PET DETECTIVE BLOG

Toilet Paper Problems

kat_albrecht — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:52:34 +0000

“Excuse me Ma’am, we have a toilet paper problem.”

Um...Houston, We Have a Problem!

I turned to look at the Burger King employee standing beside me who’d just tapped me on the shoulder. I looked at her with a blank face, not sure what she was talking about. Problems? Did she know anything about problems? I was in the midst of several major problems in my life. They say it comes in threes and I was walking through my third loss in a matter of three months. It all started in May when my best friend and fishing buddy Hardin Weaver passed away from lung cancer.

My Friend Hardin

I praise God that I had had the opportunity to fly back to Clovis, California to see Hardin in the hospital the day before he died. He was concious and was able to smile as I laughed and cried and prayed with him. Hardin was one of our first Missing Pet Partnership volunteers in the early stages of our development. He became a close friend and a father figure to me. The plan I had for my upcoming wedding was to have Hardin walk me down the isle and give me away. Sometimes our plans just don’t work out. Losing Hardin cut like a knife.

MPP Volunteers Capture Stray Hard-to-Catch Dog

A few months later, the primary program of Missing Pet Partnership came to a sudden and unexpected end. After helping hundreds of pet owners over the past three years, MPP was forced to suspend our services that involved responding (in the Seattle area) on physical searches with search dogs and equipment to help families search for their lost pets. Until we get the funding to hire a staff to oversee this program it will likely remain in limbo.

Sadie

I had not quite worked through my grief of losing the MPP program when I was forced to euthanize Sadie, my elderly cat detection dog. In fact, I had just put Sadie down on Monday and was traveling through Ellensburg, Washington on Wednesday (after being consoled by family in Idaho) when I stopped at Burger King. I had used the restroom first and then walked out to place my order when the employee tapped me on my shoulder.

“What?” I asked the woman. She repeated her words again. “We have a toilet paper problem” only this time she was smiling.

I was thinking to myself that this woman knew nothing about “problems” based on what I was going through. And besides, there was no “toilet paper problem.” I had just been in the women’s restroom and there had been plenty of toilet paper. But as the smile appeared on her face, I realized that the “we” of this problem meant that I was some how involved in this. And then the lightbulb came on and my worst nightmare came true.

“No!” I said as I looked down at my feet to see if I was trailing a stream of toilet paper, only there was nothing clinging to my shoe. “Where?” I asked.

She pointed to my butt. I reached back behind me and sure enough, I’d been trailing a 4 foot long piece of toilet paper that was tucked neatly into the back of my pants. I turned red and excused myself as I scurried to the women’s restroom.

Now here’s where it gets interesting. I realized that I was faced with a choice. The easiest thing to do would’ve been to wash my hands and then slip outside without even going back for my burger, avoiding more embarrassment. But as I washed my hands, I noticed they had the best kind of hand drying apparatus around. Instead of one of those cheap blowy machines that leaves you with wet hands, Burger King had installed one of those brown paper towel dispensers with the Pavlov-like-lever that enables you to make one single, giant paper towel. I pushed that lever at least 15 times and created a 7 foot long paper towel train and stuck it in the back of my pants. And like a bride trailing a beautiful train from her lavish wedding gown (which I’ll need one for this December, just in case anyone has one laying around that they want to donate!) I proudly walked out of that bathroom with my head held high.

You should’ve seen the look on faces of the customers in line! I walked right up to that Burger King employee who was still standing at the counter. I laid a hand on her shoulder to make sure she looked at me, thanked her for telling me about the toilet paper problem, and then proudly walked away so she could observe my paper train. She, and everyone else standing there, broke out in laughter. It’s times like these that I thank God for His lovingkindness. He knew exactly how to bless me with a good belly laugh during my season of grief! I have a quirky hobby of collecting “most embarrassing moment” stories and so far, my own most embarrassing moment had only involved driving off from a fuel pump with the gas nozzel still attached to my police car gas tank. Now I have a coveted toilet paper story of my own to share around the campfire.

Life is too short to be embarrassed and to run out of Burger Kings in shame. As depressing as things can get, we all need to hang paper trains from our butts and bring a little laughter into this world!

All Hail King Cheeto

kat_albrecht — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:33:38 +0000

Last weekend, I faced a dilemma. I was scheduled to be in two places at one time. Location #1 was the Northwest Christian Writer’s Association’s Conference in Redmond, WA where I planned to shop my next book idea. Location #2 was the 2012 PAWS Community Hero Pet Awards ceremony on Bainbridge Island where my cat, Cheeto, was to be honored for his work as a “target cat”. Cheeto has a “job” and is used to train cat detection dogs to find lost cats. Recently featured on three different TV shows, Cheeto won this award because he helped to train a search dog named Harley who found and saved the life a lost cat named Norm.

Award Winning Cat....WHO KNEW!

At first, I planned to send a volunteer in my place to accept Cheeto’s award. But as the day grew closer, I felt an ache in my heart. I wanted to be there, too. When I voiced my dilemma on Facebook and asked for advice, one friend piped up and said, “Writer’s Conferences come and go-when have you ever heard of a cat winning an award?”

So I compromised. I attended the writer’s conference in the morning and in the afternoon, I left Redmond, drove to Seattle, picked up a friend (who had Cheeto), and boarded the ferry heading to Bainbridge Island.

This was a red carpet event held at the beautiful Wing Point Golf & Country Club. There were six categories with six winners. Cheeto won in the Companion Animal category, but there was a seventh award up for grabs that had captured my attention. It was the People’s Choice Award where everyone who attended the event would be asked to vote for their favorite of the six nominees. All of the other nominees besides Cheeto were dogs. The event planners had created a poster for each of the nominees that described their work and why they had won their award. These posters were what the attendees looked at and used to help them decide who they wanted to vote for. As I stood in front of Cheeto’s poster taking a picture of it, I overheard a conversation taking place behind my back that went something like this:

Woman #1: “Who did you vote for?”

Woman #2: “I voted for Tucker.” (Tucker is a black Labrador trained as a whale poop detection dog. I am serious. I bet my dog Kody-the-poop-eater would gladly apply for that job.)

Woman #1: “I voted for the cat.”

Woman #2: “Yeah, but he doesn’t really do anything.”

People's Choice Poster (where I eavesdropped)

At that point, I realized we were in trouble. So I began to act like one of those sideline parent-turned-football coach, determined that my kid would win! I figured I’d probably bagged the votes of all of the cat lovers, so I devised a plan to capture as many dog lover votes as possible. I took Cheeto to the entrance of the event to greet all arriving guests. I handed out Cheeto’s trading card to anyone who stopped to pet him. I even pulled out freeze dried salmon treats and tried to get him to sit up and wave (like he did in this video here). I figured if dog people could see that a cat had a brain and could even be trained to do a trick, maybe they’d cross over to the dark side and vote for one. But Cheeto refused to wave. He just laid there like a fat cat, allowing votes to slip away. Ultimately, the time for the awards ceremony arrived and I was asked to bring Cheeto inside. I snapped a shot while he lay on the red carpet.

Cheeto Resting on the Red Carpet (waiting his turn)

When they called Cheeto’s name, I picked him up and he relaxed in my arms like a sack of potatoes. When he becomes limp like this, his back legs splay apart, his head hangs back, and he looks hysterical–similar to how he looks in this photo here:

I hammed it up on the red carpet by twirling (like a model) in a circle as I held limp-Cheeto. The audience laughed and I even stopped for a few people to take his photo. *** UPDATED FOOTAGE!! *** Click here to see YouTube footage of Cheeto’s presentation! Before the presentation the event planner had asked all nominees, “If your pet were to come back as a famous person, who would he be?” and I answered “Because he is big and keeps me laughing all of the time, Cheeto would be Jackie Gleason.” At the podium, Cheeto received his plaque and an Olympic-style medal attached to a red, white, and blue ribbon that they draped around his neck (actually, its a cheap engraved pet tag, not a medal, but please don’t tell Cheeto). Afterwards, we waited another five minutes and they announced the overall winner of the People’s Choice Award. It wasn’t Cheeto. And it wasn’t even Tucker-the-poop-sniffer. No, it was a therapy dog named “Kitty Kitty,” given this name because she was born on April Fool’s Day.

We packed up and made the ferry just on time. Once on board, I had the brilliant idea to ask the ferry supervisor if I could brag about my cat who’d just won a Pet Hero Award. After showing him the award and letting him meet Cheeto, I was shocked that he actually handed me the microphone and said I could make the announcement myself. Seeing a YouTube moment, I asked my friend (she’d prefer to remain nameless, and you’ll see why when you watch the video) to videotape our next fun way to market Cheeto’s achievement. So I handed my cell phone to my friend to videotape me, grabbed that microphone, and told those passengers just how blessed they were to be traveling with a famous, award winning cat and how they could meet Cheeto (which some of them did). And here’s what my friend captured on film:

Nice. The only thing she captured was a 3 second clip of my back, my butt, and then her feet. And, yes, Cheeto didn’t get the People’s Choice Award. But at least I have a hero cat to sleep on my bed at night and a pretty new plaque for my wall. Life is too short to not brag about your famous cat!

Bebe: Peepless in Seattle!

kat_albrecht — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 23:49:10 +0000

Every once in awhile, we work an amazing investigation here at Missing Pet Partnership. The “Bebe Case” is certainly shaping up to be one of those cases and one we’ll use in our program to train volunteer pet detectives nationwide. This cat did what most panicked cats do–they hide in silence (thus the “peepless in Seattle” title). We just did NOT expect that he’d remain invisible for so long. And while we captured Bebe, we are still working to get him HOME where he belongs! Here’s the scoop:

Bebe at Home (before his escape)

On November 4, 2011, the grandmother of Bebe-the-tabby cat was transporting him from northern Washington to live with his mother, Corri, who lives in Half Moon Bay (San Francisco), CA. During a late night stop at a Motel 6 in Tacoma, grandmother opened up Bebe’s carrier and he bolted! He was last seen running into the juniper bushes of a house in a residential area next to the motel on the S/W corner of S. 76th Street and S. Wilkenson Street. The grandmother searched, but she could not find Bebe. She was forced to continue with her move to California, heartbroken. Her daughter Corri called Missing Pet Partnership on November 8th and asked for our help. In most cases, we have a cat owner here in our town who we work side by side to help them search for their missing cat. But in this case, if our volunteers did not search for and find Bebe, we knew he would end up being absorbed into the feral/stray cat population.

It just so happened that when Corri called, MPP had a producer in town who was here to film our searches in order to develop a training video. The Bebe investigation seemed like a compelling yet EASY case to work because from the very beginning, we believed that Bebe was likely still hiding in the immediate area. That’s because after interviewing Corri, we determined that Bebe is a “Cautious Cat” and these cats typically hide in silence near the escape point and just do not travel far. We knew that with a little bit of time, some food, a wildlife camera, and then a humane trap, we could catch him and get him back home. HA!

So, Missing Pet Partnership responded with a group of volunteers and conducted an intersection alert, tagged our cars, and posted giant neon posters. We filmed all of this in anticipation of finding Bebe within a few days, perhaps a few weeks. In fact, in the case of Smokey, the other missing cat we searched for, we captured him in a humane trap one week after his escape (on Thanksgiving Day!).

But as the days turned into weeks, there was NO sign of Bebe. We put up feeding stations and wildlife cameras but NOTHING. We thought we had a cat that looked like him on camera in mid December, but it was not him. As January and February rolled around, I have to confess that I was losing hope because in all of that time we did not have one single confirmed sighting. But thankfully we had three committed volunteers (Chris Duvall, Annette Lanker, and Bob) who continued to put up signs, put out food, and check the wildlife camera (set up in the juniper bushes at a vacant house on the S/E corner of 76th & Wilkinson) several days a week.

Then, quite unexpectedly, Chris Duvall called me on March 8, 2012 to tell me, “Kat, I have a gray tabby that we caught on camera. I think it could be Bebe.” Well, as you probably guessed, I was skeptical. In spite of the fact that I continually PREACH to pet owners to “not lose hope” I had, in fact, lost hope! But as Chris and I examined the photos and compared the patterns of stripes and the patterns of white on the paws chest of the cat in the photo, we had no doubt in our minds that the cat caught on camera WAS BEBE!

First photo of tabby with white paws with markings that matched Bebe!

We immediately set in motion plans to set up a drop trap (at the vacant house) and to capture Bebe during a surveillance operation. We went out and set up the drop trap at the vacant house, set up the wildlife camera, and removed all food from the area. We wanted to make certain Bebe would go under the drop trap before we set up the operation. The next day, we pulled the camera and wah lah, there was Bebe (watch it on YouTube) going under our drop trap!

Bebe Under the Drop Trap!

So, get this, we go out there on Saturday (March 10th) in the afternoon just to set up our cameras and plan everything for the capture that we already had volunteers signed up to help with ON SUNDAY when suddenly someone said, “There he is!” Sure enough, Bebe was sitting across the street (at the house on the N/E corner of 76th & Wilkinson) grooming himself! We captured it on video, and it’s posted on YouTube here. Of course, when we moved, Bebe darted. So I snuck around the other side of the house and sure enough, he was right there. Bebe froze and when I took a step forward, he darted directly towards the hole and went under the house! We snapped a picture of the hidey-hole so that you could see the accumulation of cat hair fibers.

Bebe's home for 4 months (hole under house with accumulation of cat hair fibers)

We call this “high probability evidence” that we train pet detectives to look for when searching for a missing cat. It signifies this location (entrance under this house) is an entrance/exit point for a cat who repeatedly goes in and out from that space. We’d found Bebe’s new home–and it was just across the street from where he’d escaped 4 months before! Thankfully, the home owners (Brenda and her son Trey) were Bebe fans and agreed to let us set up our cameras and trap and operation in their yard, so we jumped into action. We moved the drop trap from the vacant house and set it up right outside the hidey-hole, set up a nanny camera right by the trap, ran an extension cord and hooked it to a TV monitor in a gazebo on the other side of the house, huddled up in silence and prepared to catch a cat. We taped a quick “set up” piece (watch on YouTube) with me sitting next to the TV monitor (which shows the drop trap) for the training video.

What happened next was completely unexpected (and a bit comical). Bebe came out of the hole, walked up to the drop trap but did not stay under it long enough, and then sauntered calmly within ten feet of us, froze in place, and stood there staring at six pet detectives who were trying to stay still and not breath! Needless to say, Bebe bolted and ran back under the house! It was dark already and we were unprepared to conduct a full stakeout, so after an hour of waiting with no cat, we decided that we’d continue the drop trap operation the next night as originally scheduled. But in the off chance that Bebe might go into a normal humane trap, we set one up and baited it with food. Well, we should’ve known that Bebe is just not your typical cat. Ten minutes after we all left, Bebe went into the humane trap! But, true to form with all our other camera malfunctions, we did not capture the actual capture on video! Instead, the wildlife camera recorded Bebe for 30 seconds as he ate food outside of the trap (watch here), then it kicked into the 60 second delay (which was during the point Bebe was captured and what we WANTED to get on video), and then it kicked in to record Bebe already in the trap. So much for capturing it on camera for a training video! I did shoot some video AFTER Bebe for the training video which you can watch here.

Throughout this investigation, we encountered the following obstacles: a very pregnant owner who lived in California and could not come search for her own cat, a cat that was displaced in known coyote territory, freezing temperatures that included three snow storms, New Years Eve fireworks, apathetic employees of nearby businesses (who refused to let us post signs), the theft of one of our digital wildlife cameras, one crabby neighbor who clearly hated our signs (and cats), a group of over zealous neighborhood watch volunteers who thought our posters were illegal (they were not) and ripped them down, a failed drop trap operation due to Bebe being smarter than our rescuers, flubbed up filming due to equipment failures, and then a lack of funds to get Bebe back home.

To give you perspective on the distance that Bebe traveled during the 4 months that he was “lost,” I snapped a photo (below) from the exact spot where Bebe escaped (which was on S. 76th Street across from the Motel 6).

You can see an intersection ahead (with a round-about-curby-thing in the middle to slow speeders and trip up drunk drivers). Bebe was last seen running into the bushes of the house on the right side of this photo by that telephone pole, he was captured on camera at the vacant house right behind that maroon van, and we was living under that split level green house (and was captured in the trap there) on the opposite corner. Focusing your search CLOSE to the escape point, using the proper tools, and having hope are key to recovering a skittish lost cat!

Bebe’s owner Corri was not able to fly from California to Seattle for a reunion. She had a newborn baby, a new job, and she did not have the funds to buy tickets for MPP volunteers to transport Bebe. Because Bebe already escaped during transport (escaped from a crate in a car) once before we did NOT want to transport him by vehicle. And since MPP had worked cases (like the search for Wenty at SeaTac airport) of cats that escape carriers when transported in cargo area of planes, our plan was to HAND DELIVER him to Corri in California by flying with him in cabin (with an MPP volunteer).

Bebe peaking around the corner of a crate lid that fell from the camera after he apparently bumped it!

We put out a plea for donations and managed to raise $350.00, but the money was not needed to pay for the transportation after all. That’s because an angel (Denise) who works for Alaska Airlines was able to arrange to use her benefits to fly with Bebe and our volunteer, Chris Duvall. They flew on standby, so the flight was actually cancelled twice and rescheduled. I REALLY wanted to be there, but ultimately I declined so that Denise and Chris would have a better chance of making the flight (with 2 people vs. 3).

Bebe with Corri back at home in Half Moon Bay

Bebe was reunited with Corri on April 5, 2012, exactly 5 months after his escape. Here is video of the reunion at the airport (thankfully Corri did not open the cat carrier until Bebe was home!). Bebe’s recovery was the cover story for the Half Moon Bay Review and Corri shared the Bebe story on a local (Bay area) pet talk show which you can listen to here.

We hope Bebe’s story will inspire cat owners to understand the behavior of displaced skittish cats, how lost cats can actually be closer than you think, that using the proper recovery techniques (wildlife cameras, humane traps, patience, and hope) are critical, and to never, never, NEVER give up hope!

MPP used the money raised for the Bebe case to purchase two digital wildlife cameras. If you’d like to support our efforts to recover more displaced cats like Bebe (we’ve already put the cameras to use for a displaced cat named “Timmy” in north Seattle), please consider making a donation via PayPal (click the yellow “PayPal donate” button at the top of MPP’s site) or you can send a check to “Missing Pet Partnership, P.O. Box 3085, Federal Way, WA 98063″. Please indicate that you’d like your donation to go towards “Bebe Wildlife Cameras.”

This recovery would not have been possible without the leadership of MPP volunteer Chris Duvall and the hardwork of Annette Lanker, Bob, Trey, Earl, and the other neighbors, and all of the other MPP volunteers who went out on this case during the various efforts to find him from November through March. GREAT JOB YOU GUYS!!! To say that I am very proud of you is an understatement!

Bebe back at home (on Corri's bed) in Half Moon Bay

Let Us Help You Form A PET DETECTIVE TEAM In YOUR Community!

kat_albrecht — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 23:40:20 +0000

Have you ever wished you could do more to help dogs and cats in your own community? Now you can through an innovative team pet detective training program called “MAR” which stands for “Missing Animal Response.”

The MAR “pet detective” training program was something I envisioned way back in 1997 after my police bloodhound, AJ, went lost in the woods. After using another search dog to track him down, I decided to experiment to see if other dogs could be trained to find lost pets. Here is a clip from those early years (1999) when I had my first small group of dogs in training (through Pet Hunters, before it became Missing Pet Partnership).

It wasn’t until 2005 that I launched the first 5-day MAR training course and ultimately trained over 125 pet detectives across the USA, Canada, and even from Mexico, Japan, Ireland, and Italy. Most of those who attended the course were individuals who’d read my memoirs (The Lost Pet Chronicles) and thought they wanted to become individual pet detectives. A few did, most didn’t. The few who did venture to offer pet detective services usually focused only on the use of tracking dogs. None of the students went on to develop any type of team concept.

Then came the recession in 2008. Growth of the MAR course came to a crashing halt due to the down economy. What MPP did was use that time (2008 through 2012) to focus on developing an operational community-based lost pet search-and-rescue team here in Seattle. We tested out new ideas and refined old techniques. Now that the economy is on the upswing, we’re ready to start training up teams across North America. While individuals are still invited to attend our training, our focus with our MAR course is teaching TEAM skills and recovery techniques to search for and capture missing dogs and cats.

Although I started out as an individual pet detective (in 1997), I’ve since learned that in many cases it is just not enough to hire an individual pet detective who’ll show up with a tracking dog, charge a fee ($12,000 in one case!), and then leave town because they’re off to go work the next case in another community. Pet detectives with search dogs are great tools, but what is also needed in many cases is A TEAM OF LOCAL VOLUNTEERS who can help with surveillance, trapping, intersection alerts, and other techniques that require several people and time. Thus MPP is looking to train up community-based teams of volunteers who can spend extended periods of time, however long it takes like the 7 weeks it took MPP volunteers to use surveillance cameras and drop net to capture Sophie or the truly remarkable case where it took our volunteer team 4 months to capture Bebe the cat.

To learn more about the specific skills and recovery techniques covered in our MAR course, click on each of the links below:

1. Scent trailing dogs used to track the scent trail of lost dogs, as this 1999 clip demonstrates of my bloodhound A.J. as he trailed the scent of a lost dog named Bubba.

2. Cat detection dogs used to search for and detect the presence of lost cats, as demonstrated on Animal Planet’s show “Must Love Cats.”

3. Surveillance cameras and operations used to detect and then humanely capture panicked, displaced cats, just like what were used in the searches for Lil’ Miss Kitty, Binky, Cookie the cat and Bebe (watch video footage of the Bebe case here).

4. Surveillance cameras and operations used to detect and then humanely capture panicked, skittish dogs who run from everyone, just like Bill did for over a year!

5. Drop net operations to capture dogs that just can’t be captured in a humane trap, just like how MPP caught Sophie.

MPP Volunteers set up "drop net" constructed with pop up tent, two nets sewn together, and magnetic hooks

6. Magnet dogs, snappy snares, and calming signals used to lure and capture panicked, skittish dogs who run from people but readily come up to a friendly dog, like MPP did to recover Mack the pit bull.

7. Intersection Alerts and “tagging” of cars to capture the attention of passersby in order to help mass market and recover a lost dog, like MPP did in the sad recovery of Lena, a dog who escaped her carrier at SeaTac airport.

"Tagging" Car Windows to Mass Market Lost Dogs

8. House as Trap and other unique capture techniques used to capture panicked dogs and cats when normal human traps do not work, just like MPP to recover Ruffles, Ike, and Vivian.

9. The development of animal shelter lost pet recovery programs, like 4th of July Lost Pet Recovery Booths and year-round animal shelter pet detective services like those currently in development through Missing Pet Partnership’s “Mission Reunite” program (in collaboration with the Regional Animal Services of King County shelter located in Kent, WA).

10. And finally, MPP educates students in the critical aspects of animal and human behaviors that often prevent lost pets from being recovered, like “The Silence Factor” that kills many lost cats like the sad case of Monet.

Our MAR team in Seattle receives 3 to 7 calls a day from pet owners asking for help in recovering lost companion animals. Last year we logged over 600 cases. Now that we’ve developed our team in Seattle and refined our team development, we’re ready resume our MAR training program! MPP is looking to partner with animal rescue groups, no kill shelters, animal shelters, and groups that want to form lost pet search-and-rescue teams in their own communities.

MPP Volunteers Captured Skittish Dog "Stryker" Loose for 6 Weeks (with Snappy Snare)

Currently, MPP is working to develop a 6-week Missing Animal Response on-line (webinar) training course that we plan to launch in the fall of 2012. To prepare for the MAR course and to learn more about how to train a MAR cat detection dog and/or a MAR trailing dog, get a copy of my book Dog Detectives: Train Your Dog To Find Lost Pets. For more details on how to sign up for the MAR webinar, go the MPP web site training page.

Cheeto Wheeto

kat_albrecht — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:26:28 +0000

Well, it’s official. My cat Cheeto’s little pinhead has blown up to match the size of his big flabby BUTT!

Cheeto: Too Famous for His Own Good!

After appearing on the local KOMO 4 news the other night and King 5′s program Evening Magazine tonight, interest for Cheeto’s work as a “target cat” has grow nationally. He will appear on Animal Planet’s “Must Love Cats” show this Saturday March 17th at 8:00 p.m.

The great thing about Cheeto is that not only is he a valuable “employee” of Missing Pet Partnership with the work he does (he’s used to train Missing Pet Partnership’s ”cat detection dogs” to find lost cats for our lost pet rescue team here in Seattle), but he is a quirky cat with a boat load of personality! Here’s what I mean:

1. Cheeto is trained to sit up and wave “bye-bye” on command…of course, there must be a hunk of dried salmon involved.

Cheeto Waving (back when he was a skinny kitten!)

2. Cheeto is a true “drama king” in that he will take several steps and then, in the most dramatic fashion possible for a cat, he will literally flop down from the supposed exertion it took for him to walk five steps. You can see him do his drama flop in the Evening Magazine video clip. Of course, he has NOOO lack of energy when it comes to him racing around my house and beating up on my other skinny, sweet, elderly kitty Myron!

3. Cheeto is featured on the cover of one of the books I authored called, “Dog Detectives: Train Your Dog to Find Lost Pets.” I think this was when he ego began to grow out of control!

Cheeto "Kissing" Cat Detection Dog Susie on the Cover of My Book

4. Cheeto once owned his own pet, a mouse named Squeakers who I rescued from becoming snake food. Cheeto (and Myron) spent HOURS in front of Squeaker’s glass home (a fish aquarium) where they watched their pet. Squeakers was tame and let me hold him and even sniffed noses with Cheeto who, surprisingly, never made a grab towards the mouse. Sadly, Squeakers ultimately died of old age (he was 2 years old, I believe) and was replaced with a little brown mouse who proceeded to bite me, so I never really handled him again. When trying to come up with a better name than “Squeakers Number Two” I noticed Myron and Cheeto admiring their new pet and imagined Myron asking Cheeto, “Merrow…what do you think he TASTES like?” and Cheeto’s response was, “Like CHICKEN!” So the brown mouse was named “Chicken” and ultimately died of natural causes as well. I put my foot down after that point and told Cheeto, “No More Cat Pets!”

Cheeto & Karma Baseball Trading Cards

Cheeto actually has his own business card. It is a baseball trading card with a semi fuzzy photo of him with Squeakers. As a fundraiser for Missing Pet Partnership and since Cheeto is now developing a fan base, I am offering to send a Cheeto trading card (and/or a Karma the pit bull trading card) to supporters who sign up to become “Search Posse Pal” members of Missing Pet Partnership at the $100.00 membership level (or above, if you’d like to give more). Make sure that when you sign up that in the “Message Optional” section you type in that you “want a Cheeto Trading Card” (or Karma Trading card, or BOTH a Cheeto & Karma Trading Card..just tell us which cards you want). MPP will then snail mail you a free membership t-shirt (it says: “Missing Pet Partnership: Finding Lost Pets ~ Saving People!”) along with your trading cards as a thank you gift for your support.

Our vision at Missing Pet Partnership is to develop lost pet search-and-rescue teams just like what we’ve launched here in Seattle. We hope to rescue dogs like Karma and more cats like Cheeto (oh good grief, can there really be more cats like him?) from animal shelters, train them and use them to recover lost pets, and partner with animal shelters, rescue groups, and volunteer teams that we help to train in communities across North America. If you’d like more information on our Missing Animal Response training course (that will be held here in Seattle this June) or in how YOU can host a MAR seminar in your own community, click here.

Oh, and I should add that the Evening Magazine clip did not give correct statistics on our recovery rate! They said that “Cheeto and the dogs with Missing Pet Partnership found over 300 cats last year alone.” The reality is that our search dogs are only one tool that we use at MPP to help families recover lost cats (and lost dogs) and our search dogs only recover a very small percentage of the lost pets that we search for! What should’ve been reported was that last year, Missing Pet Partnership helped over 300 families recover their lost cats through all of the techniques that we use (advice on our web site which is linked to animal shelter web sites nationally, lost cat email consultations, lost cat telephone consultations, physical searches with our cat detection dogs, humane traps, wildlife cameras, and lost cat recovery tips).

Thank you for sharing the story about Cheeto with other animal lovers and for supporting Missing Pet Partnership with your membership. Life is too short to not live with a weird cat!

Cheeto's Eyes Hypnotizing Me to Feed Him Dried Salmon Treats

Wenty’s Whirlwind

kat_albrecht — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:46:19 +0000

There is never a dull moment when you’re a pet detective. In my 14 years of tracking lost pets, I’ve assisted families in various circumstances surrounding the disappearance of a lost pet including the search for a cat who escaped his apartment after his elderly owner was bludgeoned to death by an irate neighbor, the search of an amusement park for an escaped giant boa constrictor, using my bloodhound to track a police dog who escaped from his handler, a request to use my bloodhound to track ”Skunk Ape” (Florida’s version of Bigfoot), and then the search yesterday for Wenty, a cat who escaped his cat carrier at SeaTac airport.

Wenty

The search for Wenty was complicated yet amazing. It was complicated because it involved 4 different search areas: the Tucson airport where Wenty was loaded onto the Alaskan Airlines flight, the airplane itself that he traveled on, the SeaTac tarmac area since it was suspected he may have escaped while on the plane and perhaps bolted from the plane once the cargo door was opened, and the SeaTac internal baggage area in the event he escaped after being unloaded from the plane. No baggage employee came forward to say they witnessed Wenty’s escape. His owner simply went to claim Wenty and was given a carrier that was closed yet empty.

Wenty’s escape took place on Friday night and Missing Pet Partnership became involved in the case after Wenty’s guardian found our web site on Saturday, called our office, and asked if we could help. Myself, Jim Branson, and MPP volunteer Bonnie Beltz along with MPP cat detection dog Karma responded on Sunday. We used Karma’s nose, high power spotlights, a search camera, an amplified listening device, digital wildlife cameras (to see how MPP uses wildlife cameras to solve displaced cat investigations, read the story of Binky and the story of Burley) and a coordinated plan to conduct the same type of detailed “area search” that MPP typically uses when searching for a lost cat. Thanks to Alaska Airlines, we were allowed unprecedented access to the baggage area and the tarmac area.

Karma and Team Searching for Wenty at SeaTac (on tarmac)

Based on our knowledge of displaced cat behaviors, we knew that Wenty would be hiding in silence. We also knew that Wenty’s temperament under normal circumstances would influence his behavior when displaced. Wenty is what MPP calls a “catatonic / xenophobic” cat, so we knew he would be hiding. At one point, the Alaskan Airlines staff member asked, “Is it possible that he left the airport?” Our answer was that while that was possible, it was not PROBABLE. We reiterated that at the moment he escaped, Wenty would have bolted and would most likely dart under something, looking for concealment and protection.

We searched for 3 1/2 hours. While Karma showed slight interest at one of the Alaskan Airlines baggage conveyor belts, it was only a slight indication. We felt that it was likely residual scent of a cat but certainly not a strong enough alert to indicate that a cat was hiding under there. To their credit, Alaska Airlines was willing to disassemble the conveyor belt if needed. Trust me–if Karma’s alert had been a strong alert, we would have insisted that they do that!

I should also add that Alaska Airlines bent over backwards on this case. Our volunteers, accompanied by the Alaskan Airlines supervisor, were allowed access to any and every potential hiding place. We asked if we could see what the interior cargo pit of an airplane looks like and they walked us right up to a plane that had pulled up to a gate and baggage was being unloaded. We asked if they could find the same plane that Wenty escaped from and the Alaskan Airlines employee got on her cell phone. Within five minutes we were told this: Wenty’s plane had already flown to Mexico, San Diego, and was due to return to SeaTac later that night. It would have a one hour layover before flying off to Anchorage. We asked if we could get into the cargo pit of the plane to see if there was anyway Wenty had escaped into the belly of the plane. They not only granted that permission, but told us that they’d work to find a replacement plane for the Anchorage flight so MPP could have unlimited time and access to search the plane for Wenty.

Karma searches slabs of concrete hiding places on SeaTac tarmac

So at 8:58 p.m. last night, Jim Branson and Karma along with Amy Adams and her cat detection dog Harley stood by as Wenty’s plane arrived at SeaTac. They were able to enter the cargo pit area and determined that it was completely sealed with a thick plastic barrier that was designed to protect anything from cargo from entering any area of the plane. That search of the plane helped us eliminate the potential that Wenty could be on the plane, thus increasing the possibility that he was in one of the other three places: the Tucson airport, the SeaTac tarmac, or the SeaTac baggage area. Jim worked with Alaskan employees to help set humane traps and digital wildlife cameras and encouraged them to get the word out to ALL airport employees that Wenty was lost. A plan was put into motion to have a pet detective with a search dog respond to the Tucson airport on Monday morning to conduct a search there.

As it turned out, that was not necessary. We received a call early this morning with the BEST NEWS possible…Wenty was found alive! At around 1:00 a.m., a baggage employee from United Airlines spotted a pair of white paws sticking out from under a United baggage carousel (a distance from the Alaska Airlines baggage area that we searched). Having heard that Alaska Airlines had lost a cat, the United worker got down on his belly with a flashlight, saw Wenty, and was able to grab him! He immediately called Alaska Airlines who contacted Wenty’s guardian and transported Wenty to the emergency vet for a checkup. Wenty is greasy and was a bit dehydrated, but otherwise will be fine.

Wenty, Back Home Where He Belongs!

In spite of the fact that Wenty escaped, Missing Pet Partnership would like to give PRAISE to Alaska Airlines for their unprecedented help in getting Wenty back home. While MPP helped in the search effort, it was truly the staff at Alaskan Airlines who deserve the praise here. The fact that Alaskan Airlines (a) agreed to give MPP volunteers and our search dog access to every inch that needed to be searched and (b) they (Alaskan Airlines) notified all airport employees that a cat was missing at the airport is what made all of the difference. Thankfully, there ARE corporations who have compassion and who are willing to bend over backwards to do the right thing. THANK YOU ALASKA AIRLINES for being one of those corporations!

Love & Bunky…Not What I Expected

kat_albrecht — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:56:29 +0000

You may have noticed this, but I haven’t blogged since April. What, pray tell, could be so compelling and so life changing that it could distract me from my passion for lost pet recovery and pet detective work?

Answer: TRUE LOVE!

Yes. I admit it. I fell in love with a Canadian. I’ve been, um, doing some “research” for the romance portion of the teen romance/mystery novel that I’m crafting!

Mystery Canadian Man Whispering Sweet Nothings in My Ear

However, several other things besides romance have been pulling me away from my blog. Missing Pet Partnership (MPP) has been overwhelmed with lost pet recovery work. Since I last blogged, we’ve been averaging 5 to 7 phone calls per day. That is A LOT for an all volunteer organization that has no office staff and that is struggling to survive in this economy! In addition, we held our first fundraiser (Whine Sleuth) in May, in June we trained many volunteers, in July we helped over 70 families who lost their pets due to 4th of July fireworks, we moved MPP’s office from my home to a business complex, and best of all we partnered with a local animal shelter (Regional Animal Shelter of King County in Kent, WA) to launch our first animal shelter pet detective program which we’ve called Mission Reunite.

Our vision for the Mission Reunite program is everything that Missing Pet Partnership stands for–the concept that one day if you lose your dog or cat, you can go down to your local animal shelter and actually receive sound (lost pet behavior-based) recovery advice and hands-on assistance from the animal shelter staff. I will blog more about Mission Reunite as the program rolls out.

A few weeks ago, something else happened. A woman called Missing Pet Partnership asking for help after her indoor-only cat Bunky escaped from her apartment. My plan was simple. I planned to deliver a humane trap, a wildlife camera, and offer her instructions, encouragement, and hope. Instead, I arrived walked around the apartment complex with Bunky’s guardian to determine just where she should set up the camera in hopes of catching Bunky on camera. After walking a mere 20 yards from her apartment, we came upon one of the stomach dropping signs that indicate that a coyote has killed a cat–clumps of fur…MANY clumps of fur.

Not What I Expected to See...

The fur was the same color as Bunky’s fur and we both knew that Bunky was likely gone. As her grief set in, I asked Bunky’s guardian if she had a family member or someone she could call. “No,” she told me. “Nine months ago my husband left me just four days after my daughter and grandson were both killed in a car accident.” Within a span of a month, this woman had lost her daughter, her grandson, her husband, her house, her job, and any sense of a normal life. Bunky, she told me, had come into her life as a stray after the tragedy. He had been helping her to heal from her grief.

I didn’t know what to say. I consoled her the best I could, went home, and wept. I met with her a week later and gave her a booklet on grief and told her that I’d be praying for her. I have stuck to that commitment to pray for her, just like I’ve stuck to several other commitments in my life, including my refusal to give up on my attempts to form Missing Pet Partnership.

I plan to start blogging again. I need to share my stories instead of letting them stack up for months like pancakes. It is a commitment that I am renewing for others and for myself. No more excuses. No more delays. I did not expect to find love when I did and I did not expect to experience grief like I did on the Bunky case. But as a pet detective, my life is filled with heartwarming as well as heartbreaking stories.

My life is also filled with faith, hope and, thankfully, more love than ever before (thanks to my Canadian beau). But like the Bible says (1 Corinthians 13:13), faith and hope and love are all important, but when it comes down to finding your life partner or losing a beloved child, grandson, or even a housecat named Bunky:

“The greatest of these is love.”

Dax The Way (Uh Huh, Uh Huh, I Like It)

kat_albrecht — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:38:48 +0000

OK, so I’m probably showing my age with this blog title (it’s a rip off from a 70′s K.C. & The Sunshine Band song). Oh well!

Here’s the story of Dax, a red/white Siberian Husky with a skittish (“xenophobic”) temperament, and how she was lost then recovered as told by her guardian, Marisa Jang. This is a perfect example of how Missing Pet Partnership is helping to instruct people in how to properly capture panicked stray dogs. You’ll notice that before Marisa and Brandon consulted with MPP, Dax ran from everyone, including a family member she knew! (See my final comments at the end of my blog)

Dax

Tuesday, April 26, 2011 – I came home at approximately 6:00 p.m. to discover that Dax was missing. Brandon and I immediately went out looking all around the East Hill area (Kent, WA) within a 5-mile radius from our home. We asked everyone that we saw if they’d seen Dax. Brandon, his parents, my parents, and I searched until dark and found nothing. I called the KC Animal Control & Shelter in Kent but Dax was not listed as a found stray.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011 – When Brandon got home in the early afternoon he found a posting on Craigslist about a brown and white husky running loose in the East Hill area. He immediately went to where Dax was last seen at Clark Lake Park (approximately 130 acres). He walked the 4 mile trail looking & asking anyone around to no avail. When I got home I replied to the Craig’s List posting and the gal who saw Dax (Kimberly) gave us some good advice and referred us to the Missing Pet Partnership (MPP) website. While searching a neighborhood, Brandon’s mom saw Dax at 7:52pm chewing on a dog treat of some kind on a sidewalk. When she exited her vehicle and called her name, Dax bolted at 100% because of how scared she was. Dax didn’t even recognize Brandon’s mom or her voice! We were still calling Dax’s name because a local Humane Society’s website and their volunteer call in line said to do the following steps: “Call your pet’s name loudly and often. In-between, listen carefully for a faint bark or meow that may indicate your curious friend is trapped somewhere.”

Thursday, April 28, 2011 -I went to the MPP website and after reading about skittish, xenophobic dogs, and some of the information on what to do and how they react, I called MPP and Chris (the MPP dispatcher) and volunteer Jim Branson were both able to give me tips and ideas on what to do to find Dax. I went again to the KC Animal Shelter after work to check. With no trace in sight, we again returned home for the night.

Friday, April 29, 2011 – Brandon had the day off and staked out the neighborhood where Dax was last seen with no luck. As suggested on MPP’s website, we made neon posters and figured out what spots the majority of people going home or down to the major highways would have to stop, or at least see, our neon signs. We went to the shelter, but she still was not found. At 1:00pm we got a call that Dax was seen sniffing one our neon posters but was spooked when a car drove by. Like every call or tip we received she was described as terrified (one person said “running for her life”) and extremely fast.

Saturday, April 30, 2011 - Kat Albrecht from MPP was able to come by our house. She gave us instructions on how NOT to call a panicked dog and how to use food to attract Dax but while ignoring her. She also gave us Neomarker pens and instructions for us to “tag” the back windows of our cars with Dax’s info and provided neon posters to put out. It was extremely helpful and I was so touched she and her colleague came out to give us support, information, and help. To our disappointment, not one call came in that day about Dax.

Sunday, May 1, 2011 – We went out as usual to the last places she was seen earlier in the week and to make sure our signs were not yet pulled down or fix if they had fallen down/over. The day ended with not one phone call of a sighting on Sunday.

Monday, May 2, 2011 – Brandon headed out after getting a call at 10:30am from a woman who saw our Craigslist post. She said she saw Dax Sunday evening near 113^th Place SE off of 116^thAve SE. Brandon rushed over there and ended up turning down the wrong street. While trying to find his way, Brandon spotted Dax!

How Brandon got Dax back: Brandon drove close to where Dax was walking but she saw his car and trotted faster the direction she was headed**. Brandon stopped, got out with the zip lock bag of dry dog food I had given him and threw the entire bag halfway between him and Dax. She stopped, turned around and looked at him. Brandon crouched down (a calming signal) so that he was no longer standing and began acting like he was foraging for food (by using his hands to fiddle with the food), not looking at Dax. Moments later when Dax got close enough to Brandon, she sniffed him. He knew she’d recognized him when she licked the back of his neck! Brandon was then able to grab Dax by the collar and head home. Brandon said Dax howled excitedly the entire drive home!

(**Note from Kat: Many skittish dogs that have been chased by so many people on foot and even in cars can sense when someone is following them so they speed up! You’re better off to drive 5 to 7 houses up ahead of the dog so you’ll have time to stop your car, calmly climb out, and sit or kneel with food and focus on moving the food with your fingers while ignoring the dog. It is critical that you LOOK AT THE FOOD, NOT AT THE DOG! Actually, you can watch your dog out of the corner of your eye but your dog will only calm down if he senses that you’re more interested in foraging for food on the ground than in staring at him or walking towards him or calling his name. This is the same advice that we gave to Brandon and Marisa).

Dax, Home Where She Belongs!

The Dax case is the perfect example of the highly effective recovery technique of strategically placed giant, neon REWARD LOST DOG posters, the active posting of LOST RED & WHITE HUSKY Ad’s on Craig’s List, and ”Calming Signals. Every person, even one of Dax’s own family members, who called Dax simply caused her to bolt in a panic. Thankfully, three MPP volunteers (Chris the dispatcher, Jim Branson, and myself) all explained lost dog calming signals so that the moment that Brandon finally DID see Dax, he knew exactly what to do. Sadly, many animal shelters and humane socities give out improper lost pet recovery advice like, ”Call your pet’s name loudly and often.” Calling a displaced lost cat or a xenophobic lost dog (like Dax) is not only pointless, it can actually make matters worse! Please share this pet detective blog with your local shelter and ask them to refer dog and cat owners to Missing Pet Partnership’s web site.

Catching Cookie

kat_albrecht — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 18:34:29 +0000

Last week I blogged about the recovery of a lost dog named Bill in my blog “Catching Bill.” This week I decided to appease the cat fanciers who read my blog by writing about the capture / recovery a missing cat named Cookie.

Let me start out by saying that I love purple-lipped kitties (I happen to be owned by one myself)! Just look at Cookie’s face. If you love cats, how can you NOT love that face?

So here’s the story of Cookie. It is an all-too-common story about an indoor-only cat that escaped outside, a frantic owner who didn’t know what to do, and a plea for help. On April 12th, we (Missing Pet Partnership) got the call from Amberly (Cookie’s owner) who lives in Renton, Washington. Cookie had slipped out the front door and had been missing for two days. What set this case apart from others was that Amberly was wheelchair-bound and was not physically able to do the work needed to recover a displaced cat. And although Amberly asked us if we could respond with our search dog to try to track Cookie, we knew that was not necessary. We knew that Cookie was likely close and that more than likely, setting a baited humane trap would be the key to bringing Cookie home. We were right.

An MPP volunteer (who wishes to remain anonymous) took on the Cookie case. She responded to Amberly’s home and posted giant, neon REWARD LOST CAT posters (in the pouring rain, no less) along with Amberly’s sister and friend. Amberly’s sister commented that there had been a “possible sighting” in the garage of a house directly behind Amberly’s home.

The MPP volunteer walked over to the house with the possible sighting and spoke to the neighbor. The neighbor insisted that the cat was not in their garage and declined the volunteer’s request to search the garage. So, the MPP volunteer then coached Amberly and her family in how to follow up on any leads and told them to call MPP if they received any additional sightings.

Days passed and Amberly grew discouraged. The MPP volunteer continued to encourage Amberly as best she could. The volunteer suggested that Amberly try to get permission from the skeptical neighbor to see if they’d let Amberly put a plate of cat food in the garage to see if it disappeared. Sure enough, the next day (on April 17th) after placing the food in the garage (which was gobbled up) there were multiple sightings of Cookie inside of that garage! (Cats are like that…my cats mysteriously surface every night for a taste of Friskies salmon!) However, when Amberly’s family approached the normally friendly Cookie, she ran and hid inside the garage and would not let them come near her.

So Amberly called Missing Pet Partnership again. The same volunteer who’d responded with the signs responded again but this time with a humane trap. She took it directly to the neighbor who now realized that Cookie was inside their garage after all. The volunteer baited the trap with yummy food, set it inside of the garage, and then closed the door. Amberly’s mother was there and was confused as to why the normally friendly Cookie would run from her own family. The MPP volunteer explained displaced cat behaviors and how Cookie was behaving like any cat that was in unfamiliar territory. The volunteer instructed the family to leave the trap alone and check it in an hour, giving Cookie time to settle down in the garage, smell the food, and enter the trap.

And that’s exactly what happened. Six days after her escape, Cookie entered that trap within one hour. She was only one house away (directly behind Amberly’s home) and wasn’t “lost” at all. She was displaced. But most importantly, because of Missing Pet Partnership’s services and the dedication of our volunteer, Cookie was back HOME, where she belonged!

Cookie with a Very Happy Amberly (the day after Cookie was captured)

That volunteer returned the next day to Amberly’s house to pick up the MPP humane trap. She snapped the photo above of a very content cat (if there even is such a thing…I wouldn’t know because my cats are complete whiners) and a VERY happy Amberly.

What I love about this story is that the services that our volunteer offered could be offered in ALL communities, nationwide. It would not require a trained search dog. It would not require high-tech equipment. There was no microchip involved in this recovery or phoning of neighbor’s to tell them to keep an eye out for Cookie. This was one trained volunteer who knew what to say, what to do, and how to instruct and encourage a distraught cat owner. That’s it. And that’s what Missing Pet Partnership is working to do. Working to build our organization that will train community-based volunteer pet detectives who’ll help recover lost pets like Cookie, one community at a time!

Catching Bill

kat_albrecht — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 20:35:02 +0000

Sometimes, recovering a lost dog is as easy as driving down to the local shelter or posting a LOST DOG Ad on Craig’s List. However, when the dog has a skittish temperament and is so panicked that he is running from everyone, including his own family, things change. Suddenly it’s not so easy. In fact, it can be downright hopeless. Many of skittish dogs that escape from their families are simply never recovered because theses guardian typically don’t have the knowledge, the proper equipment, or the support they need. The story of Bill is case where a family (a foster family at that) refused to give up, even when the recovery took them close to one year!

Bill Relaxed at Home

Bill, a Vizsla / Labrador mix, somehow ended up in an animal shelter in early 2010. He was rescued and ended up in the hands of Don and Marianne Blackwell from Ft. Collins, Colorado. The Blackwell’s fostered Bill for six weeks for the rescue group they volunteered for. Here’s how Marianne described life with Bill (before his escape):

“Bill quickly became part of our family and was a real sweetheart. My husband Don walks/runs our 3 Vizslas in the back field and was eventually able to take Bill without a leash; Bill stayed near the rest of the pack and to Don.”

Well, as fate would have it, an adoptive family was found for Bill. However, there was a problem. Bill hated crates. But the rescue group felt that Bill needed to be crate trained for his new family. So Bill was moved out of the Blackwell’s house and in with another volunteer who knew how to crate train dogs. As Marianne told me, “With a great deal of sadness, we let them take Bill from our home. We were miserable.” Marianne and Don were miserable because they loved Bill and knew how much this gentle dog hate, hate, HATED crates! When Marianne called the fellow rescuer a few weeks later to find out how Bill was doing, she learned the crushing news. Bill had jumped a fence and ran away from the other rescuers house a week before. Marianne and Don were heartsick! They immediately launched an extensive search (shelter checks, posters, advertisements, etc.) for Bill. They kept this up not just for weeks, but for MONTHS. However, eventually all leads and sightings diminished down to nothing. It seemed that Bill had vanished from the face of earth.

Then, eight months later (in January 2011), Bill was sighted by the same rescuer he’d escaped from. He was seen running near a drainage ditch not far from his home. Marianne and Don jumped back into recovery mode. They posted more flyers, talked to people in the area of the sighting, and ultimately after great gumshoe work they discovered where Bill was living. He had found an abandoned house with a hole big enough for a Viszla mix to crawl into. Don and Marianne began to put food out there and would catch glimpses of Bill as he took off in terror from anyone who tried to approach him.

That was when I came into the picture. Marianne surfed the Internet for information on how to catch a hard-to-catch dog. She found Missing Pet Partnership’s web site and was encouraged by the story of how MPP volunteers caught Sophie, a skittish Bernese Mountain Dog after a 7 week effort. Marianne emailed me on February 27, 2011, explained Bill’s story, and ended her email like this:

“What can we do next? We have been looking for our dog for almost 9 months and will not ever give up on him, but we don’t know what to do to bring him in. He is obviously a survivor and eats garbage and whatever else people have set out for him. There’s flowing water nearby. He looks fairly healthy, but is very people-adverse. We need to bring him home. Can you help with any ideas or game plans?”

I immediately advised Marianne to purchase a digital wildlife camera in order to monitor Bill’s activity, especially if they planned to use a large dog humane trap (which I also recommended they get). I then referred her to Jim Branson, Missing Pet Partnership’s secret weapon for recovering hard-to-catch dogs. Jim consulted with Marianne (then and over the next several weeks), sharing MPP’s experience in using humane traps, wildlife cameras, and the very rare cases where traditional trapping did not work and other techniques were needed.

Marianne and Don bought a wildlife camera and set it up by the food dish. Immediately, they began to monitor Bill’s activity by looking at the pictures that were snapped of him every day.

Bill Sitting By His Hidey-Hole-Home

They contacted the Larimer County Humane Society Animal Control who set up a humane dog trap. However, Bill would not go into the trap. So they put out the largest size dog trap available but just like Sophie who was just too afraid to enter a dog trap, Bill would not go into a dog trap.

Bill Too Afraid To Enter Humane Trap

This is the value of using wildlife cameras in capturing skittish dogs and cats. Wildlife cameras provide useful information. They confirm that the animal is still in the area. And like the case of the skittish dog Vivian Irene and Buddy the skittish cat, wildlife cameras can inform rescuers that yeah, a baited humane trap IS attracting the animal you’re trying to catch but the trap ISN’T going to catch them!

And that’s what happened with Bill. Don and Marianne spent the next several weeks trying to catch Bill. They put a sedative in his food, thinking it would make him calm enough to enter the trap. That didn’t work. Ultimately, after 8 weeks of effort they decided they needed a new plan. They contacted the Larimer County Humane Society Animal Control again and they offered to dart and capture Bill.

Bill...captured at last!

It took a team of three animal control officers plus Don and Marianne who knew where Bill would run (which he did) after he was darted. Ultimately after a dart, a foot chase, another dart, another foot chase, and a THIRD dart (because darted dogs will run!) they were able to corner the groggy Bill and capture him with catch poles. Bill was immediately transported to the emergency vet where he was given a thorough check up and a bath. He was de-wormed, given flea and tick treatment, and had blood work done for heart worm and internal organ testing. Amazingly, Bill was pretty healthy.

Marianne, Don, and Bill (at the emergency vet)

So, do you want to know how the story ends? If you’re like me, you’re a sucker for a happy ending. Remember that Marianne and Don were not even Bill’s owners. They were simply a foster family who fell in love with Bill and felt compassion for him to the point where they refused to give up on him. Don wrote a story about Bill’s recovery that Marianne e-mailed to me (and gave me permission to share). So I will let Don tell you, in his own words, what ultimately happened to Bill after he left the emergency vet:

“Finally, after 11 months away out in the cold and by himself, Bill was home. When Bill woke up to three dogs and his former foster family, he decided life was good. It was just like he was never away. Bill decided he doesn’t like being alone. Bill follows Don everywhere he goes. Bill and Don decided that was OK with both of them. Also, everyone decided that this was never really Bill’s foster home. This was Bill’s forever home.”

Bill and Don: Together, Forever!