Kelsy's Search for Camilo

This search differed from our standard methods.  Luz said her little dog Camilo was right outside her door one moment and gone in less than two minutes.  She heard Camilo scream, not yip or bark or whimper.  Luz suspected a predator, most likely a coyote, but she wanted a search dog to try anyway.  I explained how Kelsy works, and that since the point last seen was right outside her door, where Camilo had made hundreds of scent trails, it would be unlikely that Kelsy could follow Camilo's scent trail.  Also, since he was probably carried, not walking, there might not be a scent trail to follow.  She said she wanted us to try, just in case Camilo was not taken by a predator. 

Kelsy and I started our search at 7 PM on a relatively warm, dry day.  We started at a point where the scuff marks in the dirt indicated a possible struggle.  Kelsy analyzed the ground there, and at a similar scuff mark eight feet away.  Then she led me into the neighbor's yard, and pointed out a spot of great interest to her.  I marked this spot, and tried to continue the search.  Kelsy lost the trail, so I took her back to the beginning and restarted her.  This time she followed a looping trail all through the yard, I assume not from the day of the disappearance. 

Luz showed us a spot in the woods, about a quarter mile away, where her other dog behaved oddly, shaking and refusing to move forward.  I started Kelsy on the scent article there, and she didn't seem to pick up a scent trail.  However, she did find coyote scat that was full of fur that looked like it could belong to Camilo.  We took some samples for comparison at a lab. 

After dark, we sprayed luminol at the four locations of interest to Kelsy--the two scuff marks in the yard, the spot on the neighbor's lawn, and the coyote scat in the woods.  Of course, the coyote scat glowed blue, as you would expect traces of blood there.  At the three other spots, we saw just a few specks of blue.  It is possible these were false positives, but they resembled drops of blood.  Given the possible presence of blood, the coyote scat with possible matching fur, and the circumstances of the dissappearance, I advised Luz that the most likely scenario was that Camilo had been taken by a coyote.  However, I advised her to keep looking until she got positive confirmation that the fur belonged to Camilo.  At this point I haven't heard the result of the test.

Kelsy was unable to perform her usual search, because of the circumstances and conditions, but she did point out areas of interest I would never have found without her help.  She proved useful, but in a different manner than we have trained for. 

Temp: 53F
Feels like: 53F
Fair
Humidity: 55%
Wind: NNW at 5 mph
Updated: 5/19/11 10:25 PM PDT

Karma's search for Otis

When you are looking for your missing cat, someone is bound to tell you that your cat was killed by a coyote.  In every missing cat case I have worked, the owners were told this by one or more people.  It is rarely true.  Missing Pet Partnership helps over 400 families each year in the search for lost loved ones.  In all those cases, we have fewer than five cases a year where we can confirm that a predator took a pet.  Studies of coyotes have shown that it is rare for them to take a domestic animal, and that the bulk of their diet is fruit and nuts and rodents.  When we search for a lost cat, we focus our efforts on the highest probabilities, and being taken by a coyote is one of the lowest probabilities. 

However, when Karma and I showed up to search for Otis yesterday, his owner reported what a neighbor had seen.  The morning that Otis disappeared, this neighbor was looking out his living room window around dawn.  He saw a coyote run through his yard into Otis's yard, and moments later the coyote came back into his yard with something in his mouth.  Even though being taken by a coyote usually is a low probability, given this information, we started our search at the point where the neighbor last saw the coyote. 

Karma was very interested in sniffing the ground in many spots near this point where the coyote was last seen.  I paid attention to all the areas Karma pointed out, but I wasn't seeing any signs of predation.  I realized that didn't mean there was no evidence, just that it might be too small or too transparent for me to see.  Karma also wanted to take me out of this area in the manner of a trailing dog.  Karma is not trained as a trailing dog, but she is a dog, and she wanted to follow several scent trails leading away from that initial site. 

I let Karma follow her nose a while, even though that is not the standard procedure with a cat-detection dog.  When she led me farther away from the point last seen than it would be reasonable for a cat to travel on his own, I stopped her and brought her back to our areas of highest probability.  For three hours we searched the neighbors' yards, one by one.  Karma hit several areas where a cat had been recently, judging by her response, but the cat had heard us coming and moved off. 

After we cleared most of the yards in the neighborhood, I brought Karma back to the point where the coyote had been seen last, where Karma was very interested in invisible clues on the ground.  Within five minutes of carefully scanning this area, I found Otis's collar, with his name tag.  It was so plainly visible that I couldn't believe I had missed it before, especially when I was actively looking for just that type of evidence.  My guess is that the light had changed, and the collar that had been in a shadow was now in full sun.  Karma had indicated several points near there, but not exactly there.  In the future, I will direct my attention not only to the specific locations Karma indicates, but to the immediate surroundings of those points. 

Based on the way the collar was cut (evidently by teeth, and not torn or cut by a knife) and based on other trace evidence found at that site, I told the owner that we could stop our search for Otis, and that it was fairly clear what had happened.  Although it is rare for a coyote to take a domestic animal, it does happen on occasion.  She could have sent the evidence to a lab for a DNA test, but I felt that the collar, the eyewitness account, and the orange fur constituted enough evidence that further testing wasn't necessary.

I probably would not have found the evidence if not for Karma's work in the area.  Because she was very interested in what happened on that lawn, I knew to go back and check more thoroughly.  The way Karma analyzed the scene was very similar to the way Kelsy behaved in the two instances where she found evidence of a coyote taking a small domestic animal.  In all three instances, I could see that Kelsy and Karma were reading the ground like looking at a picture, and they were forming images in their minds of what happened.  I couldn't know what they imagined, but I knew it was significant, and it led me to discover clues that I would have missed if not for them. 

Another important lesson from this case is that there weren't a lot of missing cat fliers around the neighborhood.  When I interview owners of missing cats, I always ask if there has been a recent increase in the number of missing cat fliers in the area, because this could mean there is a predator active in the area.  Owls and bobcats are just as likely to take a cat.  If they tell me No, there haven't been more fliers, then I leave the possibility of predation as unlikely, and I focus the search on other possibilities.  However, in the cases of Casey the Shih-Tzu, Cookie the Havanese, and Otis the orange Tabby, all three were taken by coyotes and in all three cases there had not been an increase in lost pet fliers in the neighborhood.  I will still ask the question, and I will still view the probability of predation as low, but it can happen without warning even when it is unlikely.

All of our cats are indoor-only, and any cat I adopt in the future will be indoor-only.

Practice Search for Lucy

Kelsy and I hadn't seen Lucy in a while, so I arranged a practice search so Kelsy could see her old friend.  Lucy walked the trail a day earlier, and it was about three miles long.  I knew the trail in advance, so I could monitor Kelsy's behavior as she trailed and watch for distractions.  Kelsy followed the trail almost exactly except for the 1 mile stretch of 21st Ave SW.  I knew Lucy had stayed on the east side for the whole mile, but Kelsy wanted to cross to the west side.  I gave her a little resistance before we crossed, to make sure she really wanted to cross, but Kelsy insisted.  Kelsy followed the trail for three blocks on the west side, then one block on the east side, six blocks west, and three blocks east.  About half the time, Kelsy follows a known scent trail on the opposite side of the road.  She has always done this, as far as I can tell, and I'm not sure why.  I think it may have something to do with the way a road cools at night and draws air into it.  Or maybe it was the wind pushing the scent over.  I wish I could see scent particles so I would know how they distribute over time. 

Kelsy followed most of the trail exactly, other than being on the opposite side of the road.  There was just one point in an apartment complex where she got turned around, and I helped her back on track for half a block.  At the end, Kelsy could not pinpoint Lucy's house.  No doubt, there were many Lucy trails crisscrossing and running in and out.  She knew Lucy was near, but she couldn't pinpoint the house.  I did lead her to the gate, and once she was in the back yard, she knew she was in Lucy's world.  She had a good time playing with Lucy and barking at her.  Kelsy played a little fetch with Lucy's ball, and she received snausages for her treat.  After a frustrating week of trailing Cali, Kelsy seemed relieved to work the trail of a findable dog, especially a friend she hadn't seen in a while. 

Temp: 45F
Feels like: 40F
Partly Cloudy
Humidity: 61%
Wind: SSW at 8 mph
Updated: 4/17/11 10:45 AM PDT

Name:		Track 045
Date:		Apr 17, 2011 11:07 am
Map: (valid until Oct 14, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		3.14 miles
Elapsed Time:		1:16:54
Avg Speed:		2.4 mph
Max Speed:		8.1 mph
Avg Pace:		24' 31" per mile
Min Altitude:		222 ft
Max Altitude:		368 ft
Start Time:		2011-04-17T18:07:35Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.309758º N
	Longitude:	122.352729º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.308695º N
	Longitude:	122.351938º W

The Search for Cali

Cali is a seventeen pound Labradoodle that runs like the wind.  Over a seven day period, she ran back and forth over a territory five miles long and three miles wide.  We received reports of her at one end in the evening and the other end the next morning.  All of the fliers posted on every street in that area advised people not to chase her, but of course the people would chase her first and then read the details in the flier later.  Kelsy tracked Cali five times on four different days, but we couldn’t follow the scent trail as fast as Cali could run.  On the last trailing attempt, I even saw Cali in a yard, and started Kelsy on the scent trail ten minutes later.  As we followed, we kept getting reports that Cali was seen farther and farther away from us, so we gave up that strategy.  Instead, on the day that Cali’s family flew home from out of the country, they spread out in the neighborhood where Cali was last seen, hoping for a new reported sighting.  Within an hour, Cali’s mom spotted her in a yard.  

I pulled up just in time to see Cali’s owner perform a textbook example of our recommended calming signals.  From fifty feet away, she got Cali’s attention, and then she lay flat on the ground, not looking at Cali.  She set Cali’s favorite toy on the ground, along with a bag of Cali’s favorite treats.  Then she waited.  I’m sure Cali’s owner wanted to run to her when she spotted her in that yard.  As she laid there, for what probably seemed like an eternity, she may have wondered if my advice to lie on the pavement was the best way to catch a dog.  Cali sat and watched for a couple of minutes.  Then she cautiously started to move closer.  At about twenty-five feet away, she must have caught the scent of her owner, because I could see that her tail started to wag.  She increased her pace to a trot, and then she galloped the rest of the way, wagging her tail furiously.  She pounced on her owner and rolled on top of her joyously.  It was the perfect ending to Cali’s week of adventure.    Again I got to witness Kat Albrecht’s techniques work like a charm.  Reunions like this keep me going.  Kelsy, on the other hand, seemed disappointed that she wasn’t the one to catch the ‘Doodle.  Next time, Kelsy.

Regarding Kelsy's performance on these searches, it is difficult to assess her accuracy.  Most likely, Cali was in all of these areas at multiple times, based on the sightings and her behavior.  On the first day of scent trailing, Kelsy seemed like she was really close, at the north end of the trail in Newport Shores, at Vashon Key.  We may have even gone right past Cali in the bushes somewhere nearby.  Right at the corner of Cascade Key and Vashon Key, the trail lost its directional quality, and Cali had gone every which way.  On the last search, the day Cali was caught, Kelsy seemed to be losing her enthusiasm for Cali.   Cali had certainly been up and down that street multiple times on multiple days, making it difficult to distinguish one trail from the other.  Even if we were on the right track 100% of the time (not on an older trail) Kelsy could never have caught up to Cali while having to drag me along, unless Cali took a break, which was what we were hoping for.  The fastest we have been able to track is about two miles an hour.  Note that on the recorded tracks below, the average speed on three of them is 1.7 miles an hour.  (The one that reads 3.7 MPH includes a car ride back to the start.)   Based on the reports we received, Cali was traveling at least two to five miles an hour on average, sometimes much faster when people were trying to catch her. 

Name:		Track 040
Date:		Apr 7, 2011 10:44 am
Map: (valid until Oct 4, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		1.87 miles
Elapsed Time:		1:06:49
Avg Speed:		1.7 mph
Max Speed:		23.8 mph
Avg Pace:		35' 40" per mile
Min Altitude:		81 ft
Max Altitude:		444 ft
Start Time:		2011-04-07T17:44:24Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.550580º N
	Longitude:	122.187785º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.549398º N
	Longitude:	122.189398º W

Temp: 41F
Feels like: 41F
Cloudy
Humidity: 82%
Wind: NE at 1 mph
Updated: 4/7/11 9:45 AM PDT

Name:		Track 041
Date:		Apr 7, 2011 12:28 pm
Map: (valid until Oct 4, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		4.02 miles
Elapsed Time:		1:05:03
Avg Speed:		3.7 mph
Max Speed:		29.2 mph
Avg Pace:		16' 12" per mile
Min Altitude:		6 ft
Max Altitude:		361 ft
Start Time:		2011-04-07T19:28:06Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.553889º N
	Longitude:	122.179037º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.552701º N
	Longitude:	122.179048º W

Temp: 45F
Feels like: 42F
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 76%
Wind: NNE at 6 mph
Updated: 4/7/11 3:25 PM PDT

Name:		Track 042
Date:		Apr 8, 2011 1:20 pm
Map: (valid until Oct 5, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		3.62 miles
Elapsed Time:		2:05:16
Avg Speed:		1.7 mph
Max Speed:		38.5 mph
Avg Pace:		34' 34" per mile
Min Altitude:		0 ft
Max Altitude:		375 ft
Start Time:		2011-04-08T20:20:43Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.518705º N
	Longitude:	122.156697º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.516748º N
	Longitude:	122.143761º W

Temp: 52F
Feels like: 52F
Cloudy
Humidity: 56%
Wind: WSW at 10 mph
Updated: 4/9/11 5:45 PM PDT

Name:		Track 044
Date:		Apr 9, 2011 6:11 pm
Map: (valid until Oct 6, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		2.17 miles
Elapsed Time:		1:15:17
Avg Speed:		1.7 mph
Max Speed:		6.9 mph
Avg Pace:		34' 39" per mile
Min Altitude:		224 ft
Max Altitude:		345 ft
Start Time:		2011-04-10T01:11:05Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.557516º N
	Longitude:	122.184864º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.550231º N
	Longitude:	122.183291º W

Karma's search for Oscar

Kelsy wasn't too happy when I assembled the search gear and then left her at home.  Kelsy follows scent trails, so she is not the best sort of dog to find a cat.  In today's search for Oscar, I borrowed Karma, who has been trained to find pools of cat scent.  Karma does not follow the scent trail of a specific animal, but she just finds any and all cats.  If it's not the cat we are looking for, she just looks for another one. 

Karma found two cats today, neither of which were Oscar.  Oscar is an orange cat with short hair, and Karma found an orange cat with long hair.  Karma cleared about 16 yards in three hours.  We didn't get permission to search every yard we would have liked, but we did hit the most likely places Oscar could be hiding.  During the search, we ran into many people who had seen an orange cat.  Some weren't sure whether it was the long-haired orange cat, but other people were sure it was a short-haired orange cat. 

Even though we weren't able to find Oscar during the search, I feel confident he is still in the area.  The neighborhood has many outdoor cats, and I think that their territories have shifted somehow, and Oscar has been bumped out of his normal range.  Oscar has been missing for five days.  His owner is putting up large neon posters in the area.  He has a good chance of making it back home. 

Karma slept very well on the ride home, and she was happy to see her owner after a day's adventure.  Kelsy scolded me for leaving her at home, but she soon forgave me.

Temp: 47F
Feels like: 42F
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 79%
Wind: ESE at 9 mph
Updated: 3/26/11 6:25 PM PDT

Name:		Track 038
Date:		Mar 26, 2011 10:43 am
Map: (valid until Sep 22, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		1.60 miles
Elapsed Time:		2:42:26
Avg Speed:		0.6 mph
Max Speed:		11.6 mph
Avg Pace:		-- per mile
Min Altitude:		381 ft
Max Altitude:		442 ft
Start Time:		2011-03-26T17:43:48Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.460096º N
	Longitude:	122.165573º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.460829º N
	Longitude:	122.167147º W

Kelsy

Last night, I woke up before dawn, and I couldn't fall back to sleep right away.  Kelsy sensed that I had turned over, and she moved over next to me, seeking warmth because the air was cool.  She laid her spine against my chest and her head on my arm.  My breath moved the short fur on the back of her neck and I could smell the slightly sweet, distinct scent of her ears.  I rubbed her chest, and she fell back asleep.  As she started to dream, her feet twitched, and I felt like I was right there with her in the dream.  I could almost tell which way she was moving in her dream by the relative amplitude of her rippling muscles.  Her neck would tremble as she turned one way or the other in her dream world.  I hoped that she felt my presence and that I was with her in her dream, keeping her safe.  Eventually, her dream subsided, and we both fell into a calm sleep.

Quite often, people ask me why I do this, volunteering my time to chase down a strange dog.  I do it because I love Kelsy.  I love all three of my dogs, Porter, Tess, and Kelsy, but with Kelsy I took advantage of the opportunity to give her a meaningful and fulfilling job, using her skills to help other animals.  It is just a game to her, most of the time, but other times I think she senses what is at stake.  The times she found the remains of deceased dogs, she behaved solemnly, as though she knew the full story of predator and prey, and how the scene unfolded on that spot.  She takes her job seriously, and she is frustrated when we can't continue the search because of property lines or because the dog was picked up.  In doing this work, Kelsy is leading a fuller life.  She still enjoys sleeping on a couch just as much as the other dogs, but I wonder if Porter and Tess are dreaming of cupcakes while Kelsy is dreaming of the search.  I wish I would have known about Missing Pet Partnership years ago, so I could have given all three dogs the chance to do this work.

When Kelsy and I work together, we are a team, a unit.  I am watching everything she does, paying attention to the slightest change in the angle of her head or the tension on the leash.  When a fresh scent hits her nose, the impulse travels right up the leash as if we are wired together.  As we search, we become one person.  Through repetition, through trial and error, we are both learning how to work a scent trail and how to decipher the tricky double-backs and overlapping loops.  I am learning how to communicate with her and how not to communicate with her to stay in the groove and work an ephemeral, invisible trail.  I am allowed to enter her world, to see the world through her eyes, and through her magnificent nose.

It's hard to imagine that anyone loves anyone as much as I love Kelsy, but it is possible.  I can imagine how crushing it would be if Kelsy were suddenly missing.  My life would come to a stop.  When people are missing their dogs, if they love them half as much as I love Kelsy, then I know how hard it is, and how desperately they want this member of their family back home, safe.  Because they've never met someone like me, someone who works with a scent dog to track lost dogs, people often ask me why I do it.  I do it because I love Kelsy, and because I understand that you might love your dog almost as much.  I do it because, if Kelsy were suddenly missing, I would want someone to help me.  If Kelsy were lost, I would give anything to find her.

The Search for Mac

Mac is the first wallaby that Kelsy has tried to track.  I didn't know what to expect, and I advised Mac's owner that Kelsy had never tried this before.  Kelsy is a dog-detection dog, not a cat-detection dog, and so she is trained to follow the scent trail of a specific animal.  Her style of scent trailing usually doesn't work for cats because cats generally don't run for miles on a distinct trail.  They move a little, create a pool of scent, move a little more, and create another new pool of scent.  If Mac behaved like a dog, Kelsy might be able to track him, but if he was more like a cat, then she would probably be unsuccessful.

The trail Kelsy followed is on the map at the link below.  It starts out looping around, and then Kelsy hits on a distinct trail heading south toward home.  We hit that trail by accident after I had already called off the search.  We were just walking back to the truck when Kelsy started to pull me across the main street.  She got into her groove, for the first time that day, and she followed along the guardrail and down onto the walking trail between the main road and the lake.  She stuck to this linear scent trail like glue, ignoring dogs that she passed.  Finally, the trail led to a series of waterfront lots, which are long and narrow.  The first one had been recently mowed, obliterating the scent trail, and I didn't want to have to stop every sixty feet and request permission from each new property owner.  I advised Mac's owner to concentrate her search in that area.

If Kelsy was correct in the trail she followed, the answer to whether a wallaby acts more like a cat or a dog seems to be, a little of both.  I will be very interested to learn where they eventually find Mac.  Kelsy seemed disappointed that I stopped her in mid-trail.  Later in the evening, when I said the word "wallaby," she howled at me.

Temp: 49F
Feels like: 48F
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 60%
Wind: SSE at 4 mph
Updated: 3/20/11 2:45 PM PDT

Update:  Mac was eventually found, deceased, not far from where Kelsy's trail had ended.  Mac had entered the water, for some unknown reason, and seems to have drowned.  Kelsy could not follow the scent trail into the lake.  Mac was found 700 feet east of where Kelsy followed a trail to the water's edge, possibly pushed there by currents.

Name:		Track 037
Date:		Mar 20, 2011 1:29 pm
Map: (valid until Sep 16, 2011)		View on Map
Distance:		1.67 miles
Elapsed Time:		1:14:43
Avg Speed:		1.3 mph
Max Speed:		4.7 mph
Avg Pace:		44' 37" per mile
Min Altitude:		45 ft
Max Altitude:		331 ft
Start Time:		2011-03-20T20:29:56Z
Start Location:
	Latitude:	47.579448º N
	Longitude:	122.073612º W
End Location:
	Latitude:	47.569705º N
	Longitude:	122.066391º W