A "blog" is different things for different people. I'm going to use this space as a sort of "search diary." Maybe some folks will find it interesting reading--who knows. One thing you need to know about a blog is that it goes "backwards." The most recent entries are first, so if you read from top to bottom, you'll be getting the updates before you read about the searches! Pets' names are kept, but human names are all changed to "Mommy" and "Daddy."
May 2008
5-2-08 - Update on Zara - She's Home!!!!
I got a call from the Rescue Group lady! Zara was picked up in someone's yard yesterday and taken to the shelter. The rescue group got the phone call this morning, and Zara is on her way back home to be with her Foster Mom. Get this, though--it was *ten miles away* from where she got lost! I need to find out the exact location where she was picked up and look at the map, to see if that creek ran all the way there. She was definitely trying to get back to her Foster Mom--she was lost in Burlingame, FM lives in Daly City, and she was picked up in South SF.
5-1-08 - Update on Bella
Mommy has gotten more sightings from that same neighborhood, by that same creek. One sighting was about 2 blocks into the neighborhood, one was right on the road by the creek. These were both very recent. A third sighting was farther away, still along the creek, but not in the area we think she is.
We went and checked the sighting on the road by the creek and got scent. We went to the one farther away, and got nothing. I had decided that I wanted to just scour the creek today, to see if we could come up with her. We started a bit farther north than we think she is, just to be sure. Daddy came with, and I had both dogs. Loki was off-leash and Anubis was on the long-line.
Almost immediately, my sweet, adorable, rotten little Loki-monster had a lovely adventure. He was jumping up and down little hills, crashing through the bushes, like he typically does. We were at a section of the creek that was particularly deep (above my waist) and slow moving--therefore quite scummy. Apparently Loki thought that the creek was dirt, because he jumped right in...and got the surprise of his life. He swam in the direction he was facing, which was to the *other* side of the creek. He found a log that must have been jammed into the wall, because it didn't sink when he climbed onto it. The wall there was steep and covered with blackberries, so he couldn't go up. Now, this dog *loves* to wade, but won't swim. As soon as his feet come up, he backs toward shore.
I tried just walking away, hoping he'd get desperate enough to follow. No dice. He started screaming and squealing, sounding like a baby puppy whose Mommy was abandoning him. No, it didn't pull much at my heartstrings--he was being a drama queen and I knew it. He wanted me to come save him. So I went back, directly across the creek. He kept trying to walk out on the log, and it kept sinking as soon as he got away from the wall. I kept hoping he'd fall in, so that he'd have no choice but to swim over. No dice. We've worked too hard on plank-walk agility for that! Hrmph. After about 10 minutes of this, I gave up. If I'd had all day, I'd have just waited, but we didn't. We had a job to do.
There was a huge tree that had fallen across the creek here, and I figured I'd have no problem walking across, and I hoped it was shallower along the bank. I took off my pack. I took off my gaiters. And my shoes and socks. And I took everything out of my pockets. I just knew what was coming. I made it across the tree just fine. (Did I ever mention that I'm afraid of heights? I can walk like a gymnast across a tiny log, as long as it's touching the ground. Raise it up a few feet, and the panic starts. Sigh.) I made it to the other side, and...no, it wasn't any more shallow. I tried going around the back, but, of course, it was all blackberries and I didn't have any shoes on.
I climbed into the water. And in, and in. I was in above my waist, and I waded over to Loki. As soon as I got near, he knew what was coming and tried to get away. Crazy dog. First he's screaming for me to save him, and then he's slinking back away from me. Well, I grabbed him by the harness and tossed that rotten dog into the creek. He swam across *just fine*. He was already pulling his toy from my pack by the time I waded back across. Again, sigh.
After I stopped totally dripping I put my shoes and everything else back on. We had a job to do, and I love my job. I really do. Every moment. I kept reminding myself about that, as I squished at every step.
So, we worked our way down the creek, not getting any sign of anything until we got to the area where Bella was sighted the other day. Daddy was on one side of the creek (a nicely groomed park, etc) and the dogs and I were on the other. The side we were on had a section about 50 - 100 feet between the creek and a 20 foot bluff. At the top of the bluff was a groomed park, with a fence. Suddenly, we heard a little dog barking, like an alarm bark. It was, of course, at the top of the bluff. It took me a minute or two to get up there, and then we heard it again, to the left (back the direction we'd come). And then a third time. I rushed out to the fence, but there was nobody in the park. And the bark had been just too loud to have been from the other side of the fence. I can't say this for sure, but my gut just tells me it was Bella! We got the calvary out, and had people driving around the various neighborhoods, hoping we'd flushed her out and she would be on a street where we could get her. No luck, though. Loki couldn't find any particular trail, but it was *so* dense there, and her scent was already everywhere, so she could have easily gone in any direction at all.
We kept going down the creek, and there, we found a *lovely* mud track-trap. There were little-dog prints! This was *not* in a place where people will be walking their dogs--so whatever dog (Bella!) left those tracks was loose. I'm not exactly an expert at track-reading, but they seemed fresh to me. The edges were sharp, and it was all still very moist. If it wasn't within the last few hours, it was *definitely* within the last day. I had Loki try to follow a scent-trail from there, and he did until we got to an intersection of three different animal-trails. He pretty much wanted to go in all three directions. I chose the one that would lead us up to the neighborhood, because I wanted to figure out where we were. Go figure--we were right at the street where she was sighted yesterday.
We called it a day at that point--the dogs were tired, and we weren't even sure that she didn't just bark at us and run back the direction we'd already covered. Searching for a human is so much easier--once you've covered an area, you can be pretty sure that the person isn't sneaking around your feet and going back where you just were! (Unless it's a kid...) But an animal can just silently scoot through the brush, avoiding you the whole way.
On the way home I made some calls, and I found Mommy a Bella-sized trap. She's going to get it and put it out tomorrow. They're going to have a whole bunch of people out searching, handing out flyers, etc. Somebody has *got* to get this girl soon!
5-1-08 - Update on Lightning and Thunder - One is Home!!!
I got a call from Mommy. One of the cats is home! (I forgot to ask which one...) Mommy has been regularly going to the shelter and she saw that there was a Found report which sounded like her kitty. She called the woman, and it was her! The woman has had her for several weeks--she was under the woman's porch for about four days before she got her out. This is *miles* from Mommy's house. There's just no way that two *indoor* cats got lost, both at the same time, and one of them ended up miles away, hiding for four days. Sure, hiding for four days is totally textbook for an indoor cat--but 100 yards away, not four miles! The cats which travel miles are the outdoor-access cats who have been displaced and are trying to find their way back. These two kitties were picked up out of Mommy's house and dumped. Mommy does have an idea who did it, but no proof, and the person is (of course) denying everything.
I told Mommy how to do posters and advertising in the neighborhood where the kitty was found. Unfortunately, there are several factors which make going out with the dogs probably not so very useful. First, it's been several weeks, and the chances that the second kitty stayed exactly where the first one was found isn't all that high. Second, Mommy doesn't have anything that's scented from just one or the other cat. We know that one was in the area, so going out with a mixed scent isn't going to confirm or deny that the other one was. If Mommy gets any sightings, though, we'll be out there ASAP!
April 2008
4-29-08 - Update on Bella
Mommy got some additional sightings, and she wanted me to come back down to validate/negate them. What I decided to do was work in a circle around the area we thing she is, getting negatives, and spiraling in until we got positives. That way, we'd be able to more or less set a perimeter. It wouldn't be exact, because it's such a big area, but we'd be able to check the most likely spots and get a good percentage answer.
There had been a sighting farther up the creek (in the direction she'd been traveling), so we started there. It was a nice park, the creek was fairly well groomed there, and we didn't get any scent at all. We tried a ways down the street bordering the creek, and still didn't get anything. Next we went to a house where a neighbor said they thought she might be. The people at the house said that, yes, they did have a dog which looked like Bella, but it was a male (and they showed a picture). No scent there. We went a little further along the circle, to a spot on a major street where there was plenty of food available. (A high-school and a bunch of little restaurants.) No scent. Next we went to a spot near a park, quite a bit closer to where we think she's hiding. We didn't get any scent at the park or out on that main street, but when we went a couple of blocks closer to the creek there was scent. And, that was back into the area we know she's hanging out.
So, we still have her boxed in. She hasn't left this area for at least 3 days, although it's a pretty big area to search. (About 2 x 1 miles.) Mommy and Daddy are going to focus their advertising even more, and we'll have to cross our fingers someone tempts her into their yard or something!
4-27-08 - Update on Lola - She's Home!!!
Our trail had ended us at the intersection of a fairly major street and a drainage canal. Grammy did a great job of putting up posters--she got a phone call this morning from someone about 4 - 5 blocks to the other side of that major street. He'd found her and brought her home. This was just before Mommy came back from Hawaii! Unfortunately, the nice man had already left a message on Mommy's voice mail. If he hadn't, Mommy wouldn't even have known. (When I go on vacation, I leave the dogs in the care of someone I know can take care of all emergencies. I tell them to deal with anything that comes up, and don't tell me anything until I'm home. There's nothing I can do when I'm away, so I may as well have a good vacation!)
4-27-08 - Stormy
Conveniently enough, I'd gotten a call from someone who lives in SF, just on the edge of the Presidio. Since I was less than 5 minutes away, we went out there after Bling. Stormy is an 11 year old, female, long-haired black cat. She's only indoors, but last Friday Daddy left the door open for a minute while he was taking out the trash. Later that evening, he noticed that she wasn't around, but she does have a tendency to hide in the house for a day or two, every so often. It wasn't until Saturday that he decided she was really not in the house.
Daddy and Mommy live in a typical SF neighborhood--all row houses, no space in between, all with little backyards "landlocked" so that a cat would have to scale the building to get into them. All of the apartments have garages, and everybody uses them for their cars. Stormy's house is in the middle of the block, with the Presidio at the back. Loki got a good trail from the front door to the corner on the left. The trail stopped there, so we checked across the street and he got another good trail back along the street, past Daddy's house (across the street) to the other corner, around that corner, and about half-way down the block. There was a little space in between two houses, and Loki took me in there, very excited. No kitty. We went back down to the corner and tried the other side. There was a trail from there into the edge of the Presidio. There's a big parking lot area with trails at the back, where lots and lots of people walk their dogs. The scent-trail went along the edge of the lot, just into the walking-trail area, and then it got confused. (Like, she had gone several different directions.) I was reluctant to send Loki on an area search in the off-trail brush sections, because I just didn't want to spook her and have her go somewhere else. I think she's pretty nearby, hiding, and I want to keep her near.
I told Daddy where to put a trap, and where to put food and water (to try and keep her in the area). I think this one is going to take a week or so, and she's just going to have to decide that she's hungry and thirsty enough to come out of where she is and go into the trap.
4-27-08 - Update on Bling
Daddy asked me to come out again and see if we got any different scent, or any other ideas. He'd left the trap at the house with the open crawlspace, and hadn't gotten anything at all for three days. We started from his apartment, like last time. We followed basically the same trail as last time, past the building with the open crawlspace. Loki wasn't at all interested in that area today, though. We continued up a hill, and then the trail went a different way. We walked past the corner of the cemetery and to a different apartment area. We didn't get any scent leading away from that apartment area, though, so we tried all sorts of different directions. We just didn't get anything. (Well, not quite nothing. Daddy had walked through the open-spaces the previous day, and Loki did a lovely job of following Daddy's trail. One complication we run into a lot is when owners go looking, they leave the animal's scent behind--it's all over your clothes, shoes, everything you own, if you have a pet.)
We came to a pretty likely place for him to be hiding. It's an old set of bunkers and buildings which are used now by the Presidio landscape people. There were *tons* of cubby-holes and little places for a cat to be hiding. I let Loki go off-leash, doing an area search, with Anubis on the long-line. They just didn't come up with anything.
We went back to the top of the hill by the corner of the cemetery, and Loki found a *different* trail, leading to the Main Post area. We got a possible trail leading right down to the busy part, but once we got to the bottom of the hill there wasn't anything any more. We walked around Main Post, checking all sorts of different places, and didn't get anything. We went back to the cemetery, from the bottom, and didn't get anything there, either.
By then, I felt like we were shooting in the dark, hoping to hear someone yell "Ouch" so we could know where to aim. Bling had definitely been hanging out on that hill, going in different directions. We didn't get anything fresh besides on the hill, but it wasn't really a very big hill, and he just wasn't there right that minute. So, he must have gone a direction we just didn't catch, because we were going in circles other places!
I told Daddy to move the trap to the corner of the cemetery, where it seemed like the "most" scent was. I just have a feeling that this is one kitty who is having the time of his life, running all over hill and dale, partying with the raccoons and opossums. I still think he'll probably show up in 6 - 8 weeks, all cool and calm, acting like he never left.
4-26-08 - Update on Bella
Mommy hadn't gotten any sightings in the high-school neighborhood for about a week. This didn't surprise me--Bella is a Shiba Inu, and like any Spitz-type breed is going to be prone to keep moving. Finally, she got two different sightings, in two different places.
We stopped by on our way back from Jimmy to validate either/both/neither of the sightings. We went to the first one, which made the most sense to me, based on where we knew she had been and the way the neighborhoods were laid out. Someone had seen a dog like her eating something in the street. We just didn't get any scent, though. I was *sure* that it was a valid sighting, but we just weren't getting anything.
We went to the second place, which seemed more farfetched, based on where it was. She would have had to travel another three or so miles, crossing several busy streets. The person who saw her was darned sure it was her, though. She'd seen the picture several times, and she Bella was eating food out of her dog's bowl, just sharing like they'd known each other forever! Well, guess what--we got scent! We trailed her from the sighting, through the neighborhood, into a creek area. This was a pretty dense creek area, and a 20-lb dog wouldn't have any problem getting lost there. It was late, and the dogs (and I) were tired, so that was all we were able to do that day. Mommy and Daddy are going to re-focus their advertising to this new neighborhood.
4-26-08 - Jimmy
Jimmy is a five-year old Chihuahua mix in Felton. Mommy had Jimmy and his sister on a hike near their house, near Roaring Camp. She often takes them on offleash hikes, usually along the same trail through the woods. Yesterday morning while they were walking, Jimmy and Bobo (the sister-dog) ran up ahead and into the bushes. Mommy heard yelping but no "animal noise." She ran up to find out what was going on, but by the time she got there (it was uphill) they were gone. She looked around and called and didn't find either of them. When she made it back to the street, someone had Bobo--she must have circled around and gone back towards the car. Jimmy was nowhere to be found, though.
The good news is, the dogs weren't even interested in going into the bushes, as they would have been if there had been blood or injuries. Loki put his nose right down and took us on a trail. Now, no trail is ever 100% sure. I'd have to be able to read Loki's mind for that, and as soon as I develop that skill I'm going to start charging a lot more money. But if I've ever been confident about a trail, it was this one. Loki was going along like a little worker-bee, making clear and confident decisions at trail intersections, nose-down the whole way. We circled around about 1.5 miles, going along the outskirts of Roaring Camp and back to the road somewhat near where Mommy usually parks. At about 1 mile, we crossed over a creek--this was the first place we'd come across water. Within a couple hundred yards of that spot, we found a small-dog poop which looked to be about 24 hours old. Now, it could have been any dog, but this particular trail isn't exactly Grand Central Station, and the chances of someone else doing a back-40 trail hike with a little dog in the last 24 hours just wasn't that high.
We got out to the road and crossed right over. This wasn't too far from Mommy's house, and she said that she'd taken the dogs on this trail before--so they were familiar with it. I asked if it came out onto a road, so we could go back to the cars, drive up to where it came out on a road, and continue from there. (Saving us a bit of uphill leg-work.) It took a couple of false starts, but we did find more scent farther up the hill, at a retreat center. At that point, though, it was just too warm to continue, and the scent was diffuse. (Either because Jimmy had been going around in circles, or due to the fact that he'd been there before with Mommy and sister-dog.) We just weren't very far from Mommy's house at all by that point--no more than a few blocks. Unfortunately, there's no straight street leading from point A to point B--the streets are all very winding, and Mommy had always driven to the spot and started the walk from there.
I do think Jimmy is very close to home. I told Mommy where and how to advertise, instructed her on feeding stations and other things she can try to do. I just have a feeling that this guy is either going to make his way home pretty soon or he's going to get picked up somewhere very nearby.
4-25-08 - Lola
Lola is a 10-year old two-pound Chihuahua in Antioch. Grammy is babysitting her and her sister, while Mommy is away in Hawaii. Two days ago, she disappeared. All Grammy can think is that she scooted out the door under her feet, while she was going outside. They had gardeners there that day who had left the gate open, so Grammy had been sure to keep her in. A tiny, two-pound Chihuahua can become pretty invisible when it wants to, though.
We had a couple of things complicating this search. First of all, Lola *is* wearing a collar with phone-number-tags...but it's the number of Mommy, who isn't there to check the messages, and who doesn't know Lola is missing. Second, it's been hot as the desert here the last few days, and scent just doesn't stay very well in the heat. The good news is, though, that there have been two very valid sightings of her, both on the same walking-trail.
I used both dogs, because when Loki is set on a trail, he doesn't tend to notice what's going on around him. Anubis is very visual as well as scent-oriented, and he's always aware of what's where. We went to the trail where she'd been sighted and started north, since that was the (slightly) more recent sighting. We followed that walking-trail (and scent-trail) for a good mile, until we got to a place where there was a big drainage creek and a lot of asphalt. Loki couldn't really get anything leading away from there. Unfortunately, we also found quite a bit of coyote scat.
We walked back, checking the corners on either side of the creek, but we didn't get any other scent. It was pretty warm by this time and wind-less. At one point, we walked right past a cat laying in a yard, not 30 feet away from the dogs. I even stopped and asked the dogs to "Find Felix," but they just didn't see it. That was a bit discouraging--it meant that Lola could have been pretty close, somewhere along the trail (which was an asphalt strip with trees and bushes to about 30 feet on either side, before it got to the house fences), but it was just the wrong scent conditions to find her. A two-pound Chihuahua just doesn't put off that much scent. In these conditions, the dogs would have to be right on top of her to tell she was there.
We got back to the place we'd started and checked the walking-trail to the south. We did get scent for a couple of blocks, and then there was a big tree, pretty much blocking the whole way. We didn't get any scent on the other side of that tree. On the other side was a big field, and we bisected it and then walked part of the perimeter, but Loki didn't seem to think she'd been out there. The good news is, we didn't find any coyote scat there, and there were plenty of little critters. So, that made the possibility of predator that much smaller.
We went back to the house, and I told Grammy what I think happened. The first sighting on Wednesday was to the south, and then to the north about a half-hour later. She probably went south to the tree and then back-tracked. I told Grammy that it was most likely that either someone picked her up and has already called the number on the tag, or that she's out of the area by a bit, and we just didn't find the side-branch of the scent-trail. (Which is very possible because of the heat.) I did have to tell her that there's a (lowish) possibility of coyote, but it's really much more likely that she's safe and in someone's house. We came up with a plan of posters and door-to-door flyers, but it isn't going to be until Mommy comes home (in two days) that we can even know that she's not already safe somewhere!
4-24-08 - Zara
Zara is a 2-year old Chihuahua mix. She was adopted from a rescue group (the same group as the last two recently-adopted dogs which got lost, Ginger and Winnie!) two weeks ago. Her foster mom was in Daly City, and she was adopted to a couple in Burlingame. She had bonded pretty well with the wife, but not so much to the husband. Apparently, while he was taking out the trash she slipped under his feet, through the gate. He chased her, which, of course, made her run farther and faster. He went back and got his bike and rode around the neighborhood for a bit. He got one more sighting of her, about a quarter-mile from the house, on the Cal-Train tracks.
I brought both dogs, and had Loki work the trail from the Cal-Train sighting. He took me pretty much straight up along the tracks for about a mile. We would go from one side to the other, into the bushes, out onto the sidewalk, but it paralleled the tracks the whole way. Part way along I was very proud of Anubis--we were walking through a parking lot and he suddenly started casting around. He smelled *something* and was convinced it was very near. He located it pretty quickly--a dog *inside* a completely closed car. The windows were up, and the dog had been sleeping on the seat until it heard me asking Anubis what in the world he was looking for. We kept going, and Zara's scent got confused at an area where there was a creek which made a 90-degree turn. Often that means that the animal (or human) has spent a bit of time there, going in different directions. We couldn't figure out which way was the most recent, and we didn't find her at that moment. I called the search at that point, and called the Rescue Group lady.
Not 45 minutes later, I got a call back from the Rescue lady. Zara had been sighted (probably while I was out searching!) within 6 blocks of where I had said she probably was hanging out. When the Foster Mom went out there, she found a perfect culvert right under the main road, from the creek where I said she was, to the parking lot where she was seen. I'd told the Rescue Lady to get some traps into that creek, and after we got this new news, I told them to get the traps out there ASAP! I also told them to get flyers to all of the businesses along the creek (it's a "warehouse type area"), and get some big posters up. That girl is in the area--we just have to manage to catch her now!
4-23-08 - Bling (again!)
I've got my first repeat customer! Bling is the 1-year old Savannah F2 on the Presidio. (An F2 Savannah is 1/4 "wild" cat--like the kind you'd find at a zoo!) He's an indoor cat, and the first time he got out we got a quick, easy trail right to him. That surprised me at the time, because any stories about a Savannah getting out (especially one as high as F2) usually involve miles of travel. Well, this time was quite a bit different than the first time.
We got a good, strong trail, just like the first time. It led out the same general direction, but then crossed a street, went under the 101 overpass, and then right to an abandoned building with a wide-open crawlspace. Loki was *sure* that Bling was in there, but I crawled under and didn't see him. There's no doubt in my mind that he'd spent some time in there, leaving a very strong residual scent--at least one or two nights. When we figured out for sure that he wasn't there we kept working the trail. Loki found a trail going away without too much trouble, and we went on quite a merry chase, about two miles total. We ended up at a fairly steep path that led down to the busy street, across from which was another hill that went to the ocean. Just before we got to the (very) busy street, there was a sand "track trap" and, sure enough, there were kitty prints. We just weren't anywhere near any apartments or anything, so while there's no proof that it was Bling, it sure did fit in with the trail. Only problem was, they were pointing the *other* direction! When we got to the busy street, though, the trail seemed to stop. It makes sense to me and to Daddy that Bling got to the street and then turned around and went back!
We back-tracked a way, and Loki found a potential off-shoot of the trail leading towards some apartments. We didn't get any scent in the apartment area, though. So, again, it's possible that Bling kind of hung around "near" the apartments but was too cautious to go all the way in. We backtracked even further and found a possible trail leading around a ballfield. It seemed like Loki just wasn't really convinced about it, though, and after talking about it with Daddy I decided that it was probably an old trail. Daddy would take Bling walking (on a leash and harness!) occasionally through the area. I do think that Loki got scent there, but it just wasn't fresh and strong like the other scent.
The Presidio is *such* a huge area, almost entirely open-space. This crazy cat could be just about anywhere. It'd take days to find all the trails he's made, and by then he'd have made more and be somewhere else. We could have 10 dog-teams doing area work, and it'd take all day to cover the possible places he might be. I instructed Daddy about trapping and doing feeding stations, where and how to do door-to-door flyers or other advertising, to leave his back door open with food inside in case Bling came back, etc. The good news in this case is that Bling is healthy and acting just like a 1-year-old F2 Savannah should act. He's not been injured or anything. And, he might very well be one of those cats who comes strolling in a couple of weeks from now, acting like nothing is different, and he's been home the whole time.
4-22-08 - Update on Ginger - She's Home!!!
Ginger was apparently picked up a few days ago in the general area of where she got lost. The only detail I have is that she was hanging out with a Chow and they both got picked up. I don't know exactly where it was, and I don't know if there were any sightings in the meantime. I don't know whether or not she's dirty and lost weight--which would indicate that she's been out on the streets the whole time, or whether she's clean and plump--which would indicate that she has been in someone's house. I'll try to find those things out!
4-21-08
It's my husband's birthday today! Happy Birthday Jay!
4-20-08 - Update on Bella
There have been several sightings of Bella, about 3 miles (as the crow flies, or as the dog runs) from her house. The area is definitely in the right direction--there had originally been a (possible) sighting of her along a creek that pretty much borders her house--this new area is more or less along that creek. There were two sightings at a high school on Wednesday (three days ago).
I took Loki out and we immediately got a trail. It went about a total of a mile, and then ended up just kind of "wearing out." I don't know whether she turned around and double backed, whether we missed a turn-off, or whether she ran across the busy street at that point, into a very busy Safeway parking lot. We spent a couple of hours in the morning working on the trail and then went back to Mommy's house at noon, to work as IC (Incident Command) for about an hour--she managed to recruit about 15 people to help search! I drew up a list of priorities, including getting more of the big posters in the new area, having someone stand at the Safeway lot handing out flyers, driving around and through the neighborhood just plain looking, getting flyers to people at parks or the high school, etc.
We spent the afternoon checking a couple of other places for a trail, and then we went back to the high school and scoured it from top to bottom. While we didn't come up with her, we did get two more people by the end of the day who said that they'd seen her in the area. One was at the high school, in an area that Loki had snuffled around for a bit, and one was a couple of blocks over, pretty much right on the trail we'd followed that morning.
This little girl may or may not stay in this area. That's going to be the frustrating thing with this search--she's probably going to stay on the move for a while. We're going to target this area, because that's all we've got, but she might not be here any more tomorrow.
4-19-08 - Update on Bijou
There have been two more sightings of Bijou in the Milpitas neighborhood, so I went out with Loki to see if we could validate anything. Sure enough, at the spot she'd been sighted he took off right away on a trail. It went in a big circle, about a mile or so by a half-mile or so. It went around a couple of strip malls, through a school, and back along the freeway. It ended up in the exact spot where she was probably dumped--a strip mall right behind the 7-11 where she was first seen, right next to a drainage creek.
This kind of search is frustrating, because we *know* she's in the area, but little dogs just, plain hide *so* easily that we could have walked right by her and not even known. If the wind was blowing from the opposite direction, the dogs just won't get any scent. If there's a faint branching from a trail she's walked several times, it's perfectly likely that Loki would miss it and continue on the stronger "main trail." It'd be awfully nice if scent was more straightforward. Sometimes it seems like Loki's following footprints in the sand, but so much more often it's like he's trying to follow blown chalk dust in a windstorm. There are certainly some places where the chalk dust makes a little pile, but there are so many piles all over the place it's impossible to figure out which one is the freshest.
In any case, I do think that Bijou is in this neighborhood. I wasn't sure after I came out here the last time and didn't get anything, but now I do think so. The sightings are good, with very confident people, and the scent was good today. Mommy and friends are going to increase the advertising in the area and we'll cross our fingers that someone gets her.
4-18-08 - Mischief
Mischief is an eight-year old female black cat in San Bruno. Her daily habit is to sleep all day indoors and then demand to go outside for the night. She has always been there first thing in the morning, waiting for breakfast. One week ago she wasn't there in the morning. Mommy and Daddy live in a pretty standard neighborhood--houses with yards, fences, garages--with one exception. There's a 25 acre openspace right behind their house. It's pretty steep, full of poison oak and blackberries, and known to have coyotes. In fact, while we were searching, we interviewed one neighbor (about six houses down) who said that she regularly sees the coyote right behind her house.
Daddy said that neither he nor Mommy have ever seen Mischief out of their yard or the one immediately next door, but Son said he saw her across the street once. There had been a sighting of a black cat across the street, but Daddy tracked it down and it wasn't her. They said that Mischief would sit and look out into the openspace through or over the fence, but they've never seen her in it.
I took Loki down and checked the openspace. I put him on a general area command. We went about 4 - 6 houses in each direction, and to the creek at the bottom. We didn't check any farther because it was just too steep and too thick. There was a *ton* of poison oak, and when we got back I asked Daddy if anyone in the house had ever gotten poison oak. He said that he's had it plenty, and when he had a Golden Retriever, it would often bring back poison oak on its fur and Daddy would get a rash. He said he hasn't gotten a rash in the last two years, though--and I suggested to him that probably means that Mischief doesn't go out onto the hill, or he'd have gotten a rash from her.
We didn't find anything on the hill, so I got out both dogs and we did door - to - door for about six houses in each direction. We know that wasn't her normal territory, but if she'd gotten spooked or gotten into a fight, she might have gone out of her normal territory. We got into just about every yard and garage, and just didn't come up with her. There were two houses in particular I'd wanted to check, but nobody was home, so I told Daddy he'd have to go back when the people were home. There weren't too many places for a kitty to hide in these yards--mostly they were wide open, and the crawlspaces were well sealed.
I gave Mommy and Daddy a 50/50 chance that Mischief had been taken by a coyote. The fact that we don't think she went out onto the hill reduced the chance--coyotes don't generally jump fences unless they're *really* hungry. However, the next-door yard, which we know she goes into, doesn't have a back fence--so the coyote could have just come right up to her. There's still a pretty good chance that she's trapped or hiding, somewhere we didn't get to, so I told Daddy and Mommy how and where to advertise and where to focus their efforts. This is one of the hardest type of cases to leave, because I had to tell them that they just can't give up until at least 8 weeks--but if it gets to 8 weeks and they still haven't come up with her, then they need to consider that she's probably not going to come back. I hope that they get her back soon, because if not, it's going to be a long 8 weeks.
4-15-08 - Update on Violet - She's Home!!!!!
Mommy just sent me an email. She'd gotten a phone call that someone sighted Violet dashing underneath a house *in the old neighborhood!* The person had seen her, remembered the flyer, and then went and told the resident of the house that she thought there was a Missing Cat underneath the porch. The resident called Mommy, who went over there right away...and it was her!
It's been over a month and she went two miles. Mommy had done a great job with feeding stations and traps at the new neighborhood, and we're pretty sure that she'd been hanging out there at the retirement complex for about a week or two. Mommy had actually seen her jump over a fence, and then there were no more sightings after that point.
This is my second "just moved" kitty who got out for the first time and made a beeline back to the old place. I'd really thought that it was one of those "well, anything is possible" things, but now I'm going to put this possibility up at the top for any displaced kitty, or one who disappears within 6 months of moving to the "new place."
4-15-08 - Shasti - Search Complete
We headed out to Sebastopol after finding Dulce. Shasti is a 7-month old, outdoor access kitten, who lives with Mommy in a rural area--no fences, lots of orchards, fields, openspace. She generally stays pretty close to the house, in a little (unfenced) yard area right by the house. Six days ago Mommy let her out in the late afternoon, and when she came home a few hours later she was nowhere to be found. A few days after that, Mommy's boyfriend found some tufts of fur that looked like they had been pulled out in a fight.
I got there and had Mommy show me where the tufts were found. As we walked back around the other side of the house, we both smelled some pretty strong decomp. We looked around, and there just wasn't anywhere that it could have been coming from. I got out Loki and ran him through the area, and he didn't find anything. I decided to bring out both dogs and do a systematic grid-search at that point, starting on the down-wind (the other) side of the house. It only took us a few minutes to get back to the "suspect" side of the house, and neither I nor Mommy smelled anything at that point any more. We kept going, and Loki ran back to a spot he'd checked a few times (and there was nothing there). As we were walking from the house to that spot, the wind swirled and I caught the scent again. I looked over, and Shasti was there. It looked like she'd been killed by a coyote. She was probably killed at the area where the tufts were found and brought to this spot, which was only about 50 feet from the house. The coyote probably got startled by someone at the house and ran away.
Scent is an odd thing. The wind was so swirly, and the scent was so strong, the dogs just couldn't pinpoint the source. They probably would have been able to with more time, but in this case it took the much less sensitive human nose to find the answer.
4-15-08 - Dulce - Found!!
Dulce is a 7-month old female lab/hound mix. Daddy races at Sears Point, and two days ago they were leaving, driving along Hwy 37 towards Novato, and Dulce leaned on the window control, rolled it down, and fell out. They were driving at about 55mph, and Mommy looked back right away and saw her standing in the road. By the time they turned around and got back to the spot, she was gone.
Mommy has been hiking the hills for the last two days with no sign of her. The people at Sears Point have been great--they've given her all the help she could possibly have wanted. Today they said that we could access any place on their property with a road--they gave us total free access. The only problem was, the spot where she fell out of the car wasn't near to any of their property. It was about a mile across the public lands, with no parking and no way to get there but to hike. So, we hiked across and I had both dogs on the long-line with a general area command.
We got to the edge of the freeway and I scented Loki. He just didn't get any scent. There was an area varying from 10 - 20 feet between the freeway and the fence, and there just weren't too many places Dulce could have gotten through. At the few places, there was no scent. We walked along the fenceline for about a quarter mile, and we even went through a drainage access tunnel thing to the other side. I was very reluctant to take the dogs into the area between the fence and the freeway--traffic was just going too fast, and there was too much risk involved. I explained to Mommy that there probably wouldn't be any scent left in that area anyway--there's too much traffic, asphalt, and wind.
We walked out to an unused weigh-station area and got ready to call Sears Point to come and pick us up. (Did I mention that those guys were awesome!?) I explained to Mommy that one of several things might have happened to her, and we've pretty much ruled out a couple of them. She wasn't currently laying in the area between the fence and freeway. I was pretty sure she didn't cross the fence over into the field. The other option was that she ran along the freeway, back towards Sears Point--since she's familiar with that area, that was a pretty good chance, but nobody there had found her (and they'd been looking). The other option was that she got picked up as soon as she fell out. Mommy didn't think that was likely, because she has a collar with her name and Mommy's phone number.
We finally reached someone at Sears Point, and while we were on the phone they said that someone just found an injured dog near a dumpster, by where they were having a barbecue! They sent someone out to get us, and as soon as we got near to the group of people, Mommy saw her and said it was Dulce!
I got a call a couple of hours later from Mommy, after the vet visit. There were *no* broken bones or internal injuries. Her pads were scraped raw, and she had about 150 ticks, but there were no other injuries! What an amazing thing--55mph, and no injuries besides road-rash on her paws!
4-14-08 - Update on Bijou
I got a call from Bijou's Mommy--there had been a very plausible sighting about 12 miles away, in Milpitas, on the 11th. We're all thinking that someone either saw me out with Loki, searching, or the Grandson got spooked and dumped her. In any case, the witness saw a dog who looked lost and checked the newspaper Lost ads. She saw the ad for Bijou and called Mommy. Mommy had her look at a couple more pictures and a video, and the witness is sure it was Bijou.
The sighting was at a busy parking lot, right on a very busy intersection. It's been very hot out since the 11th. I stopped off with Loki after Bella, to check for scent, and he just didn't pick anything up. It's still very possible that it was Bijou that the witness saw--three days later, hot weather, traffic, asphalt, and wind could *very* easily have diminished any scent to the point Loki couldn't find it.
I told Mommy to keep searching and advertising in the old neighborhood, but to also start with posters etc in the Milpitas area.
4-14-08 - Bella
Bella is a three-year old female Shiba Inu in San Jose. Three days ago, Daddy was walking her around the corner from their house and an intact male Pit Bull ran out from its house and attacked them. It was going after Bella, but when Daddy picked her up it started biting at his hands and arms. It got him pretty badly and he is going to be having surgery later today to try and repair the tendon in his hand. He dropped Bella and the Pit Bull pulled her out of her collar, and she ran away.
I don't have any problems with Pit Bulls in general. I've met a *ton* of very friendly ones, who are great with adults, kids, other dogs, and even cats. The problem with them is that people who want a "macho" dog tend to get them, because of their reputation. To leave a large, male dog intact takes a very dedicated owner, who will work it past the almost inevitable behavioral issues that are going to arise. Combine a large, male, intact dog with an owner who not only doesn't make an effort to train it properly, but encourages it to "be mean" and you have a real problem on your hands. Apparently, that was the case in this situaion.
The problem that I ran into with this case is that Bella would get taken on walks around the neighborhood, about three or four blocks from her house, on a regular basis. We did seem to get a trail leading from the attack spot, up the block, through a park, and to a busy street, but we couldn't follow it any farther. Normally, in this situation, I'd tell the owner that it was likely that the dog got picked up at the busy street, but I just didn't think so in this case. Shiba Inu are one of the breeds of dogs I'd expect to run quite a distance and avoid people, even in the best of circumstances. If she's injured (or at least very scared), that just increases that chance.
Mommy told me about a couple of possible sightings, and we checked those spots, but just didn't come up with anything definite. They were all within a couple of blocks of her "normal walk territory." Loki's behavior was similar to what I've seen him do a couple of times before. One was a training trail and the other was the search for Rogue. In the training trail we know for sure, and with Rogue we're pretty sure, that the dogs walked around several blocks very close to each other. In that case, the scent would have carried on the air from one spot to another, mixing, and causing strong- and weak-scent areas that might or might not have been related to the actual trail. In both of those cases, Loki looked like he was trying to find a trail but just couldn't make heads or tails of it, so gave up and decided to just goof off, instead.
I had to tell Mommy that we just weren't going to be able to help. The good news was that neither dog seemed to think that there was any blood at the attack spot. Daddy had certainly been bleeding by the time he got home, but I think he took the brunt of it. It's possible that Bella got some punctures, but I don't think they were bleeding much. Her thick fur probably helped in that case. I told Mommy how and where to advertise, and what other things to do. Now it's just a waiting game, to hope for sightings.
4-12-08 - Huck
Huck is a 5 year old, 90 lb Rottweiler/Lab mix in Tiburon. He lives on a 40-acre property and Daddy usually walks him down to the bottom of the hill, to the mailbox, every day. Two days ago, Huck took off after some deer and went off of the property. There is a somewhat busy street at the bottom of the hill (about 1/2 mile), a popular off-leash area about 1 mile in the other way, a few scattered houses within the nearest mile or two, and nothing else but openspace. Daddy and his adult son had walked all of the trails at the openspace over the previous few days. They'd put up (8.5 x 11) flyers at the intersections and off-leash area, and they'd notified some neighbors.
I started Loki (trailing) at the place where Huck ran off, and he immediately went through the field and through the spot in the brush where Huck had disappeared. We got a good trail for about 1/4 mile, through the woods, creeks, over hills, and through plenty of poison oak. The trail stagnated at a spot under a group of trees, where it was pretty clear that a bunch of deer had bedded down. Loki just couldn't quite figure out which way it came out. I imagine that Huck spent a bit of time wandering around there, sniffing all of the interesting deer-scent.
We checked several directions, and then Loki seemed to get a good trail leading away. We followed it for a while, and then just couldn't make heads or tails of it any more. There are several reasons a trail could get confusing--it's possible that Huck wandered around in circles in that area, trying to figure out where to go. We picked the "most likely" direction (weighed a bit by "least near any trails that Daddy had already hiked) and went cross country (with Loki on a general "area" command). The hill shortly got too steep, and the brush just too thick to go on. Fortunately, at that point we were pretty near a house (a ways up a hill...), so we went up and out to the street. At that point, I decided that we just weren't going to be able to come up with him, so we went back to the house.
I spent some time talking with Daddy and Son about what to do--primarily advertising with posters, etc. I don't think Huck is still "out there." Between our search today and Daddy's searches along the trails over the past two days, we've really covered most of the area pretty well. A small dog might be able to hide in a bush and not be seen, but not one the size of a small human. My best guess is that he doubled back or circled around and made his way down to the main road, where he got picked up. We'll have to cross our fingers that whoever picked him up sees the signs that Daddy is going to be putting up and calls.
4-11-08 - Update on Jessie - She's Home!!!!!
I give Mommy and Daddy *such* credit--they did what I suggested, and now she's home! Daddy spent the night at the spot of the sighting, but no Jessie. Mommy went out there at dawn and stayed, and stayed, and stayed. She said that she'd been there about 15 hours, when first a hiker, and then the Ranger came to tell her that they just saw Jessie nearby. Mommy went right out, and after going up one short trail and back down another, she found her hiding under a bush! It took some doing, but Mommy got her to come to her. She said that her paws are swollen and sore, but not raw, and there doesn't seem to be anything else wrong with her.
Yay for Jessie and family!
4-11-08 - Spookie
Spookie is an eight year old male cat in San Jose. He originally belonged to the neighbor, but they have a new baby (a year ago) so he became a totally outdoor cat. He started spending more and more time next door (at my clients' house), and finally the neighbors made the decision to let them "have" him. New Mommy and Daddy went out to buy a carrier, dishes, etc, and on the very next day, he went missing.
He is a very large cat - maybe 21 lbs, and not particularly fat! Mommy and Daddy live on a small cul-de-sac in a nice neighborhood, typical with regular streets, garages, fenced yards, etc. They have only ever seen him in their yard and in the front yards of the immediate neighbors. He is primarily an outdoor cat, but he does come inside. He went outside in the evening about six days ago and didn't come back. Mommy and Daddy have let their neighbors know and put up a couple of small flyers.
In this case, I wanted to find out what his actual territory was. I just had a feeling that a large male cat, who is almost always outdoors, had a larger range than they thought. I used Loki in scent-specific mode, and we went around several blocks, setting a perimeter. He's gotten pretty good at telling me when he just doesn't have any scent. We pretty well established a territory and "highway" that was actually a bit bigger than Mommy and Daddy thought. I'm pretty sure that Spookie regularly goes through their backyard, through the "behind house" yard, out across the next street, and then through a path between houses that leads into an inner-city openspace. Loki was pretty sure that he's been in the openspace, which was surprising to Mommy and Daddy. The good thing about that particular openspace is that, while it's big, it's got very tall, well maintained chain-link fencing all the way around, so it's not such an inviting place for a coyote.
After I set the perimeter, we checked the yards and garages of the "most likely" houses. The people in house, almost directly behind, have apparently been on vacation for a week, and will be for another week. They left about when Spookie went missing, so it's possible that he's in that garage and we just won't know until they come back. When we didn't find anything in any of the "likely" houses, we briefly checked the openspace--but it was getting dark, and, quite frankly, it was just too big to really cover thoroughly. When we didn't find anything there, I called the search and went back to talk to Mommy and Daddy. One pretty big possibility is that he got territorially displaced by another cat. This black cat is rather aggressive towards Spookie, and he comes right into his yard. In fact, as we were walking back, the black cat was there and ran away from us...into the next-door neighbor's yard. He doesn't belong to anybody nearby, and Mommy and Daddy have a feeling that he might be a feral.
I sat down with the map and we looked at the "likely" places that he might be. If he's trapped in someone's garage or shed, it'll be fairly close, probably between his house and the openspace. If he's been territorially displaced, it'll probably be across the openspace, to the set of houses on the other side. I set up an advertising strategy for Mommy and Daddy, and now we just need to wait to see if we get any phonecalls.
4-10-08 - Jessie
Literally as I walked in the door from Bijou, I got a call from Jessie's Mommy. Jessie is a 7 month old lab-ish mix in Castro Valley. Mommy had adopted her specifically as a project dog, to save the life of a dog who otherwise wouldn't have gotten adopted. Jessie is very skittish, and Mommy has put a lot of work into socializing her. It took her a while to get her OK on leash walks, and Mommy and Daddy decided it'd be OK for him to try taking her out on the trails and letting her go off leash. He took her up to a county park, which is a place in the hills with a few trails, but otherwise nothing but trees and poison oak, as far as you can see. He took her up two days ago, at about 7pm, and she did well with Daddy and their other dog for about a mile, but then suddenly disappeared.
Mommy and Daddy spent all day yesterday and this morning walking the trails, looking for her. Literally as I got to the house, Mommy got a call that somebody had spotted her at noon today (four hours earlier) on the park's street, somewhat near (maybe a quarter mile) from where she got lost.
We parked near where the sighting was, and Loki was *immediately* on the trail. It was a very strong trail for about a quarter mile, and then got weaker and weaker--I have a feeling that she'd been wandering the area, so there were cross trails and other things to make him uncertain. We ended up following the scent that seemed to predominate, back up the hills through quite a bit of brush (and poison oak...), almost to where we started. We were a little bit closer, though, to a steep drop down on the *other* side of the big hill, which led to a big lake/resoirvoir. Loki didn't have any specific trail to follow down, but it makes total sense to me that's where she'd be. There wasn't any water at all on the other side, where we'd been searching.
It was getting dark at that point, so I called it off. I told Mommy and Daddy that, when a human is lost, he/she is supposed to just sit in one spot and not move, so that the rescuers can find him. If the lost person (or dog) is moving *and* the rescuers are moving, they're bound to keep missing each other. So, in this case, since Jessie isn't about to sit still, the humans have to. Loose dogs in this situation tend to go in circles. There had been a sighting today, validated by Loki, not far from where she got lost. I told Mommy and Daddy that the best thing to do would be, first of all, to sleep out there in the car with the door open, in case she came back during the night. If not, one person (or a couple in shifts) needed to just do a stake-out all day tomorrow, from dawn to dusk. She would almost definitely come back through, and someone needed to be just sitting there waiting for her. If someone was out there all day tomorrow and she absolutely didn't come through, then we need to look at the possibility that she's trying to make her way back home (about 5 miles) and change our tactics.
4-10-08 - Bijou
Bijou is a young, female Yorkie mix who lives in Oakland but who got lost in San Jose. Mommy was at Grammy's house, and she thought Bijou was in the car when she drove away. She'd managed to sneak out, and by the time Mommy figured that out and came back, Bijou wasn't there any more. A witness said she saw Bijou trying to figure out how to get back into the yard, and then saw a girl on a bike take her away. Another witness said that he saw Bijou in a truck at the end of the block, being driven away by someone. Mommy has a pretty good idea who the truck belongs to--the person who lives in the house where the witness saw her being driven away has a grandson with a black truck, who matches the description of who the witness saw.
Bijou got lost a couple of days ago, so I asked Mommy what the grandson said when she talked to him. She said that she hadn't. I told her (yesterday, on the phone) that needed to be a priority. No matter what Loki discovers (or doesn't) with a trail, she has a (credible) witness who is sure he saw her dog being driven away, and she has a pretty good idea who the driver probably was. I was actually a little bit surprised that Mommy hadn't camped out in front of that house, waiting for the guy in the truck to come back, so she could talk to him. Mommy asked me if I could come out anyway, even though she hadn't talked to him. I agreed, but only under the condition that she talk to him at the earliest time--like, go over there right now.
This morning, before I came out, I found out that Mommy's friend got in touch with the guy, and had set up an appointment for two days from now. I emphasized again that they needed to talk to him, in person, *now* before he sells or gives away Bijou. When I got to the neighborhood, there was no black truck at or near that address.
The scent trail did pretty much exactly what I'd thought it would--started at Grammy's house, and then went along the sidewalk to stop right where the witness saw her being taken away in a truck. I told Mommy and her friend that, again, the absolutely most vital thing to do in this case, besides the usual posters, etc, was to *talk to that guy.* It's possible that he doesn't have her, in which case the posters, etc will be helpful. But, it's pretty darned convincing that he *does* have her. So, they need to *talk to him.* Now. Today. Or two days ago would have even been better. (Have I emphasized that point enough yet?)
4-8-08 - Kahlo
Kahlo is a four year old female spayed cat in Los Gatos. I'd promised that I'd go out after Lilly, if I had time. She is a skittish outdoor access cat who has been known to be gone for a night or two. She has been gone this time, though, for a week. Mommy lives in a very rural area of Los Gatos, which is actually better described as the "pre-Santa Cruz hills." It's a steep area, with lots of open space, big lots, and few fences. And, what complicates this case even further, is that Mommy used to live in another house less than a mile (as the crow flies, or as the cat runs) away. When she's been missing before, Mommy has found her at the old place. She hasn't shown up there this time, though.
I started with both dogs, checking the area around Mommy's house, and moving out a bit into the open-space. It was pretty steep, and there was just, plain, so much area that we only did a very hasty check. We went down into a valley, and then back up a trail to some utilities "depots." We didn't find any evidence of her, so we went back to Mommy's. At that point, I decided the best thing to do was to go out of the area she was known to wander and see if we could find any scent. We went to a couple spots where there had been potential sightings, but didn't get anything. (It'd been a week, so even if she had gone through there, Loki wouldn't necessarily be able to pick up anything.)
As we were walking along the road, though, Loki snapped his head and wanted to check out one particular spot. There wasn't anything visible there, but he followed a bit of a trail from there, about 20 feet, across the street, and straight into the neighbor's (open) basement/crawl space. There was no cat there that moment, but there was some old poop, and Loki was just, plain sure that there had been one there fairly recently. I told Mommy that there was a pretty good chance that Kahlo had been in a fight with another cat or a raccoon, gotten injured or scared, and holed up in that basement area for a while. Mommy said that she was sure it wasn't Kahlo, and that she'd seen a Siamese around a couple of times, so that must be where it lived.
We went back to the old place, and Loki definitely showed interest, not only in the house, but in the hills up above. (Which is where Kahlo would have come through if she went directly from the new place to the old.) Mommy said that she was sure Kahlo hadn't been there in the last six months, but I reminded her that there had been times when she'd disappeared for a night or two and come back--and she could have easily been going back to the old haunt for a while.
When we wrapped up, and I gave Mommy a list of things to do, including feeding stations, a live trap in the neighbor's basement, posters, etc, Mommy just didn't seem that excited. She said that she needed to decide how important it was to her that Kahlo come home, and how much energy she puts into it. I guess that has to be her decision. If she follows most (or all) of my suggestions, there's a decent chance she'll get Kahlo back. If not, well, I guess it's possible she'll wander back on her own in a month or two.
4-8-08 - Lilly
Lilly is a 9-month-old, non-spayed female Yorkie in San Jose. She would get out the front door occasionally, but she always came back so Mommy never worried. Four days ago, Mommy was leaving to go somewhere, and Lilly got out the door. She ran across the street to a park, and Mommy tried to catch her. She got too close to the busy street, though, and Mommy didn't want to scare her into traffic, and since she'd always come home she went back and ran her errand. When she got back, Lilly wasn't there. She is very friendly and submissive, and she was wearing a collar with her name and phone number. Chances are pretty good someone has her and just doesn't want to give her back.
Mommy had seen exactly which way she went across the park, and Loki nailed the trail practically to the footstep. When we got out of the park, the trail made a left turn and just kept going for blocks. Normally trails don't do that--they cross streets, turn corners, etc. I asked Mommy if Lilly was the kind of dog who would just pick a direction and keep going, and Mommy said that yes, that would describe her pretty well.
At one point, we did cross the busy street, and then the trail just went in a straight line again. After about four or five blocks, the trail suddenly cut across the street. It didn't seem to go anywhere after that--we checked all corners, up a block, back a block. I can just picture exactly what happened--she was marching in her straight line, and someone was parked or standing across the street. They called to her, she went to them, and they took her. There had to have been *some* convincing reason for her to suddenly cross the street, and it makes sense that it was someone calling to her.
She got lost at about noon on a Friday, and this isn't the kind of neighborhood where most people are home during the day. It *is* the kind of neighborhood where there area a ton of gardeners around during the day, though--mowing lawns and randomly blowing leaves at each other, that sort of thing. I did speak to one person right at that corner, who happened to have a gardener who comes on Fridays, so I asked her to ask the gardener if he saw any dog.
I left Mommy with the usual advice about posters, door - to - door flyers, etc. Unfortunately, Yorkies are hot commodities--of all the dogs that get stolen, they can get a couple hundred dollars to that evil person who manages to sell them. And Lilly isn't spayed, which makes her worth even more. I just hope that whoever has her decides to be honest, and to think about the people at home who are very, very worried about her.
4-4-08 - Update on Lexi - She's Home!!!
I just got an email from Daddy, and I called him for more details. A friend of the family who was keeping her eyes open for Lexi was checking on Petharbor.com (which is where the shelters post their found pets). She noticed that there was a dog at the shelter who looked just like Lexi, and she called Daddy right up. Daddy looked at the picture and then called the shelter to say that it was his dog. It was the end of the day, and the shelter said that he had to come get her before they closed, because the 72 hours would be up and there was a waiting list to adopt her. Daddy had to beg favors off of friends to go and get her out of the shelter for him.
I'm going to be straight up--this is the Martinez shelter, in the Contra Costa system. I've never had anybody ever tell me anything good about this shelter. I've had no good experiences with them myself. They won't work with me, even though it's the county where I live. They won't even tell their own volunteers that I exist, so they can decide on a personal level whether or not to tell people about me. They are proprietary to the point of being self destructive. I can't think that their true mission is to help the animals--they have a super-fancy new building, which probably cost a ton of money, yet they can't even manage to figure out how to put up a bulletin board to let people who offer *free* services (which is what I wanted to give at this particular shelter) a place to post flyers.
Daddy had left a Lost report and had called every few days. One of the volunteers there had told him that he didn't need to come down personally, that they would call him about any little dogs that came in. Well, he didn't go down, and he almost didn't get his dog back. When he told them that on the phone, when he found out she was there, they didn't care. No exemptions to the rules--72 hours, on the nose, or the dog (which they *know* belongs to him!) gets given away right out from under his feet.
I know that some of the volunteers work hard. But I don't know what the rest of them do. I've never been there without at least 2 - 3 volunteers sitting there, in the office, chatting. I asked once whether or not they take the Lost reports and actually make rounds, comparing animals. I was told that "Sometimes some people do that, but it just doesn't get done regularly." So...the volunteers take phone calls, write down the info, and then the dogs and cats *which are there in their facility* get adopted out or killed. When all they would have to do is *walk into the back rooms with the pictures in their hands* to match them up.
This makes me more than a little sick.
4-3-08 - Little Lady
Little Lady is a two-year-old female chihuahua mix in Concord. This is an interesting situation--Mommy is technically the Foster Mommy, but she was planning on adopting Little Lady. She originally found her on the street a while ago and did exactly what she should have--she took her to the shelter so that her owners could better find her. She kept tabs on her, and when the euthanasia date was close, she went back to get her, only to find out that a rescue group had already taken her. Mommy contacted the rescue group and offered to be the Foster Home until she got adopted. And, she's just about fallen in love with her so much that she was ready to ask to keep her permanently. This was a perfect situation--everything went exactly how it was supposed to.
Until, eight days ago, Little Lady managed to find a hole in or dig a hole under the fence and disappeared. Interestingly enough, during the time Mommy had her, the previous owners (who apparently hadn't done any searching for her at all...) found out where she was living. They came over, including the 13 year old girl, and, according to Mommy, just seemed really apathetic about the whole thing. So, Mommy's first thought was that this family had taken her back. Mommy'd had them call the rescue group and talk to the coordinator, so she knew that they coordinator had their number, but she wouldn't share any info with Mommy. She's been spinning her wheels for the last week, waiting to find out if the coordinator had talked to this family, and she decided enough was enough and would try to get some help.
It had been eight days, and Little Lady had been on walks in the neighborhood, but I decided to try to run a trail anyway. To my surprise, Loki seemed to be following one. We walked about a half-mile and then lost the trail at a busy street. Mommy said that, just a few hours ago, she spoke to someone across that street who said that she might have seen her around when she got lost. We walked through that part of the neighborhood, but Loki didn't get anything. When we got back around to the other side of Mommy's neighborhood (we went in a big circle), Loki seemed *very* interested in trying to get through a fence (which Little Lady could easily have gone under) to a space between the freeway and a self-storage company. The storage place was nice enough to let us walk through, and every time there was a break in the buildings towards this fence, Loki tried to get back there.
We came back out of the storage place and walked around the outside to the back, where we found access to the area next to the freeway (which, by that point, was actually nowhere near the freeway any more). There was one of those super-huge city-drainage canals, and the trail "seemed to" go along next to it, to a point about a mile or two away from Mommy's house. Now, it'd been eight days, and Loki's behavior was "interested but not sure," so I had to tell Mommy that I wasn't really positive that we were actually following her trail. It'd make total sense, though--it would have put her on a big circle, ending up at water, and then following the water straight until she had to come out.
I think that the one thing that will bring this dog back is advertising, and it will need to be over a wide range. A couple miles, at least. Of all of the dog searches I've been on, this is one that I'm pretty sure this dog traveled quite a way before she got picked up.
4-1-08 - Update on Hobbes - He's Home!!!
I just got a call from Mommy--Hobbes strolled back into the house just now! After I prepared them that it might be a very long haul, the little stinker just strolled back in! I have to wonder how much of that is due to them walking around that garage, leaving their scent, calling him, and making him comfortable enough to come out. Silly animals--if there was *any* cat I was sure would be the textbook "hide for a week" kitty, it was him. And here he comes strolling back, like nothing happened...
March 2008
3-31-08 - Hobbes
Hobbes is a 9-year-old, indoor only cat in Santa Cruz. He's not in the best of health, with a bit of a chronic digestive/dehydration problem. Mommy and Daddy moved into their current house about a month ago, and they said that Hobbes spent the first week or two primarily in the closet, scared. After he got a little more comfortable, Hobbes discovered that there's a hole into the crawlspace from the garage, and a hole out one of the vents. Mommy and Daddy kept the garage door closed at that point, but yesterday afternoon he managed to sneak through.
Since he's an indoor-only cat, Loki was able to get a pretty good trail! It led to the corner, down a couple of houses, across the street, and then into a big yard with a fair amount of debris and junk. We knocked on the door, but nobody answered. There was no fence and no particular front vs back yard, so I let Loki continue to follow the trail. We got up next to a garage/barn/shed thing, and Loki did a full-stop and started sniffing at the (wooden) wall. He got more and more excited, so we went around to the front of the garage and looked in. There was *so* much junk and debris in there, we couldn't see the floor, the walls, or even two feet in. There was just no way that Loki or any of the humans would be able to get in to find Hobbes. Not to mention the fact that the whole building seemed about ready to fall down at any moment. While I was looking in, though, Loki got *so* excited that he actually slipped his harness and tried to find his way in! (My little Houdini...)
Right about then, the owner came out of the house. (We really had knocked...) He quite understandably didn't want us poking around inside of the garage--there was quite an opportunity for lawsuit there. (Not to mention that he's one of those old,
retired, set in his ways, "I know everything and you know nothing" kind
of guys. He's convinced that *this* cat "couldn't possibly be in that
barn. But, you know, there are a lot of cats around here, and probably
one of them is. And your cat will come home on its own, but there are
a lot of coyotes out here." I mean, make up your mind!)
We continued around the neighborhood at that point, looking for any more sign that he might be somewhere else. Loki just wasn't interested at all. We're going to go on the assumption that he's in that garage, but, in case he's not, I set a perimeter on a map--basically the block where that garage is. I gave Mommy and Daddy some instructions, including feeding stations, live trap in the garage, and even using a motion sensor camera to see who eats the food they put into the garage. I warned them that (although he might come strolling in tomorrow morning), this might be a long haul. He has a history of being very fearful and hiding for a long time, so this might just be a repeat of the "hide in the closet for two weeks" thing.
3-29-08 - Update on Rufus - He's Home!!!
I just got a call from Mommy--Rufus is home! She was going out to set up the feeding stations, and she saw him dart away across the parking lot (near the creek). She had to call him and beg him to come to her, but he finally did, and now he's home! Mommy said that he's filthy with mud and stinky--which is exactly how he'd be if he'd been playing WildKitty in the creek for 48 hours!
3-29-08 - Update on Robbie - He's Home!!!
I just got an email from Daddy. Mommy had heard some meowing from near their house, and she tracked it down to the neighbor's basement! They'd said that they'd checked for Robbie in the basement, but he wasn't there. This was one place we didn't get into when we searched. These neighbors are on vacation today, so Daddy had to track down their son and get him to come out to open the basement. Daddy said that even after he opened the door, Robbie didn't come out right away. There was a ton of stuff, and Daddy had to work his way back to the far corner and find him.
If I had a dollar for every time somebody found their cat in someone else's house, after that person said, "We checked," or "There's no way he could be there," I'd probably have enough money to buy a pizza by now!
3-28-08 - Update on Schazandra - She's Home!!!
I just got a call from Mommy--Schazandra is home! Mommy was out in the yard and heard a meow. Mommy lives on a hill, and her fence on the low side has a hollow space, which kind of drops down into the neighbor's yard. We'd checked that area pretty thoroughly, and we'd noticed some openings in the neighbor's fence (which leads to the hollow space that's sort of "in" Mommy's yard), but there was no kitty there. Well, today she had apparently come back to the neighbor's yard and tried to get back into Mommy's by coming through the fence. No doubt she'd been out joy-riding for a couple of days and had finally gotten hungry, cold, or tired and wanted to come back to the fancy Kitty House with the condo-scratching-post and blanket warmer!
Needless to say, Mommy has buttoned up the yard even tighter, to keep little miss kitty in!
3-28-08 - Update on Wasabi - search complete
I got a sad email from Mommy today. Wasabi was found on the freeway, deceased. It was about two miles away from where she was lost, and the way the city is set up there it would take quite some doing for her to find her way to that exact spot. There's just no straight line, easy way from point A to point B. Someone must have picked her up and taken her somewhere near the freeway. She probably escaped from that person.
I'm so very sorry for Mommy.
3-28-08 - Rufus
Rufus is a 5 year old male cat in Fairfax. He's indoor only (except for very occasional leash walks, which freak him out a bit), and a houseguest let him out yesterday. This particular houseguest is apparently used to outdoor-access cats, so he didn't even think anything of it when Rufus got out. He didn't call Mommy for a couple of hours, and by the time she got out there, he was nowhere to be found. Mommy lives in an apartment, and fortunately there aren't all that many locked doors or inaccessible storage areas which "might have been" open yesterday.
The houseguest thinks he saw which way Rufus went, and Loki followed a confirming trail. This indoor-only, "scared of the outdoors" cat "should have" been very nearby, hiding...but that just wasn't the case. The trail led, quite appropriately, to a shed with an area underneath open. Loki got quite excited about this spot, but Rufus just wasn't there. After that point, Loki acted a bit confused. He went around the edge of the parking lot and down a steep embankment into a creek area that is next to the apartments. He went back and forth, sniffing here and there, but didn't really have any particular direction. I pulled him out and ran him again from the front door. He did the same thing, going to the same shed and then acting confused. We went around the shed from the creek-side (I had to boost Loki up a 5-foot concrete embankment) to check out the shed area much more thoroughly. No Rufus. Loki was *so* interested in that shed, though, that I'll bet Rufus spent the night underneath and came out this morning.
I got out Anubis, and we started a grid search of Mommy's apartment building as well as the adjacent complex. No Rufus. I had to leave Mommy with the likelihood that he's out joy-riding in the creek, or in the row of houses directly on the other side. I gave her instructions on where to put up her posters, how and where to do feeding stations, and when to put out the live trap. I do think she'll get him back, but I think it's going to take a couple of days.
3-27-08 - Robbie
Robbie is a 1.5 year old, male, Scottish Fold cat in Oakland. He lives with Daddy, Mommy, and his littermate Wilbur. He's an independent cat, a little bit skittish. He's outdoor-access and left three days ago and didn't come back. Wilbur has been coming and going just fine since then. Robbie's neighborhood is in the Oakland "foothills," so all of the lots are very steep, nice houses, fences, and relatively small yards. Most of the houses have some sort of basement, outdoor-access utility room, or garage.
We started out by checking Robbie's house and yard and the adjacent ones. There just weren't a lot of hiding spaces outdoors, and the crawlspace vents seemed pretty well buttoned up. We moved on, checking about a dozen houses. The dogs both showed quite a bit of interest in one particular yard, two houses down, and the owner of that house said that cats go through that area a lot. There were only two people home out of all of the houses we checked (or tried to check). I'd had Daddy leave "permission slips" out the day before, as I usually do--but the strange thing is that quite a few of them were just there, untouched. Generally they're either signed or taken down entirely--there just usually aren't that many still there, not even looked at. Daddy mentioned that it is "Ski Week," and there might be quite a few people on vacation.
Next I switched Loki to scent-specific, and tried to get a "perimeter" of where he might have gone. Loki didn't seem to think there was any scent either up or down, on the next streets. The scent went only a couple of houses to one side, and it seemed to only go a couple of houses to the other, but I wasn't completely sure about that. And, that was the side with the "kitty highway" in that person's back yard.
One of two things has happened to Robbie, and I give them a 50/50. First possibility is that he's stuck/hiding in a basement or garage we didn't get access to. There were quite a few I wanted to check, and a couple in particular that we just didn't get into. The other possibility is that he's somehow gotten "territorially displaced" and is a block or two over. I showed Daddy on the map where I think the most likely area is, if that's the case, so he can concentrate his search there.
3-25-08 - Schazandra
Schazandra is a foster cat for a rescue group in San Francisco. Foster Mommy has an awesome setup--her back fences are eight-feet tall with plastic at the tops, the trees have blockers on them, and she has two kitty-houses in the back, with cat trees, shelves, and blanket warmers! Mommy said that she has fostered over 80 cats in this yard over the past many years, and none have ever gotten out. Schazandra managed to break the record 2 days ago.
Schazandra is 11 years old and lived her whole live as an indoor, declawed cat with one woman, who is now ill and couldn't keep her any more. Mommy said that Schazandra has been an unhappy cat for the two weeks she's been there. She bites and just isn't all that friendly. Mommy has no idea how she got out. Well, the fence blew down in the storm a month or two ago, and Mommy had a new one built. I noticed a very small hole underneath the new fence, in a squeeze-space between the shed and the side fence.
I started out by letting Loki explore the back yard, to see if she might be hiding somewhere--under the house, inside a storage box, etc. He didn't find anything, but when I scented him he went right back to that hole in the fence. I went around the block with both dogs and tried to get access to the house directly behind, but the person wasn't home to let us through. We did check the houses to each side of that, though, and to each side of Mommy's house. Loki couldn't find a specific trail, but both dogs kept wanting to go more to the north, to the closest end of the block. When I'd taken them around to the back-side house, they'd been very interested in one particular fence-hole. We searched more houses at the end of the block, but didn't find anything.
At that point, I put Anubis back into the car and tried Loki one more time with scent-specific. The problem about trying to trail a cat is multi-fold. They go up trees, over fences, behind sheds, and through all sorts of other obstacles that Loki can't follow. When we go around to the other side of the fence, for example, it's very difficult to get him to pick up the trail again. And, most yards are so small that I can't actually be sure that he's picked up the specific scent, vs just "any cat's" scent. It takes about 30 feet of watching him before I'm sure that he's on the right trail, or before he decides that the scent just isn't there. With 30 - 50 foot wide yards, it's just very difficult.
So, what we did instead is walk around the block. I asked Loki several times along the way if he found the scent. I got negative, negative, negative, and then at the corner with the fence-hole that both dogs had been interested in, Loki really wanted to cross the street. I'm pretty sure he was on the scent, and we went another block before he decided it was gone. We went back and continued around Mommy's block the whole way, but Loki didn't seem interested in anything.
I went back to talk to Mommy. I drew a map and showed her where I think Schazandra is hanging out. I don't think she's hiding somewhere--I think she's out wandering. But I'm pretty sure it's not over that large of an area. I told Mommy about doing feeding stations at the corners of the blocks where I think she is. Mommy had put up a bunch of little flyers, but nobody we talked to had seen them. (Even though they were right there, in front of their houses!) I told Mommy that she had to get the big, bright posters up--this is just proof that nobody at all sees the 8-1/2 x 11 pieces of white paper. I also told her to do door - to - door flyers over the 2 - 3 blocks I think she is probably roaming. Mommy was convinced that she'd been killed, but I kept reassuring her that it's hardly been any time at all. With a cat, you can't even start thinking negative thoughts until 3 - 4 weeks, and you can't even think of giving up until 8 weeks. Schazandra has only been gone for two days.
I do think it's possible that Mommy will get her back, but it'll take some good advertising and patience, and I hope Mommy's willing to run the course.
3-25-08 - Wasabi
Wasabi is a one-year old female Shiba Inu in Walnut Creek. Mommy used to live on the street but moved a few months ago. She was visiting a friend about a block away from where she used to live and had Wasabi off-leash from the car to the elevator. (She would often be off-leash with Mommy.) Wasabi got spooked and took off. It was 1:30 in the morning, 36 hours ago, when she got lost.
I had to park about a block away, because this street was nothing but apartments and parking was tight. Mommy met me at my car, and as we were walking to where Wasabi got lost, Loki started to pull around one corner. I joked that he could smell Wasabi on Mommy and already knew what he was looking for.
When we got to where she was lost, I scented Loki and he immediately took off nose-down, to the back of the apartment complex, and through a hole in the fence to an area along the freeway. Thankfully, he pretty quickly went to the other side of a fence, so the freeway was inaccessible. However, we were walking very, very close to a steep wall dropping into a large water-way. Loki kept looking over the edge, very curious. I assumed that he was just interested in the running water--he always likes to go splashing.
Part way down we ran into a homeless camp--it was very interesting and unique. There were a couple of tents, sheets of fabric set up to shield from the freeway, area rugs and mats on the ground, and just totally clean and kept up. There was a man there, getting ready to ride a bicycle--in full bike-attire, with helmet and all, perfectly groomed and shaven. Who knows, he might work in one of the nearby office buildings or be reading this right now from the satellite link in his tent...
A half-mile after we started, we came up out of the creek into an office park. Loki partially lost the scent at that point, but eventually found it...right back down to the bottom of the water-way we just spent a half-hour walking along the top. Fortunately, the water way wasn't very full--no more than knee-deep at the deepest, and there was a lot of "land" inside it with blackberry bushes and other very pleasant things. Go figure, the trail led right back the other direction, exactly where we'd already walked 10 feet over and 30 feet up. Now I understood why Loki was so interested in peeking over this tall wall--Wasabi's scent was also *inside* the water way!
We got to a point where the trail led up again out of the water-way. Guess what--we were back at the street right next to the complex where she got lost! It makes total sense, but we had just spent over an hour slogging through knee-deep water and blackberry bushes, to end up where we started. I'm pretty confident that it was a valid trail, because we kept seeing little-dog prints all the way along.
Loki couldn't quite figure out where the trail went from there. I think she was wandering around the complexes, looking for Mommy. So, I remembered where Loki had wanted to pull around the corner and we went to that spot. Go figure, he immediately went nose-down and started following the trail--right back in the first direction, but along the street this time! He pulled up in front of the door to Mommy's old apartment, so, again, I'm pretty comfortable that we were on the correct trail.
The trail stopped right around the corner of a busy street, so I told Mommy to advertise well at that corner. We went back down the street on the other side, and Loki did show some interest in the complex directly across the street from Mommy's old place--it's very possible that she doubled back to the old place and then went exploring across the street.
I'm pretty sure that someone has her. The street must have five - ten thousand people living there--each complex must have 200 - 500 people, and there are easily 20 - 30 complexes. There's just no way that she'd avoid people for 36 hours, if she was hanging around that street. Now we just have to hope that whoever has her is willing to give her back.
3-24-08 - Lightning and Thunder
Lightning and Thunder are two sister-cats in Mill Valley, in a condo complex. They're 15 years old, mainly-indoor cats. They do get access to the back patio and will occasionally sit on the front porch. They have different habits--they don't go outside at the same time, or to the same place in the house. About 10 days ago they just up and went missing. They were inside when Mommy went to work, and when she came home they weren't any more. There is a third cat, the daughter, and she was still there. Mommy has done an awesome job in letting the neighbors know that they're missing.
It's a total mystery how they got out. The back patio is on the second floor, and for 14 years they've never jumped off. Mommy has a roommate, but she says she's sure she didn't leave the door open and doesn't know what happened to them. I went over the possibilities with Mommy, and none of them made any sense for *two* cats getting lost at the same time! Sure, an owl might (theoretically) taken one off of the patio, but not both. One might be hiding somewhere in the house, but not both. One might have snuck out the front door and be hiding or roaming somewhere, unseen but not both.
It's been 10 days, so I didn't expect to be able to get a trail--even if they wandered out the door to somewhere else. And, in fact, we didn't find one. We spent about an hour searching around the condo complex--there were plenty of places for a cat to hide--lots of areas under decks and inside of storage cupboards. We found a few other cats, but not Lightning or Thunder.
It's just, plain, a mystery. One thing I tell people is to remember that the pet must be *somewhere* because there haven't actually been any documented alien abductions. But, in this case, I'm almost ready to believe it. Someone would have had to come into the house and take two out of the three cats. They would have had to take them clear out of the area, or else one out of the two of them would show up *somewhere*. I just don't know if this one will ever be solved.
3-23-08 - Ginger
Ginger is an 11 - month old lab mix in Oakland. (Downtown.) She had just been adopted by a couple from a Rescue Group. They'd had her for less than 24 hours, and Mommy's friends accidentally let her out the front door. I got called by the Rescue Group coordinator and made it out there about 36 hours after she got lost. Mommy had done some advertising--there were a few flyers up on a couple of posts. They'd had a couple of neighborhood kids helping them to look.
Since it had only been 36 hours, I had a good feeling that we'd be able to get a good trail. In fact, we did manage to get a good trail, which went along the city blocks for about a mile, in a circle...right back to the bottom of Mommy's street! (about 6 houses from Mommy's house.) She mentioned that Ginger had been sighted in that area shortly after she got lost.
Between that point and about three - four blocks away (along the busy street), the trail became fainter and less viable. I think that Loki might have been even following a vehicle trail for a little while! I'm pretty sure she got picked up within that four block length. I told Mommy to totally plaster the street over those four blocks, and farther to each direction, with flyers and posters. I really do think that someone has her, and I need to hope that whoever does will return her. She is wearing a collar with name and phone number tag, and the fact that Mommy hasn't gotten a phone call yet does have me worried.
3-20-08 - Lexi
Lexi is a female Pomeranian in Brentwood. She has been known to be an escape artist, but she usually hangs around or comes right back. According to Mommy, one time she got out and they couldn't find her. She'd been picked up at a Mexican market nearby, given away, and finally retrieved from the new "owners."
She got out again a few days ago, so I scented Loki and started the trail. It went to the back of their house, around a fence, and along a water-way for about a quarter-mile. It then led out to the main street...right in front of the Mexican market! At that point, I was pretty sure we'd been following the correct trail. It continued behind the market but then became a little bit fuzzy. I think it went behind some row-houses next to the market, but there were a ton of cats back there and Loki was pretty interested in them...so I couldn't be sure about the trail. It possibly went over a wooden bridge (over the water-way), but we just couldn't figure out where it went after that. We checked around the neighborhood and weren't able to come up with any other trail.
I went back and told Mommy to get posters up all around that market area and the neighborhood behind it. I told her to get flyers into the Mexican market, and ask if they would be willing to hand them out to people who come in. (I made up a flyer with English/Spanish translations for her.) I told Mommy and Daddy that the one thing that's going to bring her back is advertising--offer a reward that's more than anybody in that neighborhood could get by selling her, and is enough to convince anybody who might have "fallen in love with her" that it'd be worth turning her in.
3-19-08 - Violet
Violet is a 4-year-old female, outdoor access cat in Santa Cruz. Mommy and Daddy had just moved into this house from their old place, which is about 2 miles away. They decided to keep Violet in the office for the first night, and Mommy secured the (existing) cat door by placing a very heavy box in front of it. When she went to check on Violet the next morning, she'd managed to move the box away and sneak out the door.
This was 8 days ago. Since then, Mommy has done an awesome job of door - to - door flyers, and she has gotten two pretty reliable sightings. One woman said, when she called, "I'm holding the flyer in my hand and I'm looking at the cat right now, and I'm sure it's her." When she tried to get Violet, though, she ran away. Another person from the very same area said that she'd seen a cat "with the most remarkable blue eyes" that same day. (And Violet's distinguishing feature is her blue eyes!)
Even though it'd been eight days, I decided to let Loki try to run a trail. Surprisingly enough, he seemed to be on a pretty viable trail. It led a couple of blocks in the general direction of where she'd been sighted (although off to one side), and then we couldn't follow it any farther. It's possible that she was hiding in Mommy's yard (or next door) for a few days, and the trail was actually a bit younger than 8 days.
We went to where she'd been sighted (a small retirement complex) and I let Loki try to figure out if she'd been there. He gave me a lot of negatives, except for one wall which backed up to houses on the next street. We went around to the front of those houses and he didn't get any scent. We checked other parts of the neighborhood and got two other "possible" places where Loki showed more interest.
I told Mommy at that point, that I didn't think she was hiding. She's probably out somewhere "semi-feral," and would be avoiding the dogs at all costs. I showed Mommy the three places on the map, and explained how feeding stations work. (To attract all the cats in the area to a couple of places at the same time each night, so Mommy can see where Violet is hanging out.) The biggest problem Mommy is going to have is patience--she's got to be more stubborn than a semi-feral cat!
Priscilla was a 9-year-old Great Dane in Orinda. She was known to have arthritis and heart problems, and she was starting to show signs of dementia. She would be given occasional access to Mommy and Daddy's (unfenced) 1-acre lot, and she had never been known to wander. She got let out not quite 72 hours before I got there--and when Mommy and Daddy went to call her she was nowhere to be found.
This particular neighborhood is full of houses with 1 - 2 acre lots and no fences. There is also a substantial amount of undeveloped hill-land surrounding the streets. I scented Loki on her bed, and he wanted to go up the driveway. When we got to the top, though, he didn't find any more scent on the street. We went back down to the area Priscilla was known to sit and rest, and Loki seemed to get a trail leading down into a creek area. Per Daddy, Priscilla would sometimes cross this creek to visit the dogs in the next yard over. When we got to the other side of the creek, though, the trail didn't go to the other dogs, but around another house and to the next street up. From there, it went along the street a little bit and then up onto a *very* densely covered hill.
At this point, I'd become convinced that Loki was lying to me about the trail--remember, this is a 150 lb Great Dane, and he was leading me through spaces I had to crawl under. I did keep seeing "some large animal's" prints in the leaves, though, and Loki seemed pretty, darned confident, so we kept going. The area opened up a little bit, and Loki let me to a small creek-ravine. We found her body right there, poor thing. It looked like she must have gotten into the creekbed and then had a heart attack. There wasn't any trauma, which we'd expect if she fell. She wasn't curled up, as if she was trying to last out the chilly night.
I got Daddy and we brought her out. (Fortunately, it was downhill to the nearest house, where we loaded her into the truck.) Mommy and Daddy were pretty torn up, but they'd guessed that was what happened. People just don't "keep" a Great Dane, and they knew that she had medical problems. I'd been hoping for the better-case-scenario, that she had gotten into a ravine and was waiting there for help getting back out. But I guess she knew it was her time and wanted one, last outing before she went. Like I told Mommy and Daddy, she went out with her boots on.
3-17-08 - Gingerman
Gingerman is a 14 year old, outdoor access, diabetic cat in Mill Valley, up in the hills. He has been missing for about 5 days. Several other cats in the area have gone missing within the last few months, and Mommy and Daddy very often hear coyotes around. He has a "brother cat" who is also outdoor access, and who is still coming and going safely.
Since he's an outdoor access cat, there just wasn't any way we'd be able to get a trail. So, we started right away with area searching of the house and yard. Now, this whole area is very wild and natural. Most people have acreage with no fences and only a small area of "landscaping" around the house. It's also on a pretty good hillside. We spent quite a bit of time searching the valley where Gingerman tended to hang out. It wasn't until we got down below that valley, onto the next street, that we found anything of interest, though.
Down below, we found the coyote's highway. We found a lot of coyote scat, some of which had mouse hair, skunk hair, a couple of unidentifiable bones, and one even had shreds of some pet's collar. Nothing looked like Gingerman's, though. We did a pretty, darned thorough search of that neighborhood. Mommy and Daddy took me to every spot that anybody has reported ever seeing Gingerman or his "brother," and I checked it out with the dogs. We got plenty of reports of coyotes, but just didn't find any evidence of Gingerman one way or another.
So, basically, what we know is that Gingerman isn't hiding or injured near the house. Like I told Mommy and Daddy, one of several things has happened. Either he's been taken by a coyote (which, unfortunately, seems most likely), he's been somehow relocated by a human (accidentally going into a car, taken into a house, taken to a shelter, etc) which seems very unlikely, or he's been scared out of his "normal" territory (by a coyote, raccoon, etc) and is wandering around blocks and blocks away. I told Mommy and Daddy to keep up the flyers and posters, especially farther away from their house, where he might be wandering. But, I also had to tell them that this is the time to start pulling back the energies, because they might not get him home. I hate having to say that to people, but sometimes it has to be said.
3-15-08 - Kara
Kara is a young lab mix in Vallejo. She actually lives in Sacramento, but she was visiting Grampa in Vallejo. A little over a week ago, he had Kara and his English Mastiff clipped in the back of his pickup truck while he went into a store. He came back out and the Mastiff was still there, but Kara had been taken. There's just no way she managed to unclip herself--it would have taken human hands to do it. About two days after she went missing, someone in an adjacent neighborhood found her collar (with name tag) and leash in their front yard. They called Grampa (from the number on the tag) to let him know. There have been possible sightings of Kara in the neighborhood just before the collar and leash were found.
I told Mommy and Grampa up front (several times) that I didn't think I'd be able to find any scent--it had been over a week after all. I told them that the only thing I'd be able to do is let them know if she's still actively wandering around in any given area we check. If she was a skittish small dog, sighthound, or something with a high prey drive like a Husky, I wouldn't be too surprised if she was still wandering. But a very friendly lab mix--especially one whom we know was stolen (and who probably went willingly)by someone in the first place--isn't too likley to be wandering.
Mommy and Grampa wanted me to try anyway. Since it wasn't that far to drive, I agreed. We started at the Walmart, then went to the area where the leash/collar had been found. We spent a bit of time in that neighborhood, going to some "likely" places she'd be if she was still wandering--a local school, a park, a drainage creek with a bit of brush cover, and the marsh-land by the bay. Then we went to a park a bit farther south, where Grampa had taken the dogs twice.
As I'd feared, we didn't come up with anything. Although, that, in itself, is information. She's almost definitely not wandering loose in the area. The only way Mommy and Grampa are going to get her back is through massive advertising--to the point that whoever has her gets so sick of them that they give her back!
3-13-08 - Update on Muriel - She's Home!!!
I just got an email from Daddy--she's home!!! He'd left food out for her at the back door (but hadn't left the door open for her). He'd been watching, and he saw her come to eat. He opened the door, spooked her for a few minutes, but then he managed to convince her to come back inside! Yay Mommy, Daddy, and Muriel!
3-13-08 - Muriel
Muriel is an 8-month old, female, indoor-only, spayed kitten in Berkeley. She got out of an opened door three days ago. She had been a feral kitten, but then had been kept in the shelter for a while because she was ill, and now she's indoor-only. She was adopted by Mommy and Daddy along with her littermate. Mommy and Daddy live in the Berkeley hills above El Cerrito, in a neighborhood where everybody has big houses and big yards. The streets aren't square and at 90 degrees--they kind of meander, with very oddly shaped blocks and lots. One of two things was possible--either Muriel is hiding very close because she's an indoor-kitten who has gotten out, or she's out joyriding because she used to be a feral.
I started Loki with a trail, and he took me right from the front door, around the house, down the hill, and to the deck of the "in-law cottage." He was *sure* that Muriel had either been there very recently, or that she'd spent a lot of time there. We just weren't able to get a clear trail leading away, which I interpreted to mean that she's wandering the area. My thought is that she probably spent Monday night and part of Tuesday under that deck, and then has been joyriding since.
I brought out both dogs, and we did an area search of the adjacent several houses, but didn't come up with anything. (Except for a different cat, in the yard across the street.) I had to tell Mommy and Daddy that I just didn't think we were going to find her. I was pretty sure that she is close, but she's out wandering, and she's avoiding the dogs at all costs. If we check one yard, she has probably just run into a different yard.
I left Mommy and Daddy with a live trap to put underneath the cottage deck. I also instructed them to keep the other cat in a closed room, and leave the back door open a crack with some food outside and dribbled in. I told them to put some bedding just inside the door, and first thing in the morning, when it's still mostly dark, go outside a *different* door and then come inside the opened door. That way, if she ran away she'd run *into* the house, rather than out. I left, telling Daddy that I was sure they'd have her back within 3 days.
3-13-08 - Calvin
Calvin is a 17 year old, outdoor, male tuxedo cat in Lafayette. Mommy and Daddy had been on vacation for a week, and they had their teenage granddaughter feeding Calvin daily. He had been showing up like clockwork, until, 9 days ago, he just didn't come back. Mommy came back from vacation two days ago (she had been gone for two weeks total), and I came out with the dogs today. During the interview process, Mommy said that several of the neighbors had told her that there was a coyote spotted on her street right around the time Calvin went missing. There is some wild area near Mommy's house, with a creek, blackberry bushes, etc.
Since he'd been gone for quite a while, and since he's an outdoor cat anyway, we didn't even try to trail him. We started right away with an area search. We checked Mommy's house and the dogs immediately found a different cat. He ran into a tree and stayed perched there until we left. We went around the block, checking houses, and ended up behind Mommy's. The dogs found a cat under the crawlspace of a cottage in a backyard, and before I was able to peek in with a flashlight, that cat decided to storm out, come hell or high water, past the dogs. Well, the dogs were surprised, the cat fought, and Loki ended up with some pretty serious scratches on his nose and next to his eye. Anubis got one, tiny scab on his nose. The kicker is, this cat looked *exactly* like Calvin, except he had long hair. Mommy and Granddaughter said that they thought it was probably the across-the-street cat, who does, in fact, look just like Calvin.
We kept going along the block to two houses under construction. These sat right up next to the wild area, and the dogs found the forearm bones of a smallish animal. They were about 1 - 2 weeks old--the sinews hadn't completely dried up yet. (Like, the size of a cat. It might have been a raccoon, opossum, or skunk, but it could also be a cat.) We searched around and didn't find any more evidence. We went up the (undeveloped) hill across the street, and still didn't find anything else. Whatever animal it is, it was definitely the coyote's dinner last week when he was sighted.
I talked to Mommy about whether or not she wants to send in the bones for DNA testing. They won't be able to tell if it's Calvin, because we don't have a sample to compare it to, but they will be able to tell if it's a cat and the sex. They might be able to tell the coat color and length--I have to check with them. Mommy asked me to find out more exact details about what they can/can't figure out and get back to her before she makes the decision.
I left Mommy with instructions on advertising, etc--it's not a definite conclusion that the bones we found were Calvin. I gave Mommy about a 75% chance that they were, based on the timing, the fact that he suddenly disappeared when he's been an outdoor cat all his life, and the fact that he's 17 years old and coyotes will take the young, old, and injured before they go for the adult, healthy critters. I hope I'm wrong.
3-12-08 - Update on Bonnie - She's Home!!!
I just got a call from Mommy--Bonnie is home!!! Mommy took my advice and changed it a little to fit her situation, and it worked! She left open a shed (Bonnie had very definitely *not* been in that shed yesterday!), put in some food and bedding, and Bonnie was there this morning! Woo-Hoo! I had expected that it'd take several days, but she surprised us. Yay for Bonnie and Mommy!
3-11-08 - Bonnie
Bonnie is a 10 year old, spayed female, indoor-only Scottish Fold cat in Pleasanton. She snuck out of an open door two days ago, during the afternoon. Mommy lives in a gated, golf-course community, with large houses on large lots. There are only about 5 houses near hers--she's on the edge of the community. She had gotten a sighting of a cat which looks like Bonnie on the golf course, at the 15th hole. Mommy's yard has a very tall fence, so Bonnie was probably in the yard until the gardeners came yesterday and left the gate open.
I started out by letting Loki run a trail, and he went right out the gate, past the next house, and through the (wrought iron) fence out of the community. Rather than drive around to the other side of the fence, only to find that she came right, back through again, I decided to follow up the lead at the golf course. Interestingly enough, Loki seemed to be following a trail through the golf course. I told Mommy that I just couldn't be certain that it was hers, but it sure seemed possible. At this point, I decided to go to the other side of the fence to try to continue the trail. I honestly expected it to go about one house and then come back in, but it actually went about 1/4 mile--five streets over. Once I started to think, it kind of made sense--there was no real reason that she'd pick one spot over another to come back through, so she just kept going. The trail did finally disappear, though, so we drove back through to the other side to try to pick it up.
When I found the street where the trail stopped, there was a man in his yard who said that he'd seen a cat who fits her description about an hour ago, two blocks over, sitting in a yard. Well, it made total sense that it could be her, so we went over to that yard. Loki was totally convinced that, in fact, there had been a cat there very recently, and that it went through the back out to the golf course. (12th hole) We made our way out to the golf course, and there was a cat who looked just like her! I called Mommy, who came right out, but she said that it wasn't her.
I decided at that point that I could be chasing trails all night, but what I needed to do is go back to the adjacent houses and do yard checks. (I didn't do that first, because it was about 5pm when I started, and nobody was home yet. Mommy had called me earlier this morning, so we didn't have the "night before" to get permission from people.) I checked the adjacent yards and garages, and she wasn't there. I decided to call it at that point, and I gave Mommy some advice, including posters, leaving the garage door open with food and bedding inside, who to notify, etc. I do think that she's around, but it might take several days and some heavy advertising to get her back.
3-11-08 - Cat
Cat is, well, a cat in Mill Valley. He is 10ish years old, all black and fluffy, and, Mommy says, very skinny even though he has free access to food. Mommy lives in an upscale apartment building, adjacent to several other buildings and complexes. Cat apparently wanders frequently over to the next building, where he has some people who let him in. He's one of those cats who makes a lot of noise until someone feeds him, even though he's got perfectly good food at home. (If he was a human, I'd call him a Drama Queen.) Mommy had gotten a visit from Animal Control two weeks ago, because there had been a complaint that he was not being fed. Mommy
