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 Volunteers Conduct Intersection Alert THIS is how to recover a lost dog. We call it an ”Intersection Alert” or a ”Lost Dog Protest” and it grabs the attention of people. Missing Pet Partnership (MPP) has had great success with this recovery technique, including the rapid (15 minute) recovery of a lost Chihuahua named Sukhi at the 4th of July (see The Seattle Times story). We use giant, florescent LOST DOG posters and volunteers wearing bright green LOST PET RESCUE vests who “market” a lost dog at a major intersection in the immediate area where the dog vanished.
Intersection alerts are most effective when conducted at major intersections with 6 to 8 volunteers during commute hours. They are highly successful on cases of lost purebred dogs that are easy to describe in a few words like “YELLOW LAB” or ”WHITE POODLE, BLUE COLLAR.” If a passersby can read a few words and visualize what the missing dog looks like, then we can get our message out to hundreds of people in a matter of hours. Well, we had none of those factors working in our favor last week when we tried to recover a mixed breed dog on the run for 9 days in her Seattle neighborhood.
“Tabu” was a 14-year-old hard-to-describe brown mixed breed dog with ears that were sometimes pointy, sometimes floppy. How do you put THAT description into five words? And we only had three volunteers: myself, Jim Branson, and Sam Franklin. Sam was there because she knew exactly what it was like to have lost a dog. Sam’s Bassett Hound, Daisy, was lost for 3 months until MPP was able to help her humanely trap the skittish dog (see Sam’s testimonial here). So it was three MPP volunteers plus Mike, Tabu’s owner. And it was noon on Saturday, not exactly rush hour traffic. We each set up at a corner and started twirling our signs.
Actually, we didn’t move the signs around like real sign twirlers do. We made it easy for drivers to read our message as they pulled up to the 4-way stop sign. We held a stack of fliers with a color photo of Tabu that included Mike and Rohini’s cell phone numbers. I found that if I held the flyer out and waved it as driver’s pulled up to the stop sign, many would roll down their passenger window so I could quickly hand it to them.
We probably handed out 500 fliers during the next few hours. At one point, I was the only one left on the corner because Sam had left for work, Mike had headed off to check on what turned out to be a false sighting, and Jim had headed off in another direction on another false sighting. I had a line of drivers who seemed pissed that I was distracting or maybe delaying them from their last minute Christmas shopping. My feet were killing me. Then it started to rain. It was at that point that discouragement hit. I began to question just why I was standing alone in the rain on a street corner. Thankfully, minutes later everything changed. A man who had one of the flyers with him called Mike. Tabu was in his front yard, laying by his porch. Mike rushed off and returned to our intersection just fifteen minutes later – with Tabu in his car!
 Tabu Grunts & Rolls We were all elated! After high-fiving Jim, we both followed Mike back to his house. I was there when he let Tabu inside where she drank water and ate some food. I snapped a picture as she dropped to the ground, grunted, and rolled back and forth with pleasure on a small rug on the wooden floor. Mike said Tabu rolled like that with anything that had their scent on it. I waited until Rohini got home because I wanted to see her joy. She had been torn apart with Tabu’s disappearance. Tabu had been a part of her life since she was a puppy. As Rohini gave me a big hug and thanked me, it reminded me of my signature verse. Back in 1997 when I first made the decision to help people search for their lost pets, I came across a Bible verse that confirmed that pet detective work was my calling. The verse is Romans 12:15 which says, ”Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”
After things settled down, I asked Mike and Rohini to let me take a reunion picture of them with Tabu. The smile on Rohini’s face says it all - this family was, once again, complete. It was a good day to rejoice!
 Family Reunited BTW, I would not be doing my job as the founder of a struggling start-up nonprofit if I did not ask you to make a donation to Missing Pet Partnership! We take PayPal on our web site homepage or you can send a tax deductible donation to: Missing Pet Partnership, P.O. Box 3085, Federal Way, WA 98063. Our dream is that one day, the lost pet services we’re pioneering here in Seattle will be available in communities nationwide. But we can only reach that dream with your support!
Making a “walk up find” on a lost dog using a tracking/trailing dog is one of the hardest types of cases that pet detectives work. Hundreds of hours go into training a dog to trail lost pets and it takes a special dog and patient handler to be able to effectively train a K9 pet detective.
 K9 Pet Detective Kelsy Here in Seattle, week after week since the spring of 2008 we’ve been training four trailing dogs: Zeke, Lucy, Rachelle and Kelsy. We only recently started actively using three of these dogs (Zeke, Lucy, and Kelsy) on searches, hoping that the success we have seen during training would repeat itself on actual lost dog investigations.
Earlier this week, Kelsy worked a six hour long search on a missing Terrier named Thelma who’d been lost for over a week in frigid temperatures in Woodinville, WA. I am so proud of Jim and Kelsy. They’ve worked so hard for so long. Jim has been selfless in the work he has done both in volunteering for Missing Pet Partnership and the hands on assistance he has offered to Seattle area pet owners.
Jim is a fantastic writer and he blogged about this search. My blog is easy this week because I am posting Jim’s amazing story (excerpted from his blog) and photos here (with his permission) but I encourage you to follow his entertaining blog about Kelsy and his other two dogs, Tess and Porter. Here’s a portion of Jim’s blog entry for the Thelma case:
“Thelma is a 10-pound Terrier who only lived with her new family for two days before bolting out the front door when something startled her. For over a week, Lani and her family and friends searched for Thelma, sometimes for 12 hours a day. Many people had spotted Thelma on the run, but each time they tried to catch her, they made her run farther. Based on the sightings, this little girl ran for over five miles, and probably much farther if you count the circling and backtracking. Last night, the low was about 15 degrees.
Lani called the Missing Pet Partnership, and I got the case because I’ve had a bit of experience with dogs on the run. I told Lani that having Kelsy come out for a search might not be the final answer because we could end up chasing Thelma farther, even though we would take steps to avoid that if possible. Given Thelma’s tiny size, and the forecast for lows in the teens and twenties for the next few days, we decided to try a search anyway, fearing that if we didn’t catch her soon, it could be too late.
Kelsy and I started searching at the point last seen, a large industrial park by 522 in Woodinville. Kelsy took a good long sniff at the scent article, and charged off on the trail, dragging me through blackberries behind the warehouses. We made many circles of the complex, until we found a stream and a pond. This was one of the few sources of liquid water because most ditches and streams had frozen. We found food wrappers shredded under a large cedar tree, so it seemed some animal had foraged a meal there. Kelsy fell in the pond, not realizing how deep it was, and I had to haul her out by her harness. She shook the water off, but the cold water in the freezing air immediately turned to ice, giving Kelsy a frosting of small icicles for the next half hour, not that she cared at all. We searched from 9:30 until about 3:00, checking likely hiding areas, but Kelsy never pulled as hard as she did at the beginning of the trail. I was just about to quit for the day when Lani got the call of a sighting on the other side of 522.
I started Kelsy on that trail, at the point last seen, with the scent about 20 minutes old. Kelsy followed to a gap under a fence, and we had to ask permission to search inside the property of a mini-storage. She showed interest in a covered parking area, where Thelma may have spent the night in relative shelter. Then Kelsy followed the trail to another gap in the fence, leading to a swampy patch of brambles beside the freeway. I didn’t want to follow because a tiny Terrier could slip underneath the brambles, whereas Kelsy and I would be torn up. Also, we would make so much noise getting through that we would just scare Thelma further away if she were in there. At that point, I had convinced myself that Thelma was out of reach for the day, and decided to call off the search until we received a new sighting. We would work with signs to draw attention, and Lani could use a night vision scope to look around the area after dark. On the chance that Thelma had doubled back again, or that Kelsy had followed the trail in reverse, I took Kelsy for one last sweep of the perimeter of the storage lot, just in case. She showed interest in the grounds of a manufacturing plant, but I didn’t have permission to enter the property. Kelsy’s interest was not the urgent pulling I would have expected if we were hot on Thelma’s trail, so I had again decided to quit for the day. It was just about sunset, and Kelsy had been searching for over six hours.
Lani asked us to wait a minute while she asked for permission to search the property of the business, and when she got the okay, Kelsy and I strolled up the back side of the plant, not really expecting to find anything. Usually, when Kelsy gets close to her target, she pulls so hard I can barely stay on my feet. I can’t restrain her, and I just have to concentrate on not falling on my face. I don’t know if it was because she was tired, but she just trotted along as if she was casually interested in something, not about to make her first walk-up find. We came to the corner farthest from the street, and Kelsy started to sniff about the landscaping very cautiously. We checked around the back side of some large evergreen trees, and Kelsy pinpointed a spot under a branch that swept down to the ground. I lifted the branch, and I was actually surprised to see two little eyes looking back at me.
Now, I always tell people whose dogs are in flight mode: 1. Don’t stare straight at the dog. 2. Don’t call the dog’s name. 3. Don’t grab for the dog. The reason is that any of these actions can cause the dog to flee again, making your job harder. So, I’m looking right at this dog, staring in disbelief that we’ve found her, and I realize I’m not supposed to be staring at her, but I can’t help myself. Then, before I know it, I’m saying her name. She still isn’t moving. I’m just about to make a grab for her, even though I know it’s the wrong thing to do, and I feel like I’m fighting myself, trying to stop my arm from going forward. But she still hasn’t moved a muscle. She is just curled up in the dirt, staring back at me. Finally, after what seems like years but is probably only a few seconds, I shoot out a hand and grab her. I’m so relieved that I didn’t scare her away again that I don’t care that she’s nipping me. I did everything wrong and got lucky anyway.
 As I walked back toward the street with Thelma wrapped in my arms, I tried to tell Kelsy what a good girl she was, and how proud I was of her for finding Thelma, but Kelsy’s expression seemed to say, “Why are you carrying her, the bad dog who ran away, when you could be carrying me in your arms?” When I was finally able to hand Thelma off to an overjoyed and relieved Lani, I gave Kelsy her Victory Cheese, and praised her for a job well done. After six and a half hours of hard searching, probably covering five miles of asphalt, swamps, and brambles, Kelsy got her man. She slept very soundly on the ride home.”
I should also add the Missing Pet Partnership (MPP) volunteer Amy Adams assisted Jim on this case. Amy was able to secure permission from property owners and her assistance made Jim and Kelsy’s job much easier. Missing Pet Partnership needs more Seattle area volunteers to come out and assist on searches just like Amy did! If you live anywhere between Everett, WA to Lakewood, WA (or in Kitsap County) and would like to volunteer, please sign up here.
As a post script, I (Kat Albrecht) just called Lani to get her permission to use the photograph of her hugging Thelma. Lani told me that so many aspects of the Thelma search were miraculous that she told her children, “This (finding Thelma) is Christmas.”
 Kelsy Naps After a Hard Day at Work!
One of the easier types of pet detective cases that I work is when I’m asked to find a “displaced” cat. Cats become displaced when they end up outside of their territory, like when an indoor-only cat escapes outside. Typically these cats are panicked and hiding in fear. The easy part of recovering them is that you can usually catch them by setting a baited humane trap through a method that we call “trap-and-reunite” or “TAR.”
 Baited Humane Traps Recover Displaced Cats However, humanely trapping a cat becomes a major challenge when you have a boat load of outdoor-access cats in the immediate area. It is also difficult when you deal with a cat that is hesitant to go into a humane trap because they’ve been caught in a trap before. Those were the two challenges I faced when I was asked to help my blind neighbor Georgina recover her missing cat Buddy in Federal Way, WA. Here’s a diary of my challenges and what I learned through the process of bringing Buddy back home.
Day 1 – Monday November 30th
My neighbor Caroline stopped by to tell me that my neighbor Georgina had lost her indoor-only cat. Buddy, a neutered longhaired white male cat, was missing. Although no one saw it happen, they believed that Buddy must have escaped outside when a door was left ajar by a visitor. Because of a previous commitment, I was only able to respond and conduct a quick search around the outside of the house (with my 2 million candlepower spotlight). I did not find Buddy but told Georgina that I’d be back the next day.
Day 2 – Tuesday December 1
When I arrived the next evening, Georgina told me that her granddaughter saw Buddy hiding under the front porch. But Buddy bolted and was no longer under the deck by the time I got there. I went ahead and set two baited humane traps: one right next to the front porch and one in the backyard next to a large deck. In addition, I set up two motion activated digital wildlife cameras at both traps to observe the cat activity around the traps.
Day 3 – Wednesday December 2nd
I returned the next morning and reviewed the photos. During the night, we had caught a neighbor’s cat in the trap but not Buddy. I did manage to capture Buddy on camera and confirmed that he was still in the area. At 5:01 a.m. he had huddled in the area of the trap, but he did not enter it. I figured he probably wasn’t hungry enough.
 Buddy Captured on Film I returned that evening and set two traps in the front yard – one by the front porch and one under a bedroom window.
Day 4 – Thursday December 3rd
The next morning I learned that once again, we had trapped another neighbor’s cat but no Buddy. I suggested that the family talk to their neighbor’s and ask them to keep their outdoor cats indoors but that didn’t go over well. I pulled the cameras and reviewed the photographs. We had captured Buddy on camera four different times in the area of the trap. I began to suspect that Buddy had passed up a few opportunities to enter the trap but I wasn’t sure of this. It turns out that Georgina’s granddaughter saw Buddy but he bolted and ran three houses down. She talked to that neighbor and asked her permission to search her yard but the neighbor refused. While this was discouraging, it was encouraging knowing that Buddy was continuing to come back to his home.
Day 5 – Friday December 4th
The next morning I learned that once again we’d trapped a neighbor’s cat and not Buddy. I decided to reduce our traps down to just one trap by the front porch. I explained that the family needed to be diligent to release any wrong cats immediately and restock it with warm food to entice Buddy into the trap. Sadly, the relatives who were supposed to help me (by baiting the trap again) fell down on the job. On a few occasions I found the trap set but no bait inside. I knew that I’d never catch Buddy without their cooperation. To make matters worst, I reviewed the photographs and was dismayed. At 12:43 a.m. Buddy walked straight towards the open trap (which I’m not 100% convinced had bait inside of it). However, Buddy did NOT enter the trap. Instead, he proceeded to sit down right next to it and look directly at my camera as if to mock me!
 Buddy Mocking Me and My Trap! He may as well have stuck his raspy little tongue out at me! It became abundantly clear that I needed to change tactics. No more humane traps for Buddy. I was ready to pull out the big guns! GAME ON, BUDDY!
Day 6 – Saturday December 5th
I realized that I need to switch to using a drop trap (here’s a video of a veterinarian using a drop trap). A drop trap is a large net device that is propped up by a stick attached to a very long string. A bait station is placed underneath the propped up trap. When a cat comes under the trap to eat the food, the trapper yanks on the string which pulls the stick out and drops the trap. The cat is then caught in the net. Drop traps remind me of the Wiley Coyote vs. Road Runner cartoons with the ACME box propped up with a stick. In this case, I was the cleaver Road Runner!
Drop traps are great for hard to catch cats like Buddy who refuse to go into a humane trap. But the problem with drop traps is that they are surveillance based. That meant that this technique would require my sitting outside, perhaps for a few frigid hours, as I waited for Buddy to go under the trap.
For that first night, I did not plan to conduct surveillance. Instead, I propped the drop trap on top of two buckets so that it could not possibly fall. I warmed up 3 cans of salmon cat food and piled 3 cups of dry cat food onto a white piece of cardboard. The plan was to encourage every cat in the area (including Buddy) to come and fill their bellies by going under the trap. I set the wildlife camera up so I’d know whether Buddy went under the trap and how often.
 Drop Trap Propped Up With Buckets Day 7 – Sunday December 6th
Today I went to pick up my camera early in the morning and saw that the pile of wet cat food was all gone. I looked at the photos and discovered there were a total of six different cats, including Buddy, who feasted under the trap. Buddy was caught on camera at 9:44 p.m., 10:32 p.m., 11:11 p.m., 12:25 a.m., 2:21 a.m., 3:09 a.m., 3:50 a.m., and 4:05 a.m. The photographs were evidence that Buddy was very comfortable with going under the drop trap. I was hoping this would make for a quick capture since the temperatures were supposed to drop into the low 20’s.
 Buddy Goes Under the Drop Trap I returned at 6:45 p.m. and set the drop trap. This time I propped it up with the wooden stick and attached the long string that ran from the trap-stick-thingy all the way through the driver’s side window (cracked open) of my SUV parked in front of Georgina’s house. It was freezing and I didn’t want to run my engine and scare Buddy, so I was thankful that I wore warm clothing. Ten minutes after setting up, a car alarm went off a few houses down. It blared for nearly an hour. I was so frustrated that I almost gave up. There was no way that Buddy would come out as long as the alarm was going off. But I waited it out and at about 7:50 p.m., the alarm stopped. I decided to sit and wait a little longer.
I kid you not, right when I was about to open my door and give up for the night Buddy meandered up to the trap. It was 8:06 p.m. and it all happened so fast. Buddy slipped under the trap and started feasting, I yanked on the string, the stick flew, the trap fell, and Buddy jumped around like a wild animal. I leapt from my SUV and got to Buddy before he could work his way out of the trap by his flailing around. After a very difficult struggle (hissing, spitting, growling, biting…this was Buddy doing this, not me) I was able to get Buddy safely into his home. He darted under Georgina’s bed where I suspect he will probably stay for a few days!
The help that I offered to Georgina is exactly what Missing Pet Partnership envisions will one day be available in all communities through trained volunteer lost pet search-and-rescue teams. We’re starting first in Seattle and if we make it through the recession and find the funding, we’ll train other volunteer groups nationwide. If I had not stepped in to help capture Buddy, I have no doubt that Georgina would’ve eventually given up. Buddy would have been absorbed into the stray/feral cat population like so many other cats, many of which ultimately end up in animal shelters where they are euthanized.
As much as Missing Pet Partnership needs funding right now, I did not charge Georgina for our services, primarily because I know she is disabled and just doesn’t have money. So if you would, please consider making a tax deductible contribution (we are a 501c3 nonprofit) to Missing Pet Partnership “In Honor of Buddy.” Missing Pet Partnership has a Wish List page on our web site where you can donate rescue gear that we still need. If you’d rather make a cash donation to help MPP pay our bills, you can click on the orange “PayPal Donate” button at the top of our homepage or just make a check payable to “Missing Pet Partnership” and send it to: Missing Pet Partnership, P.O. Box 3085, Federal Way, WA 98063.
I plan to personally tell Georgina about any donations (wish list items, PayPal, or checks) that come into Missing Pet Partnership “In Honor of Buddy” because I know she would be happy. I also hope that by next week Buddy will come out from under his bed and I can get a picture of him with Georgina. Although I suspect that because I cut his freedom short, Buddy would be happier if he never had to look at my pet detective face again!
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