Lexi doesn't like fireworks. For a scent article, I used a chunk of the remains of a wooden door she demolished while panicked out of her mind. Her fur clung to the rough edge of the hole she made in the door. She didn't escape during that incident, but she did escape later, due to more fireworks, on the 5th. A neighbor saw her at around 4:45 near the end of Lexi's driveway, and that was the last anyone saw of her for a while. Lexi's owner came to the Kent Shelter to check for her, and to get some advice and posters. While at our booth at the shelter, she requested a search dog, and I agreed to bring Kelsy out the next morning, about 40 hours after the escape. The weather was perfect for a search this morning.
Now for Renton, WA (98059)
Temp: 59F
Feels like: 59F
Fog
Humidity: 94%
Wind: S at 7 mph
Updated: 7/7/11 7:45 AM PDT
Although it didn't register at the weather station, a fine mist covered the region, the kind intermittent windshield wipers were designed for. It could have been a tad cooler, but otherwise it was perfect weather to make the scent available to the nose of a dog and keep her cool while she works.
I started Kelsy across the street from the point last seen and aimed her at that point, with a hedge as a backstop, so she would have to choose a direction. She took the scent from the chunk of wood (a first for us) and chose to take us south. Kelsy took us through a couple of yards and down to the Raging River. That's it's name, although it wasn't raging at that moment. Kelsy could easily have crossed, and the owner said Lexi would occaisonally cross the river to play in the woods on the other side. Because scent doesn't stay put in a river, I had to guess where Lexi might have come out on the other side. We ended up driving around, over the bridge, to the other side, and starting again in that small neighborhood of 4 houses on a dead end. Kelsy found the scent to be fresher there than it was at the point last seen. Kelsy dragged me through nettles and swamps, past devil's club and skunk cabbage, down about half a dozen dead end trails. Kelsy pointed out bear scat and coyote scat to me. We found a compost pile and some garbage that Lexi might have snacked on.
I wanted to get down to the river to start at the point across from where we left off on the other side. We couldn't find a trail, so Kelsy and I just slogged through the nettles and blackberries and dense ferns. Down at the river, I could see no trail leading back up into the woods. I got into the river and walked downstream looking for a way out. I couldn't work Kelsy on a scent trail at that point because there was no flat ground to work on, just the river and a steep bank covered in vegetation. By the time I finally found a small trail, Lexi's owner shouted down to me that Lexi had been found. Kelsy and I worked our way out of the canyon and met her back at the house.
Lexi was fine, and she had spent most of the 40 hours of her absence in a woman's car and in her home. Lexi had been picked up shortly after her escape, with the remains of a tether dangling from her collar, right near her home. The woman assumed Lexi had run away from home because of the severed tether. She lived far away, and wasn't able to get back to the neighborhood until today. She saw the large neon posters provided by MPP, and called the owner. The finder refused to accept a reward.
The timeline of when Lexi escaped the yard is not exact, and I can't say that Kelsy definitely was on the right trail or definitely was on the wrong trail. It is certainly possibly that Lexi had made an excursion across the river and come back home before being picked up. It's also possible that Kelsy was on the wrong trail. I wish I knew for sure.
When Kelsy met Lexi in her own driveway, she smelled the yellow lab and then looked up at me with a look on her face like, "Hey, that's the dog we were looking for--give me my treat." So I did give her some cheese and play a little fetch with her.
Things I would do differently next time: I saw that one house had a camera aimed at their gate. Kelsy said Lexi walked right in front of that camera, probably more than once. I should have asked the homeowner to review the tape and tell us if a yellow lab had walked across the camera's view. This would have helped if Lexi were still missing, and it would help to know if Kelsy was on the right trail.
The other thing I would do differently would be to have the finder return the dog BEFORE I get up at 5 AM, drive 35 miles, get stung by nettles, wade through a river in tennis shoes, and bushwhack for three hours. Kelsy had a blast, though, so I guess that is the important thing.
