Cookie probably never knew what hit her. She was taken by a predator so quickly and quietly that her owner, standing 30 feet away, never knew what happened. Cookie was hard of hearing, with poor eyesight. Perhaps it was a bobcat or a coyote, but it happened suddenly.
After reviewing the case with Cookie's owner, I advised against a search because he said he walked Cookie in the neighborhood, and I thought Kelsy would have a hard time sorting out the most recent trail from a previous trail. Cookie's owner wanted a search anyway, just to cover all the bases, so we went out there yesterday morning. Kelsy started at their front door, where Cookie had gone out at about 11:30 PM two days earlier. Kelsy immediately took me around behind the house, which I was not expecting. Kelsy took me about 100 yards into a forested greenbelt behind the neighbor's house, where Cookie could not have walked under her own power, being just 12 pounds and with weak legs. Kelsy found the jacket that Cookie had been wearing, and when I turned it over with my knife, it had red blood on the inside. The owners said it was definitely Cookie's jacket, and indeed it was identical to another one they had in their hands. I advised them that a further search was probably unnecessary because Cookie could only have gotten that far in the jaws of a predator (I didn't phrase it like that). They wanted to search more, to find Cookie. I let Kelsy off leash and watched her. Within a minute, she had found vital organs, so I leashed her up and took her away. I praised her for a good job. I advised the owners that they really shouldn't look any further, since we had a positive ID on Cookie's jacket, and since she couldn't possibly be alive without those organs. I took Kelsy back up to the street to give her the full reward of cheese and playing fetch with her ball. The full search was less than 10 minutes, and less than 150 yards. I had advised the owners that a search would probably not be helpful, but it turned out I was wrong. They never would have looked down there because Cookie could not have climbed over those logs. Kelsy's nose gave them the positive proof to know what happened to Cookie. They were deeply saddened, of course, but they were thankful for Kelsy. They both threw the ball for her, to give her her reward for a job well done.
This case was very similar to the situation with Casey, in Auburn, last summer. He was also small, looked very similar, and had been let out in his own back yard while the owner was only a few yards away. He disappeared in minutes, also, and his remains were also found less than 100 yards away. The vital organs left behind were even the same. After that find, Kelsy seemed to have nightmares the following night. This time, she didn't have any nightmares as far as I know. Still, even though she was rewarded for her good work, I could tell that she wasn't as happy as she is when she finds a live dog.
This was Kelsy's fourth walk-up find in 52 searches, but it was hard to be happy about her success when the result was bad news for Cookie's family.
Temp: 42F
Feels like: 38F
Cloudy
Humidity: 82%
Wind: NNE at 6 mph
Updated: 3/6/11 9:05 AM PST
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