After we left Buddy’s trap, we went to Lake Meridian to play fetch. Tino had a great time. He also got a few bites of the chicken we brought for Buddy.
We went to Kent to try to catch Buddy again. He was suspicious. There was some miscommunication about the food placement and the bungee cords on the door. He didn’t go in deep enough, and the door closed too slowly.
After we left Buddy’s trap, we went to Lake Meridian to play fetch. Tino had a great time. He also got a few bites of the chicken we brought for Buddy.
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We fail, most of the time, in the sense that we don’t find the lost cat or dog. Of the more than 1100 searches my dogs and I have conducted over the last 11 years, we have only pinpointed the location of the lost pet about 25% of the time. When we fail to locate the lost pet, we still provide value and we can increase the chances the cat or dog will be found. So, even when we don’t find the lost pet, we still provide information, data, that can help.
Going by the standard of whether or not you find your lost pet, all of the other methods fail, too. Using large posters is a great way to find your pet, but in 11 years of records, it is successful about 25% of the time. Humane traps are definitely recommended in many cases, but only about 20% of lost pets are successfully caught in traps. Checking the shelters only gets your pet back about 15% of the time. Does that mean you shouldn’t check the shelters? Of course not. To find your lost cat or dog, you want to use as many tools as possible, to increase your odds of success. The search dog is at least as successful as any other recovery method you might use. We could have a very high rate of success if I only accepted requests for help when we have a high probability of being successful. If we always started within a couple of hours of the dog or cat going missing, we would probably have a 90% success rate. I hardly ever recommend a search dog in the first couple of hours because the lost cat or dog is likely to be found pretty soon by other means, and a search dog probably isn’t necessary. A good time to use the search dog is after one, two, or three days, after you have tried many of the other tools for finding lost pets. When we start later, our success rate goes down. A dog can travel far enough that we can be on the correct scent trail all day long and never catch up. A cat can climb into the engine compartment of a car and be transported miles away. When the search dog has a much lower chance of success, after a week or two, depending on the circumstances I may tell the pet’s owner that the search dog is not recommended as a tool that has much chance of success. People have asked us to come out anyway, even if it is long odds. Fozzie found a dog that had been missing 10 days. Mu found a cat in three minutes after he had been missing a week. Tino found a lost dog after five days, when I told the owner we probably wouldn’t. Even if the odds are long, we might still succeed. But working those cases with long odds brings our overall success rate down. At any rate, I never recommend the search dog as the only way to find a lost dog or cat. I provide, for free, extensive guides to all the other steps you can take. If anyone with a lost pet puts all of their hope in the search dog, and doesn’t put effort into the other search methods, they are greatly reducing their chances of getting their pet back. Even though I provide all of this written support, with clear steps people can take, in an emergency it can be hard to force yourself to sit down and read an instruction manual. Many people want the search dog to be the answer to their prayers. Many people have even told me, “We want to use the search dog so we can say we did everything we could, before we give up.” Not only is that expecting too much from the search dog, but you would be shortchanging your lost pet if you put all of your hopes on the search dog and didn’t take advantage of the other avenues of discovery. Some people, I don’t know what percentage, hire the search dog as a scape goat. If it works, great. If it doesn’t work, then it’s the search dog’s fault they didn’t get their pet back. Perhaps that’s a wise strategy as a coping mechanism, and if it helps people deal with loss, then maybe I don’t mind so much if we unfairly take the blame. Recently, people have been posting on Facebook that my search dogs actually reduce your chances of finding your lost pet. This is patently untrue and unfair. I can understand that people are upset if we aren’t successful every time. It is theoretically possible, on rare occasions, that Mu or Tino could locate the lost cat or dog and scare the pet farther away. It’s possible that Mu might fail to detect a hidden cat, or Tino could get on the wrong scent trail, because of contaminated scent article, and lead the search effort in the wrong direction. I don’t have any evidence that this has happened with these dogs, but it could theoretically happen. I do know of at least two occasions with Kelsy, during her eight year carrer, where it appears we followed a scent trail far in the wrong direction because the lost dog was found the other way. It is possible we could make a mistake. I take many precautions to avoid these types of errors. When searching for a lost cat, we try to work an area so that if we do dislodge the lost cat from a hiding place, the cat goes closer to home. When looking for a lost dog, if I have any doubts about the search dog’s performance, I will tell the dog’s owner to not put all of the search effort into the area we tracked to. For people to say that Mu ever chased their cat away from home, resulting in the cat being lost forever, is untrue. Not only is it untrue, but it can take away a valuable resource from people who might be helped by the search dog. It is possible it could have happened, but there has never been an instance where it definitely did happen. I was there and I would have seen it. Mu and I searched for a lost cat in Snoqualmie. Mu located the cat under a bucket, six houses from home. I asked the cat’s owner to check under the bucket very carefully and slowly, and I pulled Mu out of the area so that he wouldn’t spook the cat. I wasn’t there to witness it, but when the owner checked under the bucket, the cat ran off. Whether or not she peeked under there sufficiently slowly and carefully, I couldn’t say. At any rate, we knew where the cat had been, and I started a visual search to locate her again. I did locate her, in the engine compartment of an old truck. When I found her, I was slow to react. I should have shut the hood right away, and prepared a method to secure her. It was just a fraction of a second that I hesitated, and she jumped out of the truck before I could react. My fault. Not to say I did something wrong, but I could have done better. I located her again under the edge of a wood pile. I instructed the cat’s owner on calming signals, and I had her sit with the cat for twenty minutes to see if the cat would come to her. When she didn’t come, I set up a plan to get her into a humane trap. We covered the wood pile with a tarp, and set up a humane trap at an opening. We got everything lined up, and eased her toward the trap. She went halfway in, panicked, and squeezed out through a tiny gap between the tarp and the trap. In hindsight, I should have had a secondary containment set up. I could have put a net over myself and the tarp and the trap and the woodpile, so that she would be contained if she didn’t go in the trap. Again, this isn’t to say that my approach was wrong, or I made a mistake, but I could have done better. As far as I know, this cat still hasn’t been found. It is very frustrating to me that Mu and I did so much good work for this cat and still didn’t catch her. Would it be fair to say that using the search dog ruined the chances of recovering this cat? That would definitely not be fair or accurate. If the search dog had not been used, they never would have known where to set a trap, six houses away from home. Also, they could have encountered similar problems with trapping even if they never used the search dog. The case of the Snoqualmie cat is one I have many regrets about, but it would not be accurate to say that using the search dog to find the cat resulted in her never being found. There are no other searches that we have done, out of over a thousand searches with Mu, where I would say the use of a search dog definitely ruined the chances of finding the lost cat. Mu has found over 300 lost cats in seven years. In at least half of those cases, I can safely say the lost cat would not have been found by other means. Out of all of those times we found the cat, there have been case where the cat may have been found later, if the search dog was never used, it’s hard to say. In about 25% of the searches we do, the lost cat is found in the next 12 to 24 hours after the search, apparently because the cat was dislodged from a hiding place and was then seen later. It is possible that Mu could have dislodged some lost cats, and we didn’t see it, and that displacement was a key factor in the cat being found. It is also possible, in rare instances, that Mu displaced the cat and we didn’t see it, and that was ultimately why the lost cat wasn’t found. But, if we didn’t see it, then the cat’s owner didn’t see it either, and there is no way anyone could claim with certainty that the search dog was the reason the cat was never found. It is a slight possibility, but if it ever happened at all, it was a rare occurrence. When people make false criticisms of our work, it is unfair to Mu. He has done so much good for so many people and pets. Putting that aside, it is harmful to the cause of finding lost cats. If some people falsely say that using a search dog will reduce your chances of finding a cat, they will discourage some people from using the search dog, possibly ruining one of their best chances. I understand that people may be dissatisfied if they were hoping the search dog would be successful and they still don’t find their cat. Certainly I wish Mu and I would find the cat every time. We work just as hard, or harder, when we don’t find the cat. As long as we are working that hard, I would definitely rather find the cat. It doesn’t help anyone for a few people to spread false stories that Mu and I ruined their chances of finding their cat. Every year, I get over 250 requests from people asking me to bring a search dog to find their lost cat. In over half of those cases, I tell them that the search dog is not appropriate for their situation, and they would be better off using other means. I spend hundreds of hours every year consulting with cat owners, often at no charge, to help them set up the best plan to find their cat. If someone with a single experience with the search dog falsely claims that Mu was the reason their cat was never found, not only is it untrue and unfair, but it will probably take away a valuable resource from someone who might otherwise have been helped. My goal with all of my dogs is to give them the best life possible. I often feel like I’m failing Viktor. He is making progress, but he still is not fully adjusted. He often, usually, wants to be by himself, and when he does get out with the other dogs, he has a habit of picking inappropriate things to chew on, so he needs to be watched closely. I can’t walk him with the other four because, if something comes along, like a person, a car, or a dog, he won’t move. If I was walking Crazy Sky and Crazy Viktor at the same time, I would need to move Sky away from whatever approached us, but Viktor wouldn’t let me. What we really need is a fenced yard, which we don’t have the money or the space to create. I wouldn’t say Viktor is unhappy, necessarily. Certainly his life is better than if he just lived on the streets. He would most likely be dead by now if we hadn’t caught him. I need to keep pushing him to expand his comfort zone, to enjoy more things that dogs can enjoy.
Luna had been missing since Friday, when she was hit by a car and ran off. I told her owner that the chances of Tino finding her were somewhat lower because the scent trail would be three days old by the time we started. It turned out that it only took Tino two minutes to track from the point where she had been hit to where she had taken refuge in the bushes, 30 feet away. I secured Tino, to keep him away, and I crawled under the blackberries to check on Luna’s condition. We were too late. She looked like she was just resting, but she had passed away. I told Luna’s owners, who were devastated, of course. I offered to wrap her in a blanket and take her to the vet so they wouldn’t have to see their beautiful girl in that condition. I wanted them to remember her as vibrant and happy.
Normally, I let Tino get close to the dogs he finds, but I kept him back for a couple of reasons. First, I want him to enjoy his job, and I didn’t want him to associate search work with dogs being deceased. I remember when Kelsy found her first dog that had been killed by predators, and she had nightmares that night. The other reason was that Luna looked almost identical to Tino’s mother, Salma. Tino was three months old when Salma left us, adopted by a great family. I wasn’t sure how much Tino would remember about Salma, or if finding an identical dog deceased would make negative connections in his mind. I kept Tino from seeing Luna’s body as I transported her and carried her into the vet’s office. I loved Salma, and of course Tino did, too. I would like to have kept them both, but Crazy Sky and Crazy Salma would have been impossible to integrate. I’ve always wondered how much Tino thinks about his mom. Tino did a great job finding Luna, in spite of the sad outcome. If not for Tino, Luna’s family never would have found her body, deep in the brambles and brush, a black dog with a black collar in the deep shadows under an evergreen tree. They had already walked past her a dozen times without realizing she was there. Tino did excellent work, and I made sure to tell him so. On the way home, we stopped at a park to play fetch, to make the experience a positive one. We celebrated Valentino’s good work. The sad result was not Tino’s fault. I told him that I love him, not for the first time today. We enjoyed a great moment in the park, celebrating life, which is always too brief. Today was training day. Fozzie did very well! Even though had hadn’t done any search work for at least several months. He was a bit too casual, but he definitely picked up the scent and tracked it accurately. Mu did great, of course, as always. Tino was doing fine, but we had a miscommunication about where the scent trail went. Tino looked like he might have lost the scent, but uncertain. It turned out that we followed a section of the scent trail about 50 feet offset, on the other side of the creek. I should have read Tino’s signals better. We met Haas, one of the new dogs in training. I think he will do very well. He is certainly very handsome, photogenic. We had light rain and cool temps, although not as cool as Tino would have liked.
We went to try to catch Buddy, again. The light beam switch wasn’t working. We set up a rope to release the door, but Buddy figured that out right away. He was checking out the trap, he observed the new rope, and he traced it back to my location and barked at me. He is too smart. I will try to repair the door release switch. We will try again on Wednesday.
Dogs gave us a gift. It was not their intention that humans would become seven billion destroyers of the biosphere. It wasn’t their intention that we would become anything at all. But the alliance dogs made with humans made everything else possible. I can type on a computer today and post pictures of dogs on the internet all because dogs gave humans a competitive advantage. Before we allied ourselves with dogs, we were scattered primatives scraping out an existence, happy to dig some termites out of a rotten log. After wolves discovered our trash heaps, and wolves with a higher tolerance to the presence of humans evolved into dogs, everything started happening for humans. You could say it is just a correlation that the domestication of dogs coincides with all of the acheivements of human recorded history, and human expansion around the globe might have happened without dogs. There is ample evidence that the human-dog alliance for the past 15,000-30,000 years was a central cause of our cultural evolution. Certainly I believe it.
If dogs contributed to or enabled our success, it does not mean that they are responsible for humans destroying the biosphere. However, their history will come to an end, through no fault of their own, when humans torch the planet. Obviously, humans ought to stop destroying the planet for many reasons. One more reason is that we shouldn’t do that to dogs. The human canine coevolution is unique on the planet, two species choosing to be together and being wildly successful, more than either would be alone. We shouldn’t destroy that unique relationship by destroying the planet. We certainly have the knowledge and the ability to stop killing the earth, if we just find the will. We shouldn’t waste the gift we have been given. It shouldn’t be the dog’s legacy that dogs invented humans and humans blew up the world. I have lost Mu about a hundred times. Each time it happens, I think, “Okay, next time I’m not going to be fooled.” Then I trick myself again. It happens like this. I think Mu is supposed to be in the living room, but I look around and don’t see him. I check the fireplace and his favorite sleeping spots on the couches. Sometimes he sprawls on the floor. Did I forget to let him in when we went outside? I check the bedroom. A couple of times a dog has gone into the bathroom and bumped the door closed, becoming trapped. I’m checking the bathroom and Mu comes up behind me, like, What are you looking for? I say, “Mu, where were you? Didn’t you hear me calling?” Then I remember. There is a chair in the living room that has a high back, and it’s up against a large window. When Mu sits in this chair, he is dark brown, enveloped in shadow, against the blinding brightness outside. You can look right at him and not see him. He was probably sitting in the chair the whole time, thinking, I’m right here. Are you blind? Hopefully, next time I lose Mu, I will check the chair first before I panic.
Today Mu searched for a lost cat in Monroe. He was doing a great job until we came upon the yellow jackets. I’m not sure if one of them actually bit him. In the past, Mu has been bitten by yellow jackets at least 200 times. There was that house near Lake Sammamish, with woods all around, where we encountered three hives. One time I stepped on a yellow jacket nest in the ground, and they swarmed on Mu. Another time, there were the yellow jackets under that deck. It’s very reasonable for Mu to be tired of blackberries and yellow jackets.
On this day, the yellow jackets seemed to be attracted to the rotting apples in people’s yards. They will also visit decaying flesh. Mu worked hard for about 90 minutes, and then he just kept steering me toward the car with his tail tucked between his legs. I don’t like to see him upset. We called off the search, and I gave the cat’s owner tips on what steps to take next. At least Mu didn’t find any remains this time. To try to make it up to Mu, I took him to the lake for some fetch. He was happy to play, and I think it made the day better for him. |
James Branson
Principal at Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue, volunteer at Useless Bay Sanctuary, author of A Voice for the Lost Archives
December 2019
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