koko became separated from me in the Cedar River Watershed, east of Seattle. I had her off leash because I had her hiking with me in the past without any problem. When I called her name in a likely too loud and frightening tone, she bolted into an awful swampy area full of blackberries, thick brush, and water.

I thought for sure she would become tangled and trapped, leaving her easy prey to cougars, bobcats or coyotes in the area. It was a very large swamp (wetland) and I looked for her until 10 p.m. before finally returning home having to give the bad news to my daughter and wife.

The next day began at 4:00 a.m. I returned to the swamp, thinking for sure Koko was trapped in the blackberries yet too scared to make any noise.

A fellow employee at the watershed called SARS and they told us about MPP and so I called Kat who was in L.A. at the time. She was very generous with her time, explaining to me all the things to consider in trying to find a lost dog. She also told me to call Jim Branson who has a tracking dog named Kelsy. After talking with Kat and getting all of that very helpful and encouraging advice, I met with Jim at the site. I was amazed at how soon he was able to arrive at the scene. He arrived within a couple hours without Kelsy to size up the situation and interview me. We looked for Koko until evening again sat in.

Jim advised that I leave a feeding station with some scent items at the scene that night. The next morning we planned to post signs provided by MPP, and then use Kelsy to determine if Koko was in the swamp area.
I had brought my wife and daughter to help. Jim had previously cautioned us to be very careful if we came across Koko. To our delight, she was at the feeding station when we arrived. So we followed Jim's advice and slowly got out of our vehicles and walked around talking to each other as if Koko wasn't there. We did not want her to become scared again and run off.

We played catch with each other using a tennis ball and frisbee. Koko ran up when the frisbee hit the ground at my daughter's feet. It was a very joyful moment when my daughter gave Koko a big hug and we had her back on lease.

The amazing thing is that Koko spent two nights somewhere nearby in below freezing temperatures and she looked just as clean and groomed as she did before she ran away. She somehow got out of the swamp and must have found shelter in some higher ground under cover of trees.

I am very grateful to MPP and particularly Jim Branson and his dog Kelsy for helping me find "Koko", my 9 month old chocolate Labradoodle. Kelsy was ready to do her job but fortunately for us, her services were not needed.

Thank you Kat and Jim for this happy ending!!!

Source: http://www.missingpetpartnership.org/testimonials-seattle.php

Mallory, a shepherd mix

Mallory's Capture
Told by Simone Lima

Tue, Aug 18, 2009

Mallory is a sweet, shy little girl who had been rescued as a stray and brought to a high-kill rural shelter. The people in that area who had called the shelter to come get her had been seeing her around the neighborhood for a while, but couldn't seem to locate an owner for her.

Mallory entered the shelter there, and was later pulled from that shelter by a rescue in the Washington DC area. She was then lost after spending a few days living in a foster home with other dogs, where she was warming up to the people who give her affection.

It took about a week and a half of volunteers tracking her as best they could, but a lot of it was waiting games -- waiting to get sightings while they continued to try to get the area fliered. Finally, sightings started coming in so that they got a general location on her, and feeding stations were set up to try to keep her close.

This photo was taken of Mallory before she was lost, but while she was lost, whenever I saw this photo, I always thought, "it must be what she looks like right now, wherever she is."

The story of her capture is told by Simone, one of the volunteers that was assigned to check the feeding stations.

I went out to check the feeding stations. At the third one, on Colorado and 16th, I was lucky to have parked not on the park side where the station was, but accross the street. Just as I was getting out of the car, I heard tags clinking down 16th and thought, "Oh, dog being walked, I should talk to its person".

I ducked back into the the car to pick up a business card so I could give it to the dog's person and then I noticed the dog didn't have a person. OMG, this is her! It's Mallory!

I felt like I had about ten arms and hands and none of them were holding the right thing. But as luck would have it, I had all I needed: a collar, my cell, and a can of food. I was going to call in the sighting first before attempting to throw her treats, but she actually made eye contact with me and trotted in my direction.

I practically lay down on the ground and started throwing wet food to her, slooooooowly, slooowly, until she came right next to me. I let her eat for a while until I could touch her collar.

She pulled back but I was able to secure the leash to her collar and strap it around her as a makeshift harness.

Then comes the funny bit: without letting go of her or getting up, I'm in the rain, lying on the ground, holding as tight and as gently as possible to this contraption AND attempting to use a cell phone with the other hand, while passers-by, well, pass by, looking very amused. I just lie there for a while until she gets a whole can of food in and, while she doesn't want to move in the direction of the car, she is resisting being held by me less and less. T-touch helps calm her down. Or at least I convince myself it's helping, and that helps.

Long story short: I call Stephanie, Daphne calls me, I plop Mallory into the car, squeeeeeze myself in the minimum entryway possible on the other side (I've seen dogs get out from cars I thought a mouse couldn't get out of) and deliver her to College Park, where I am met by a happy volunteer who agrees we need three people to get her out of the car, just to be sure.

Then, she's in the day care, the door is closed and I notice I haven't really had a good, deep breath for a while. I let myself jump around a little and yell Hurray!

Thank you everyone for the opportunity to help and for all I learned.

Simone Lima
(who runs an animal protection organization in Brazil, where we don't have half the technology used here in tracking a lost animal!)

http://findmallory.blogspot.com

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


Printer-friendly version here