Chapter 30--Viktor, the Ultimate Test
Viktor is a wonderful little dog who has been let down by the people in his life. Useless Bay Sanctuary volunteers captured Viktor once as he roamed loose for five weeks. After a week in a foster home, Viktor escaped again, and UBS volunteers invested over 200 volunteer hours over seven days to capture him again. Besides keeping Viktor safe, catching him twice was a learning experience.
We first learned of Viktor on September 15th, 2015, when Dina saw him while she was looking for a different dog. Dina lured Viktor within about five feet, with food, but she had to leave for work. Other volunteers came to the area quickly, but Viktor sensed that something was up. He bolted at least 10 blocks north. Volunteers searched for hours, but couldn't locate him again. The first volunteers to find him after Dina left said they did not approach him, but I suspect they may have tried to get close to him, causing him to bolt. Importantly, Dina took a picture of him when she first saw him, and that helped us in several ways. It enabled us to put up posters for him, asking for more sightings. It helped volunteers know what to look for. Also, because of the picture, we were able to learn that Viktor had escaped from an adoption event in south Everett, for a local rescue. Viktor started his adventure on August 23rd, 2 miles north of where Dina encountered him. We learned that he was a neutered male from a shelter in California, and he had just been transported to Washington on August 22nd. He was about five years old. The rescue was able to provide clearer pictures of him. (We also learned, after a later vet visit and x-rays, that Viktor had a fractured femur at some point prior to coming to Washington. It had healed wrong, and was probably the reason why people noticed him limping some times.)
Because we had clear pictures of him, we were able to recognize him when someone posted on the Lost Dogs of Snohomish County Facebook page about a black dog seen wandering in Lynnwood, miles away from where Dina first saw him.
"Found this guy in Lynnwood at 196th and 24th. He won't come to me even for treats. Followed and lost him on a culdesac 202nd Pl NE off of 24 Ave W. Medium sized dog, long curled tail."
Dina and I went to that area soon after the reported sighting. We put up dozens of posters in that area, which generated new sightings of him. Dina and I spent hours working the area, going up and down all the dead ends within five blocks of the last sighting. We used a phone app to show each other our GPS locations the whole time, so that we could cover the area most efficiently. Because Viktor seemed to always be heading south, we put up dozens of posters south of the last sighting of him. We created a private Facebook page for the search team, and a public Facebook page for Viktor so that anyone could share information. We also posted an ad on craigslist, and posted about Viktor on several Facebook pages for lost dogs.
On the 18th, someone posted on a Shoreline Facebook page that Viktor had been sleeping in her front yard. This was south of all the signs we had put up, and about 10 miles away from the point of escape. We were busy at the time, chasing Jackson around Kirkland, so we couldn't devote much time to searching that area. I did look all around there for a few hours, with no luck. We would later learn that Viktor arrived in the Queen Anne Hill neighborhood on or before September 22nd. Viktor travel 22 miles in a month, and then he hung around Queen Anne Hill for at least 8 days before we caught him.
We received a possible sighting in North Seattle, near the Seattle Golf Club, on September 23rd. We received another call about a dog in Mountlake Terrace. In hindsight, this almost definitely was not him. A black dog roamed that area and generated many false sightings. Septemeber 28th, we got a couple of calls about Viktor. The descriptions matched, so we searched the area, the north slope of Queen Anne Hill, and put up dozens of posters. With the posters up, with my number on them, I started receiving at least a dozen calls a day. The typical report would say, "I saw this dog sleeping in someone's yard. I went to see if he needed help or if he was lost, and he took off down the street." From the 28th to October 1st, I was just a few minutes behind him most of the time. He roamed an area of about 2 square miles, with a cemetery, woodsy parks and ravines, alleys, and landscaped yards to hide in.
On October 1st, after hours of searching, I got a call that Viktor was just a block away from me, near 2nd Ave North and Howe Street. I got there in seconds, but didn't see him. It took me another five minutes to pinpoint him, sitting in someone's yard. I watched him for a bit, to see how he was acting. He just observed people, and as long as people didn't notice him, he stayed put. When someone spooked him from his resting place, I followed him for half a block to a yard that was about three feet above street level. I had Fozzie with me as a Magnet Dog, and I tried walking past Victor with Fozzie on a leash. As we passed him twice, Viktor showed no interest in Fozzie. I put Fozzie back in the car, and then I approached Viktor casually--that is to say, I pretended I did not see him and was just walking by. I dropped some treats behind me. He checked out the treats, finding them with his nose. After he ate them, I made another pass and dropped more treats. Eventually, I sat down on the steps and just tossed him treats, each time a little closer to me. He came within a foot or so. I called for assistance through Facebook and texting, looking for people to keep pedestrians away and keep an eye on Viktor if he took off. I had several ideas for catching him, but I didn't want to try them until I had assistance. Volunteers said they could help, but it would take them at least 40 minutes to get there. Although I tried to keep Viktor in one place, he wandered off, headed north toward streets where we had previous sightings. Apparently Viktor had regular routes he preferred to use.
I had one of Viktor's Lost Dog posters taped to the back window of my car, so I was driving along with a picture of Viktor while he trotted along the sidewalk ahead of me. A teenager walking down the street noticed Viktor, then noticed the poster on my car. He pointed and then started running toward Viktor. I was able to get his attention and ask him not to chase Viktor. All the posters all over Queen Anne, plus the one on my car, said Do Not Chase. People have a hard time following that advice. Viktor settled in a yard at 1st Ave North and Lynn Street. I didn't have any water with me, but I thought he might be thirsty from the hot dogs I had been feeding him. I asked a neighbor if I could get a cheap plastic container with some water in it for Viktor, and she came out with a large stainless steel bowl full of water. I told her I would bring it back when I was done. Viktor did appreciate the water. A volunteer, Yolanda, had shown up at that point, and I asked her to keep pedestrians from disturbing Viktor. She directed them to cross to the other side of the street. Dina showed up with a humane trap, and we set it up not far from Viktor. He got up and walked past it, just giving it a sniff on the way by.
I followed Viktor on foot. Actually, I walked in front of him, predicting where he would go by the previous sightings. I was right, mostly. When Viktor wanted to cross a busy street, I went ahead of him and stopped traffic. I hung out with him in the yard at 1st and Queen Anne Boulevard for a while. I snapped a good picture that showed his whole body and face very clearly, with good light, in case it was needed later. The posters we were using had an okay picture that was a little dark and hard to see. Viktor wandered down the hill, and Dina hauled the trap around to put it in front of him. He walked past it again. He was probably getting a little full at that point. Alisa brought me hot rotisserie chicken pieces in a cup. Viktor really liked that. Dina set up the trap in a new location. When Viktor started to go the other way, I used the hot, fresh chicken to lead him toward the trap. He got the hang of it, and he followed me right down the sidewalk to the location of the trap at Warren Ave and Raye Street. Many people watched from a distance as Viktor approached the trap. He smelled the large pile of hot chicken in the end of the trap, and he followed the trail of chicken bits right in. When the door closed, he was startled, and he whined a little. Some of the neighbors cheered when Viktor was caught. It happened so fast that Dina was looking away at the moment and didn't get to witness it. Catching Viktor the first time involved at least a hundred volunteer hours from at least 10 volunteers.
I had to get a ride back to my car, many blocks away. Then we loaded Viktor in and I took him home. I stopped at the pet store along the way, and got him a harness and a Martingale collar. When we got to the house, I carried the whole trap inside before opening it. Viktor allowed me to touch him or pet him, but he made it clear he would prefer to be left alone. To try to help him relax, I slept on the floor with my back to him, to be as non-threatening as possible. Over the next seven days, I tried various ways to help Viktor relax and remember how to be a normal dog. I tried toys, but he was not interested. He would tolerate my friendly little poodle, but he didn't want to interact at all. He liked food, and could be motivated somewhat by treats. He acted depressed, and always seemed to be looking around for a strategy to escape. I walked him on two leashes for safety. I tried to put a GPS unit on him, but I could not get it to work in four days of fiddling with it and contacting tech support. I of course put a scent article in the freezer in case we needed it for the scent trailing dog.
On October 11th, I went into Viktor's room and found that he had escaped through the small cat door. This door must have been a tight squeeze for Viktor, and I never guessed he would have been able to fit through it. The cat door had been boarded up from the inside and the outside, and it was covered on the inside by various items stored in front of it. From the inside, there would have been no indication that a cat door even existed. Viktor must have smelled air coming through a crack or something. He pushed away the containers in front of the cat door, pried off the interior board, and pushed out the exterior board. I had anticipated that Viktor would try to escape somehow, but I never thought he would get out through the cat door. Obviously, I was wrong.
Immediately, I contacted UBS board members and posted online that Viktor had escaped. While volunteers came to the area to help, I started Kelsy on the scent trail. Kelsy followed the scent down the driveway, through a neighboring park, in a loop about five blocks across, and back to the house. Apparently, Viktor hung around the neighborhood a little while before deciding to move on. By that time, the day was getting way too warm for a search dog to work, unusually warm for mid October, so Kelsy and I had to stop. As it turned out, we would later learn that Viktor was already four miles away by that afternoon, so it would have been unlikely that Kelsy and I ever could have caught up to him. When we received sightings later, it was always in places where Viktor had been circling and backtracking, creating difficult trails for a scent dog to follow. I always kept Kelsy in mind, in case she might be helpful, but posters and volunteers were working better than a search dog would have under those circumstances, given Viktor's behavior and the weather conditions.
Volunteers--Terri, Dina, Bonnie, Dori, Tonja, and Nancy--got posters up all over Burien within a couple of hours. By that time, Viktor was miles outside of the zone where we put the posters, but we didn't know that then. I was sure we would get some sightings, and I had previous commitments, so I stopped searching after eight hours. On Monday, most volunteers were not available. I spent the day searching by car and on foot, and putting up additional posters. I and others made sure Viktor was on Facebook and craigslist, and local blogs. It was a long, sad day, with no news of Viktor. I felt confident we would eventually get reports of him, based on his previous behavior while roaming five weeks across five cities, but the wait was excruciating.
On the morning of the 13th, the third day, I was up very early to go out and search. I got a call before dawn that Viktor had been seen in a carport in West Seattle, near Brandon and 36th. A person going to work startled him when she went to get in her car. Fozzie, the magnet dog, and I got to the area within two hours of the sighting. I can't remember if the witness got my number from the West Seattle Blog or from craigslist. I put up posters in the area, and drove around. I got another call of sightings at 10 at Myrtle and 37th. I got there in just a few minutes, but did not see him. I spent about 10 hours that day looking for Viktor. I received at least a dozen calls, but couldn't catch up to him. Again, using Kelsy didn't seem feasible because of the warm temperatures and all of the backtracking and circling. The evening of the 13th, several volunteers helped me with an Intersection Alert from 4 to 7 PM. We received several reports of sightings from people who pulled over to talk to us, but they were older sightings than the most recent information we had. The sightings were still helpful. For one thing, they confirmed that Viktor traveled far from home very soon after his escape, so catching up to him with the search dog would have been difficult. I'm certain that we raised awareness of Viktor, even if we didn't get any fresh sightings while we were there at the intersection of 35th and Morgan.
The morning of the 14th, I got a call as I was driving to the area. Viktor was seen near 36th and Juneau, not far from the previous sightings. I got there in just a couple of minutes, and there he was, trotting down the sidewalk. I hopped out and tossed pieces of hot dog to him. This caught his attention and brought him right to me. Viktor came right up to me while I was sitting on the ground. I was so relieved to see him again and know he was uninjured. I made a grab for his collar, but it slipped out of my hand when he jerked away with a hurt expression. I was able to get him to come back to me. I called the person who had called me, and asked if they had any treats I could have, like tuna or something. They said they would bring something. Then I remembered I had a bag of dog treats in my metal tool box. I kept Viktor close with the treats. He stayed out of reach because I had grabbed at him once. The man who brought treats also brought a fishing net, the kind you scoop a fish out of the water with after you catch it with a fishing pole. I saw what he was thinking. I walked over to him to look at the net. It obviously was not big enough to catch Viktor. The width of the opening was only about two thirds of Viktor's length. I told the man I had experience catching a dog with a similar net, and it was not as easy as you might imagine. Viktor seemed to be getting full, so I stopped with the treats for a while and returned to my car. Help was on the way, and i wanted spotters around when I made the next attempt to get him. The guy with the net lured Viktor over with some food. I thought Viktor would just move on. When I saw that Viktor was moving closer to this person, I went over and asked him a second time not to try the net. He said he was sure it would work. I asked him a third time not to try the net on V. The man whacked Viktor with the net frame, and Viktor took off running south. Linda and Sharon were almost there, so I called and asked them to watch for Viktor to the south. They spotted him and followed him to the park with the water towers, about six blocks south of Juneau. Viktor went under the fence into the area around the water tower that is closed to the public. Linda pointed out that Viktor was inside the fence. I asked her to give V some space, but she kept moving close to the fence. V wriggled under the fence in another location and took off down 35th, a relatively busy street. Viktor ran toward some construction workers who made a grab at him, forcing V into traffic on 35th. He was almost hit twice as he crossed to the east side of 35th. I actually ran a red light, after carefully looking both ways, in order to keep up with Viktor. I almost had Viktor, and he ran off because people who wanted to help would not listen to what I was telling them. I have seven years experience catching difficult dogs. I have specific training for situations like this. I have LOST PET RESCUE on the back of my jacket. I spoke to people reasonably and calmly, and they still would not listen to what I said. This is the reason that volunteers are needed who know the game plan and understand that they should not simply act on their own impulses. While it is often helpful when people spontaneously volunteer to help a lost dog, they are much more effective when they can be persuaded to follow instructions.
We followed Viktor around all day, and fed him lots of treats. When we would lose track of him for a bit, having several volunteers in the area helped us locate him again quickly. Also, knowing his preferences for places to rest helped us know where to look. I found that most people would have walked right by him if they did not know his preferred type of hiding place. Viktor could lay down in tall grass and become invisible from the street. He would hide in the rain garden swales along the streets. He chose places where he had at least two escape routes. Bonnie tried approaching him in a field, and he ran off fairly quickly, possibly because of other people, including me, moving around in the background. Bonnie approached him in another field, and he ran off because he was surprised when he looked up and saw her. Dori lured Viktor to her twice, almost within reach. During one of Dori's attempts to lure Viktor, many people were watching. I had my body turned to the side, and I was holding still, using calming body language. Linda and Sharon were 80 feet away in a car, watching. Three maintenance workers were lined up at the curb, watching Viktor, with their bodies squared toward him, obviously paying attention to Viktor, not using calming signals. I asked Bonnie to ask the men to move away, which she did. Sharon and Linda asked the men to stay put, and they stayed there. Viktor came close to Dori, but eventually spooked and ran off. I can't know for sure if it was because of the men, but it seems likely. I called Linda and let her know that if Bonnie asked them to do anything in the future, they should be sure to do it because Bonnie has years of experience in this sort of thing. Linda and Sharon got mad and left. In a rescue operation like this, volunteers will have varying ideas of how to catch a dog. I can advise them based on my experience. I try not to alienate people by giving advice contrary to their instincts, but it often happens that people become upset when they feel that your actions are hurting the chances of recovering the dog. If then knew everything I knew, they would trust my judgment, but it's hard to convey all my years of experience in a few short sentences.
So, Viktor took off, and it took us a long time to find him again. I went home and got two traps and the big net. Bonnie had an idea, similar to an idea I had been considering. Bonnie suggested we set up the trap in a narrow spot behind the houses, between a retaining wall and the fence to the mortuary. We had witnessed Viktor using this passage many times. It was an escape route between the safe zones of the undeveloped field and the grassy area behind the mortuary. I set up the trap against the retaining wall, and I covered the gap between the wall and the fence with the big net. The idea was that Viktor would come trotting along his safe route and find it blocked off except for a small opening, which would turn out to be the humane trap. We first did this with Talulabell. If Viktor wanted to go back, there would be a bunch of people blocking his way. We had 13 volunteers for this. Dina and Tonja set up on the far side of the net, in case Viktor managed to get under the net somehow. It was staked down to the ground, but you never know. Tanya and a friend were near the opening, with instructions to ignore Viktor unless he tried to get past them. Then they should make themselves know and encourage him to go into the chute behind the houses. A group of four volunteers was set up to be a moving wall, acting like they just happened to be there, but moving to keep Viktor going into the chute. Two more volunteers were set up on the street just outside the swale where Viktor was sleeping. They would herd him toward the field. The theory was that Viktor was in the habit of using that narrow passageway as an escape route, so he would go that way to stay away from us. Dori and I came up from the south to get Viktor started in the right direction. Unfortunately, Viktor was sound asleep in the ditch, and when we woke him up, he was startled and panicked. He ran west, the wrong way, right past the people who were intended to herd him into the chute. I thought he would go northeast, toward his safe route. If he had seen us coming, and had time to think about it, then he probably would have gone toward the trap. Instead, because he panicked, he ran the wrong way, away from us. In hindsight, I should have used my flashlight to locate him and made sure he was aware of our approach so he would have time to choose the right way to go, toward his safe passage. The volunteers followed Viktor around for a while. I could tell that some of them were primed to chase after him. I had to ask them, several times, not to chase him. I was the last one of us to see Viktor that night. He was trotting down the hill to the east, across Sylvan way, toward a new neighborhood. I made the decision to let him go, to leave him alone for the night and let him rest. I got a call later that night that he was seen five blocks north of where I last saw him.
On the 14th, I set up a list of things to do. As I was searching for Viktor, I was conscious of my own fatigue and stress. I felt guilty, because I was responsible for losing Viktor. When my clients are in this situation, I advise them to write things down because they may have diminished concentration and memory. I certainly found that to be the case with me. In the seven days Viktor was on the run, I spent 80 hours looking for him, in addition to at least 100 hours other volunteers contributed. I've worked 80 hours a week in the past when I worked overtime or when I held two jobs, but this was harder. I was always questioning my decisions, wondering if the wrong choice would get Viktor killed. Like the guy with the net. I should have walked up to him and yanked the net out of his hands. Trying to be reasonable with him ended up with Viktor running into traffic and nearly being hit by two cars. I was trying to make all the best decisions while being aware of my diminished capacity. Not being able to sleep much or sleep well also contributed to my fatigue and stress. I was not eating right. I was not getting things done at home. I was not spending time with my other four dogs, and they were telling me that they did not like being ignored. One way I tried to focus my thoughts was to set up a list of actions and potential actions:
1. Signs up farther out.
2. Contact Get Jesse about Whistle failure.
3. Check West Seattle blog regularly.
4. New CL ad.
5. Research cost for programmable traffic sign.
6. Set up a schedule for volunteers to be on call in the area.
7. Set up a log of sightings.
When I got home on the night of the 14th, after nearly catching Viktor so many times, watching him all day long, I was so exhausted that I wasn't functioning right. I nearly passed out walking from the car to the house. I fell asleep fast, but it wasn't a restful sleep.
The morning of the 15th, I drove to the area of the last sighting, at 31st and Raymond. As I was approaching the little park there, I got a call from someone who saw Viktor. I pulled up and saw the person calling me, and then I saw Viktor. I got out and tossed chunks of hot dog to him. He came right up to me, although he stayed a safe distance. This was a fine arrangement for Viktor. As someone joked to me, he considered me to be meals on wheels, and it was convenient for him that I followed him everywhere he went and brought him treats. I didn't attempt to capture him at that meeting because I didn't have backup. When he wandered away again, I let him go and watched his movements. I explained to people who saw him wandering that we were working on a capture plan.
I actually can't remember all that happened on the 15th. I know I was very tired. At one point, I either blacked out for a moment or I had some sort of hallucination. I remember seeing a woman in the little park just east of the entrance to the cemetery. She was walking two small dogs. I had the thought of giving her a flier for Viktor. I looked down, and then I got out of my car to give her the flier, and she had disappeared. There were no cars or buildings to obscure my view for fifty feet in any direction, but she had vanished. Did I space out for a second and not realize it? Or was the woman with the two dogs never really there?
I do know for sure that Dina came to that area later in the day. She located Viktor and was giving him hot dogs. She gave him 1.5 valium, hoping he would fall asleep so we could grab him. He wandered off, and several volunteers, including Alisa and Renee, kept track of him. Viktor settled against the side of a house at 30th and Graham. When he would lay down next to the house, the tall ground cover completely hid him from view. I'm not sure who's idea it was, but Dina and I decided to try using the large net to trap Viktor. Alisa stood just around the corner of the house, out of sight. She was going to block his exit if he tried to squeeze between a shrub and the house. We got the net out of my car and planned how we would sneak up on Viktor, hidden by the fence. At first, I planned for us to rush up and block him off. Dina imagined she might trip over the edge of the large net and blow our chance. Then I imagined how we could walk up slowly and quietly until I was past him, and then I would move quickly toward the wall, blocking him in. We got it all set up, and we practiced moving in on an imaginary Viktor, represented by my jacket on the ground. A crowd had gathered and at least two dozen people watched us from windows and front porches. Sindy was there, too, trying to direct people around our operation. People were very resistant to go around. She had to explain it to them three times before they would understand why we would ask them to cross the street. Renee sat in a parked car and watched Viktor. She gave us a thumbs up gesture if Viktor's head was down, and she held out her palm for us to stop if he raised his head. Just as we were about to try putting the net on Viktor, Dina stopped the operation and said she didn't feel comfortable doing it. She imagined too many ways it could go wrong. We decided to try calming signals, rotisserie chicken, hot dogs, and drugs again.
Viktor let me come up and sit down about six feet away from him. I leaned against a fence. I got him to come within a foot by tossing bits of hot dog to him. He took the pill, and he wanted to fall asleep, but he moved a little way away from me before settling in for a nap. A man in a red shirt watched us for over an hour, and he kept moving and bobbing up and down, getting Viktor's attention. I texted with Dina, in oder to remain quiet. She brought me a snappy snare by sneaking up along the fence line out of sight of Viktor. When I ran out of hot dogs, Renee went and got a rotisserie chicken. Dina brought it to me, again sneaking up along the fence line. She also brought my jacket because sitting on the ground made me cold. Every time Viktor would start to nod off, someone would walk close to us or a child would scream. I sat there beside him, stuffing him with food for over an hour. Two school buses let out right in front of us, one at 6:00 and one at 6:20, waking Viktor up but not scaring him away. Who gets out of school at 6:20? As I sat there beside Viktor, waiting for an oportunity, dozens of people watched the spectacle, and they refused to be quiet. Dina texted me that she would need to leave soon and that her keys were in my jacket pocket. I don't know why,probably because I was exhausted, but I tossed Dina's keys onto the grass about six feet away. For some reason, this made Viktor get up and move away. Dozens of people and school buses and screaming children didn't scare him away, but tossing keys quietly onto the grass spooked him. Viktor ran off, and we let him go for the night, confident that the drugs had worn off by then, and wouldn't make him too groggy to avoid cars. After Viktor took off, all the people disappeared, and the intersections was as quiet as a cemetery.
We made improvements to our posters by taking one of Viktor's pictures and painting the background white. This made him much easier to distinguish in the pictures. I used the picture I had taken at Queen Anne and 1st Ave North. It showed his ears, one up and one down, and his big-dog body on his little short legs. I had a poster on the back of my car that had the improved picture of Viktor and bold lettering that said Do Not Chase. The morning of the 16th, Friday, the 6th day of Viktor's latest adventure, I received several calls about him and found him near 31st and Graham, a block away from where I'd left him the previous night. I had hot dogs and valium, and I wanted to lead him to the cemetery, three blocks south, so that he could settle down and take a nap without a crowd of people making him nervous. I took my time leading him there because I was waiting for reinforcements. Bonnie and Amy were coming in a little while. I lost track of Viktor for a little while and then found him again. I led him down the sidewalk, five feet at a time, by dropping bits of hot dog in front of him, making a trail toward the cemetery. Bonnie and Amy talked to the kids getting out of school to let them know what we were doing and ask them to give us some space. It felt like it took a long time to get him to the cemetery, but it may have been about 45 minutes or so.
When we reached the cemetery, I sat down by the grave marker of Gary Cooper, but it wasn't High Noon, more like two in the afternoon. I gave Viktor two vallium in bits of hot dog. For the next hour or so, we moved slowly through the cemetery, sitting by this tree or that tree, moving about twenty feet each time. Viktor rolled on the grass and stretched. He seemed drowsy, but he never quite went to sleep. Amy stood guard on Sylvan Way below us, in case Viktor decided to go that way. I could get Viktor close to me with treats, but whenever he got drowsy, he would move at least six feet away before settling down to maybe take a nap. I was able to take a few nice pictures of him in the parklike cemetery, and video of him rolling around in the grass. It was a nice day, a warm afternoon for that time of year, with high, wispy clouds swooping like brush strokes. I enjoyed hanging out with Viktor, but he wasn't giving me an opportunity to grab him. At one point, I got up and walked away from him, and now I can't remember what my reason was. I think my plan was to walk away towards the north, circle around, and sneak up from the south because the north wind would keep him from smelling me as I approached. I remembered sneaking up on Smilla in the cemetery in Renton, getting within three feet of her, quietly, and then she suddenly woke up, probably because she smelled me. As I was telling Bonnie and Amy my plan of sneaking up on Viktor, Amy suggested that I slowly roll toward Viktor. Amy said she had caught several dogs that way, sometimes rolling across an entire field. This was a variation of calming signals. I had tried just lying down on the ground, and dogs had come up to check me out, but I had never rolled up to a dog before. I was willing to give it a try. As I approached from the south, Viktor saw me right away, so sneaking up on him was out of the question. I was getting ready to try to roll across the cemetery toward him--fortunately, all the grave markers were flat on the ground--but Viktor decided to wander back toward the noisy, busy housing development.
Viktor settled somewhere out of sight just north of the cemetery. It took us a while to locate him in the landscape. Bonnie wanted to try the snappy snare. I have had a low success rate with the snappy snare. Bonnie had been practicing on her dogs, makiing a game of it where they would get treats when she caught them, so I figured Bonnie would have a much better chance of using the snare successfully. I stood watch behind Viktor, and I signaled to Bonnie when she should approach and when she should stop. Bonnie sneaked up along the edge of the grass, near a fence and a tall hedge. She was in shadow, less visible, and downwind so that Viktor wouldn't smell someone approaching. I had set my package of hot dogs down, in order to have less stuff in my pockets, and the crows had found the package and were attacking it, making a ruckus. I couldn't decide if this was a distraction or if the crows were making cover noise that would help disguise Bonnie's approach. Viktor seemed to ignore it. Bonnie crept within striking distance, and Viktor pipped his head up to chew on some fleas on his flank. He was looking away from Bonnie, unaware she was three feet away. His head came back to a normal resting position, giving Bonnie the perfect target for the snappy snare, but in a split second, Viktor decided to bite the fleas more, and his head moved away from the point Bonnie was aiming for. The snare glanced off his neck. Of course, he spooked and ran, again. At least it wasn't me that spooked him.
It took us about twenty minutes to find him again, in the big park in the center of the housing development, near 31st and Graham where we started the day. Bonnie was of course distressed that she had just missed her chance to catch Viktor, but she was relieved that we found him again. He was in a swale near the play equipment, wedged between a boulder and the base of a red osier dogwood. Mostly he slept, lifting his head now and then. I got the idea that if we had ten people, we could surround him and pounce on him in the swale. This was a desperate measure, and in hindsight it seems somewhat foolish. I asked for volunteers on Facebook, and it is probably fortunate that I could not round up enough volunteers quickly. Viktor seemed really sound asleep in the ditch. I imagined how I could sneak up on him from the back side of the boulder and then quickly reach over and grab him. I started to sneak up, slowly and quietly, and Viktor was unaware that I was just about eight feet away from me. Bonnie watched me from a distance. A child started to approach the play equipment, inexplicably screaming as she approached. Why do all these children scream? They probably don't even know. It seems to be a meme that spreads like a virus, children randomly screaming without warning and without cause. I tried to convey to Bonnie to stop the screaming child from ruining my chance, using sign language. I don't know sign language, so I gave Bonnie the middle finger and pointed over my shoulder to the screamer. I intended to say, "Bonnie, please go around the play equipment, quickly, and tell that child to f**k off." From the look on Bonnie's face, she seemed perplexed about the message I was trying to convey, possibly misunderstanding, justifiably, whether the middle finger was a gesture directed at her for some reason. In a moment, it didn't matter any more because Viktor's head popped up to check out the screaming child, and he looked up right at me. I looked away, like, "I'm not doin' nothin'. I just happened to be standing here. I wasn't thinking about pouncing on you while you slept." Viktor wasn't buying it, and he moved away in the ditch.
Then I went and got the humane trap. I didn't think it would work, since we had already caught Viktor in the humane trap once. It wouldn't hurt to try it, though. I set it up near the swale, with some tripe as bait. Viktor eventually got out of the swale and walked toward where Bonnie happened to be standing. She tried calming signals and treats, and Viktor was coming closer until someone else came along and scared him away. He went to a different swale, half a block away, and settled down for a nap. You would never know he was there if you hadn't seen him go in. I moved the trap over to where he was sleeping, but every dog that came by stole the bait meant for Viktor. As it got dark, Viktor wandered away again. Dori made another attempt at calming signals and treats, much later, but again a pedestrian came along and disrupted the process. We left Viktor's neighborhood, Friday night, and planned on making a big attempt on Sunday. We would have hopefully a dozen volunteers, and we would have back up plans. We would make up signs to ask people to stay quiet and stay away, and we would have volunteers to redirect people as much as possible. Satureday would be a day of observing Viktor and keeping people from chasing him, and Sunday would be the official capture day, with traps and nets and the whole nine yards. Even though I was sad about missing so many chances to catch Viktor, I was encouraged that he stayed in the area and let us find him fairly quickly. I was optimistic about our chances of catching him. I actually slept that night better than I had in a while.
Saturday, Dawna and I arrived at about the same time, and I just got a call that he was sighted in the same area. We looked around, but it too another hour before Dawna finally located him. I went there and fed him hot dogs. He was happy to see me, and not overly cautious or worried. Even after he finished his hot dogs, he just rested on the grass near me. I think that was the life Viktor wanted: wandering the streets and having his dedicated catering service bring him tasty treats everywhere he went. When Viktor wandered off, I let him go. This was just going to be a day of observation and building trust. I made half-page fliers telling people what we were doing with Viktor and asking them not to chase him. About an hour later, Dawna brought me a beef soft taco from Taco Time, and some mexi-fries. I was glad for the Meki-fries, but being a vegetarian, I decided to give the taco to Viktor. I don't know why they call it a taco when it looks like a burrito. Anyway, I unwrapped it and placed it on the ground in front of Viktor. He looked like it was Christmas. He gentle picked up the whole taco, and trotted off a little way behind a bush to enjoy his treasure. As he walked away, you could see the taco sticking out on either side. I looked at that spot after he was done with his meal, and you could see that he carefully picked out the lettuce and left it behind. Viktor wandered off again, and I followed along, handing out fliers and keeping people away from him. About an hour later, Dawna brought him a second Taco. We waited until he woke up from his nap, and then I sat down near him and broke off pieces of the taco to toss to him. He sure did like those beef soft tacos. When I tossed one chunk of it to him he didn't really react the way I would expect a dog to. If I tossed part of a taco to one of my dogs, he would chomp it in mid air and swallow it in a fraction of a second. Although Viktor did enjoy his tacos, he just let this piece of taco land right on his head. Then he ate it off the ground after the bounce. He had a smear of sour cream on his head for a while after that.
Dawna offered to stay a while and keep an eye on Viktor while I went home and let my dogs out. Then I would come back for the night shift and Dawna could leave for the day. After about an hour, I got the message from Dawna that Viktor was napping between two houses in a perfect place to box him in. I came back as quick as I could, and he was still sleeping there. He was right up against a house, sound asleep. The two houses were about 12 feet apart. The far end of the space was fenced off. Our big net would close off that space. I got the net out of my car and tried folding it different ways so that it would be easy to hold and also so it would stay down on the ground so Viktor wouldn't just scoot under it. I went over the plan with Dawna a couple of times, and in about five minutes, we were ready to go. I could picture this plan working very well. Sometimes, like when I was thinking of having ten people gang-tackle Viktor, I can't really picture how something will work out, but I just hope for the best. As we got ready with the net, I had a clear image of it working. It was possible that Viktor could get under the net, but there was a good chance it would work. We approached very quietly, keeping the net off the ground so it wouldn't make any dragging noises. It rained gently, masking our footsteps with white noise. The sun was setting behind the overcast sky, and the twillight helped us be less noticeable. Viktor didn't move a muscle as we moved the net in place. He was trapped, but he was still asleep. I moved forward to put the net right over him, and as I stepped on the gravel, the noise woke him up. He panicked and ran immediately. He was focused on me and tried to get away from me, going closer to Dawna, who was around the corner of the house. Viktor ran right into the net and got himself tangled up. He was struggling to get himself free, and I pounced on him. I threw my body on his little 35-pound body and smothered him. He squirmed in the net. I grabbed his harness with one hand and his collar with the other hand. He had gotten his head out of the net and was about to escape again when I got a firm grip on him. He nipped my arm as he struggled. He also pooped and peed all over the place as he panicked. I grabbed him up under my arm, I'm not sure quite how, and I carried him to my car with one hand firmly on the harness and the other on his collar. Dawna opened the back hatch, I climbed in, and Dawna closed us in the car. Viktor was caught. We both smelled terrible, but he was caught. He went up to the front passenger seat and just curled up and laid down. It was a struggle for me to get between the two front seats, but I wasn't about to open any doors, and I eventually got into the drivers seat.
There was my Viktor, on the seat beside me. I was so relieved and happy to see him. He seemed disappointed at being caught, and not at all happy about being trapped in the car with me. He didn't fight or struggle, though. I rolled down the window just enough to talk to Dawna, and I thanked her for spotting the opportunity and helping me catch Viktor. At that point, I was pretty sure Viktor would spend the rest of his life with me, whether he wanted to or not. I knew he would prefer to just wander the streets and be fed tacos, but I couldn't imagine anyone else being able to manage a dog so determined to escape. A fenced yard wouldn't hold him. Viktor came home with me, and I used two leashes, one on his collar and one on his harness, as I escorted him into the house and into a closed kennel inside the house. Viktor is now kenneled whenever he is in the house, which seems to suit him just fine. It has now been two weeks since we captured him the second time, and he is only warming up to me very slowly, if at all. He wears two GPS trackers, and he is always walked on two leashes. I can pet him, but he doesn't admit to liking it. I sit beside his open kennel and read The Man Without Qualities. I have changed his name to Ulrich, a name which no one seems to like besides me. Every day, when we go out for our walks, I worry about tripping and dropping the leashes or something. Every day, I tell Uli that I love him, and he ignores me.
Many people helped capture Viktor, including Alisa, Amy, Bonnie, Dan, Dawna, Dina, Dori, Harrison's mom, Jeannine, Jenny, Linda, Nancy, Renee, Sharon, Sindy, Stacie, Tanya, Terri, Tonja, Yolanda, and at least five other people whose names I can't recall. Seattle Animal Control Officers also spent some time trying to catch Viktor. Over seven days, I invested 80 hours and other volunteers contributed at least 120 hours. Probably more than fifty people reported sightings of Viktor. We used our training and experience from many other stray dog captures, such as Sophie, Tuck, Stella, Smilla, and Jackson.
One of the lessons learned in finding Viktor is that it would not be realistic to expect to hire someone like me, like Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue, and expect a paid searcher to simply go find your dog. Ideally, that would happen, but the search dog tracks right up to the lost dog only about 20% of the time. The other times, a search dog only provides a clue, a direction of travel. The search dog is only one way to find your dog, and you still need to do all the other things like posters, Facebook, Craigslist, fliers, checking shelters, setting traps, going door to door, putting a sign on the back of your car, and simply spending the time out there looking. In some cases, a search dog is not even a viable tool, if the lost dog keeps looping over old trails or if the scent trail is too old, for example. It took over 200 volunteer hours to find Viktor the second time. I could not afford to hire myself for 200 hours of work. Even if someone was willing to pay Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue for 200 of work to find their dog, (roughly $5,000) I can't devote that much time to one case when the phone rings every day with a new lost pet. The optimal way to use a service such as Three Retrievers is to have the expert do those things that only the expert can do, such as working the search dog, giving advice and direction, and placing the trap in the best location. For everything else, the professional is an adviser, and it is up to the owner of the lost dog to assemble the friends and volunteers necessary to mount a proper search effort. Quite often, people want to pay $250 for a search dog and handler, and have a final result that the lost dog is found. Some people don't want to learn how to conduct a proper search; they just want someone to come out and do it for them. In most cases, that is not a realistic expectation, and such an approach will not give you the best chances of finding your dog.
What else could we have done better in capturing Viktor?
1. Obviously, the little cat door should have been well and truly sealed.
2. Viktor should have had a working GPS tracker.
3. Communications were a problem sometimes when people didn't get text messages. In a future operation such as this, one person should be in charge of communications and making sure that everyone can get the message. That might mean that one or more persons acts as a relay, repeating messages to those who aren't technologically capable of receiving the message through the main channel.
4. The signs should have had better pictures from the start.
5. The signs could have had bolder writing if a fatter marker had been used.
6. Volunteers should have been advised, clearly and plainly, that they would need to follow instructions from team leaders even if they didn't necessarily agree with those instructions.
7. Car signs could have been clearer and larger.
8. It would help if we had a better understanding of how various drugs would affect a dog.
9. Large signs could be made up in advance, telling people to give us space and stay quiet.
10. A contingency fund could be set aside to pay for expenses in a case like this.
11. I don't know how it could be done, but it would have been very helpful if I was able to get Viktor to like and trust me before he went missing.
12. It would take some thought and planning, but there needs to be a set of hand signals specifically for catching stray dogs. This could be written up and distributed as a PDF so people could have it right on their phones and refer to it in real time.
13. It would have been helpful to schedule volunteers in advance, in shifts, so we would know when we would have help available.
14. I should have just walked right up and grabbed the fishing net out of the Good Samaritan's hands, to prevent Viktor from being chased off that day.
15. I personally need to have a reserve fund so that I can afford to take time off in the case of an emergency like this. It was a strain financially.
16. Ideally, we would have a drone available with quiet propellers and motors, with an infrared camera.
17. A net gun would have been useful here. Unfortunately, they cost about $4,000.
18. Having more trained volunteers would have helped. We can conduct training sessions to prepare for situations like this.
19. Viktor's harness should have had my phone number written in large numbers so that someone could read it without having to get too close to him.
20. Keep a map of everywhere we put up posters so that we can go back later and take them down.
In spite of the little things that went wrong, we did a lot of things right for Viktor. Mostly, we were never going to give up on him, no matter what. We would have caught him eventually, somehow. Our experience with Viktor should help us avoid future escapes and speed up our recovery times. Thank you, Viktor, for letting us catch you twice. Don't do it again.
We first learned of Viktor on September 15th, 2015, when Dina saw him while she was looking for a different dog. Dina lured Viktor within about five feet, with food, but she had to leave for work. Other volunteers came to the area quickly, but Viktor sensed that something was up. He bolted at least 10 blocks north. Volunteers searched for hours, but couldn't locate him again. The first volunteers to find him after Dina left said they did not approach him, but I suspect they may have tried to get close to him, causing him to bolt. Importantly, Dina took a picture of him when she first saw him, and that helped us in several ways. It enabled us to put up posters for him, asking for more sightings. It helped volunteers know what to look for. Also, because of the picture, we were able to learn that Viktor had escaped from an adoption event in south Everett, for a local rescue. Viktor started his adventure on August 23rd, 2 miles north of where Dina encountered him. We learned that he was a neutered male from a shelter in California, and he had just been transported to Washington on August 22nd. He was about five years old. The rescue was able to provide clearer pictures of him. (We also learned, after a later vet visit and x-rays, that Viktor had a fractured femur at some point prior to coming to Washington. It had healed wrong, and was probably the reason why people noticed him limping some times.)
Because we had clear pictures of him, we were able to recognize him when someone posted on the Lost Dogs of Snohomish County Facebook page about a black dog seen wandering in Lynnwood, miles away from where Dina first saw him.
"Found this guy in Lynnwood at 196th and 24th. He won't come to me even for treats. Followed and lost him on a culdesac 202nd Pl NE off of 24 Ave W. Medium sized dog, long curled tail."
Dina and I went to that area soon after the reported sighting. We put up dozens of posters in that area, which generated new sightings of him. Dina and I spent hours working the area, going up and down all the dead ends within five blocks of the last sighting. We used a phone app to show each other our GPS locations the whole time, so that we could cover the area most efficiently. Because Viktor seemed to always be heading south, we put up dozens of posters south of the last sighting of him. We created a private Facebook page for the search team, and a public Facebook page for Viktor so that anyone could share information. We also posted an ad on craigslist, and posted about Viktor on several Facebook pages for lost dogs.
On the 18th, someone posted on a Shoreline Facebook page that Viktor had been sleeping in her front yard. This was south of all the signs we had put up, and about 10 miles away from the point of escape. We were busy at the time, chasing Jackson around Kirkland, so we couldn't devote much time to searching that area. I did look all around there for a few hours, with no luck. We would later learn that Viktor arrived in the Queen Anne Hill neighborhood on or before September 22nd. Viktor travel 22 miles in a month, and then he hung around Queen Anne Hill for at least 8 days before we caught him.
We received a possible sighting in North Seattle, near the Seattle Golf Club, on September 23rd. We received another call about a dog in Mountlake Terrace. In hindsight, this almost definitely was not him. A black dog roamed that area and generated many false sightings. Septemeber 28th, we got a couple of calls about Viktor. The descriptions matched, so we searched the area, the north slope of Queen Anne Hill, and put up dozens of posters. With the posters up, with my number on them, I started receiving at least a dozen calls a day. The typical report would say, "I saw this dog sleeping in someone's yard. I went to see if he needed help or if he was lost, and he took off down the street." From the 28th to October 1st, I was just a few minutes behind him most of the time. He roamed an area of about 2 square miles, with a cemetery, woodsy parks and ravines, alleys, and landscaped yards to hide in.
On October 1st, after hours of searching, I got a call that Viktor was just a block away from me, near 2nd Ave North and Howe Street. I got there in seconds, but didn't see him. It took me another five minutes to pinpoint him, sitting in someone's yard. I watched him for a bit, to see how he was acting. He just observed people, and as long as people didn't notice him, he stayed put. When someone spooked him from his resting place, I followed him for half a block to a yard that was about three feet above street level. I had Fozzie with me as a Magnet Dog, and I tried walking past Victor with Fozzie on a leash. As we passed him twice, Viktor showed no interest in Fozzie. I put Fozzie back in the car, and then I approached Viktor casually--that is to say, I pretended I did not see him and was just walking by. I dropped some treats behind me. He checked out the treats, finding them with his nose. After he ate them, I made another pass and dropped more treats. Eventually, I sat down on the steps and just tossed him treats, each time a little closer to me. He came within a foot or so. I called for assistance through Facebook and texting, looking for people to keep pedestrians away and keep an eye on Viktor if he took off. I had several ideas for catching him, but I didn't want to try them until I had assistance. Volunteers said they could help, but it would take them at least 40 minutes to get there. Although I tried to keep Viktor in one place, he wandered off, headed north toward streets where we had previous sightings. Apparently Viktor had regular routes he preferred to use.
I had one of Viktor's Lost Dog posters taped to the back window of my car, so I was driving along with a picture of Viktor while he trotted along the sidewalk ahead of me. A teenager walking down the street noticed Viktor, then noticed the poster on my car. He pointed and then started running toward Viktor. I was able to get his attention and ask him not to chase Viktor. All the posters all over Queen Anne, plus the one on my car, said Do Not Chase. People have a hard time following that advice. Viktor settled in a yard at 1st Ave North and Lynn Street. I didn't have any water with me, but I thought he might be thirsty from the hot dogs I had been feeding him. I asked a neighbor if I could get a cheap plastic container with some water in it for Viktor, and she came out with a large stainless steel bowl full of water. I told her I would bring it back when I was done. Viktor did appreciate the water. A volunteer, Yolanda, had shown up at that point, and I asked her to keep pedestrians from disturbing Viktor. She directed them to cross to the other side of the street. Dina showed up with a humane trap, and we set it up not far from Viktor. He got up and walked past it, just giving it a sniff on the way by.
I followed Viktor on foot. Actually, I walked in front of him, predicting where he would go by the previous sightings. I was right, mostly. When Viktor wanted to cross a busy street, I went ahead of him and stopped traffic. I hung out with him in the yard at 1st and Queen Anne Boulevard for a while. I snapped a good picture that showed his whole body and face very clearly, with good light, in case it was needed later. The posters we were using had an okay picture that was a little dark and hard to see. Viktor wandered down the hill, and Dina hauled the trap around to put it in front of him. He walked past it again. He was probably getting a little full at that point. Alisa brought me hot rotisserie chicken pieces in a cup. Viktor really liked that. Dina set up the trap in a new location. When Viktor started to go the other way, I used the hot, fresh chicken to lead him toward the trap. He got the hang of it, and he followed me right down the sidewalk to the location of the trap at Warren Ave and Raye Street. Many people watched from a distance as Viktor approached the trap. He smelled the large pile of hot chicken in the end of the trap, and he followed the trail of chicken bits right in. When the door closed, he was startled, and he whined a little. Some of the neighbors cheered when Viktor was caught. It happened so fast that Dina was looking away at the moment and didn't get to witness it. Catching Viktor the first time involved at least a hundred volunteer hours from at least 10 volunteers.
I had to get a ride back to my car, many blocks away. Then we loaded Viktor in and I took him home. I stopped at the pet store along the way, and got him a harness and a Martingale collar. When we got to the house, I carried the whole trap inside before opening it. Viktor allowed me to touch him or pet him, but he made it clear he would prefer to be left alone. To try to help him relax, I slept on the floor with my back to him, to be as non-threatening as possible. Over the next seven days, I tried various ways to help Viktor relax and remember how to be a normal dog. I tried toys, but he was not interested. He would tolerate my friendly little poodle, but he didn't want to interact at all. He liked food, and could be motivated somewhat by treats. He acted depressed, and always seemed to be looking around for a strategy to escape. I walked him on two leashes for safety. I tried to put a GPS unit on him, but I could not get it to work in four days of fiddling with it and contacting tech support. I of course put a scent article in the freezer in case we needed it for the scent trailing dog.
On October 11th, I went into Viktor's room and found that he had escaped through the small cat door. This door must have been a tight squeeze for Viktor, and I never guessed he would have been able to fit through it. The cat door had been boarded up from the inside and the outside, and it was covered on the inside by various items stored in front of it. From the inside, there would have been no indication that a cat door even existed. Viktor must have smelled air coming through a crack or something. He pushed away the containers in front of the cat door, pried off the interior board, and pushed out the exterior board. I had anticipated that Viktor would try to escape somehow, but I never thought he would get out through the cat door. Obviously, I was wrong.
Immediately, I contacted UBS board members and posted online that Viktor had escaped. While volunteers came to the area to help, I started Kelsy on the scent trail. Kelsy followed the scent down the driveway, through a neighboring park, in a loop about five blocks across, and back to the house. Apparently, Viktor hung around the neighborhood a little while before deciding to move on. By that time, the day was getting way too warm for a search dog to work, unusually warm for mid October, so Kelsy and I had to stop. As it turned out, we would later learn that Viktor was already four miles away by that afternoon, so it would have been unlikely that Kelsy and I ever could have caught up to him. When we received sightings later, it was always in places where Viktor had been circling and backtracking, creating difficult trails for a scent dog to follow. I always kept Kelsy in mind, in case she might be helpful, but posters and volunteers were working better than a search dog would have under those circumstances, given Viktor's behavior and the weather conditions.
Volunteers--Terri, Dina, Bonnie, Dori, Tonja, and Nancy--got posters up all over Burien within a couple of hours. By that time, Viktor was miles outside of the zone where we put the posters, but we didn't know that then. I was sure we would get some sightings, and I had previous commitments, so I stopped searching after eight hours. On Monday, most volunteers were not available. I spent the day searching by car and on foot, and putting up additional posters. I and others made sure Viktor was on Facebook and craigslist, and local blogs. It was a long, sad day, with no news of Viktor. I felt confident we would eventually get reports of him, based on his previous behavior while roaming five weeks across five cities, but the wait was excruciating.
On the morning of the 13th, the third day, I was up very early to go out and search. I got a call before dawn that Viktor had been seen in a carport in West Seattle, near Brandon and 36th. A person going to work startled him when she went to get in her car. Fozzie, the magnet dog, and I got to the area within two hours of the sighting. I can't remember if the witness got my number from the West Seattle Blog or from craigslist. I put up posters in the area, and drove around. I got another call of sightings at 10 at Myrtle and 37th. I got there in just a few minutes, but did not see him. I spent about 10 hours that day looking for Viktor. I received at least a dozen calls, but couldn't catch up to him. Again, using Kelsy didn't seem feasible because of the warm temperatures and all of the backtracking and circling. The evening of the 13th, several volunteers helped me with an Intersection Alert from 4 to 7 PM. We received several reports of sightings from people who pulled over to talk to us, but they were older sightings than the most recent information we had. The sightings were still helpful. For one thing, they confirmed that Viktor traveled far from home very soon after his escape, so catching up to him with the search dog would have been difficult. I'm certain that we raised awareness of Viktor, even if we didn't get any fresh sightings while we were there at the intersection of 35th and Morgan.
The morning of the 14th, I got a call as I was driving to the area. Viktor was seen near 36th and Juneau, not far from the previous sightings. I got there in just a couple of minutes, and there he was, trotting down the sidewalk. I hopped out and tossed pieces of hot dog to him. This caught his attention and brought him right to me. Viktor came right up to me while I was sitting on the ground. I was so relieved to see him again and know he was uninjured. I made a grab for his collar, but it slipped out of my hand when he jerked away with a hurt expression. I was able to get him to come back to me. I called the person who had called me, and asked if they had any treats I could have, like tuna or something. They said they would bring something. Then I remembered I had a bag of dog treats in my metal tool box. I kept Viktor close with the treats. He stayed out of reach because I had grabbed at him once. The man who brought treats also brought a fishing net, the kind you scoop a fish out of the water with after you catch it with a fishing pole. I saw what he was thinking. I walked over to him to look at the net. It obviously was not big enough to catch Viktor. The width of the opening was only about two thirds of Viktor's length. I told the man I had experience catching a dog with a similar net, and it was not as easy as you might imagine. Viktor seemed to be getting full, so I stopped with the treats for a while and returned to my car. Help was on the way, and i wanted spotters around when I made the next attempt to get him. The guy with the net lured Viktor over with some food. I thought Viktor would just move on. When I saw that Viktor was moving closer to this person, I went over and asked him a second time not to try the net. He said he was sure it would work. I asked him a third time not to try the net on V. The man whacked Viktor with the net frame, and Viktor took off running south. Linda and Sharon were almost there, so I called and asked them to watch for Viktor to the south. They spotted him and followed him to the park with the water towers, about six blocks south of Juneau. Viktor went under the fence into the area around the water tower that is closed to the public. Linda pointed out that Viktor was inside the fence. I asked her to give V some space, but she kept moving close to the fence. V wriggled under the fence in another location and took off down 35th, a relatively busy street. Viktor ran toward some construction workers who made a grab at him, forcing V into traffic on 35th. He was almost hit twice as he crossed to the east side of 35th. I actually ran a red light, after carefully looking both ways, in order to keep up with Viktor. I almost had Viktor, and he ran off because people who wanted to help would not listen to what I was telling them. I have seven years experience catching difficult dogs. I have specific training for situations like this. I have LOST PET RESCUE on the back of my jacket. I spoke to people reasonably and calmly, and they still would not listen to what I said. This is the reason that volunteers are needed who know the game plan and understand that they should not simply act on their own impulses. While it is often helpful when people spontaneously volunteer to help a lost dog, they are much more effective when they can be persuaded to follow instructions.
We followed Viktor around all day, and fed him lots of treats. When we would lose track of him for a bit, having several volunteers in the area helped us locate him again quickly. Also, knowing his preferences for places to rest helped us know where to look. I found that most people would have walked right by him if they did not know his preferred type of hiding place. Viktor could lay down in tall grass and become invisible from the street. He would hide in the rain garden swales along the streets. He chose places where he had at least two escape routes. Bonnie tried approaching him in a field, and he ran off fairly quickly, possibly because of other people, including me, moving around in the background. Bonnie approached him in another field, and he ran off because he was surprised when he looked up and saw her. Dori lured Viktor to her twice, almost within reach. During one of Dori's attempts to lure Viktor, many people were watching. I had my body turned to the side, and I was holding still, using calming body language. Linda and Sharon were 80 feet away in a car, watching. Three maintenance workers were lined up at the curb, watching Viktor, with their bodies squared toward him, obviously paying attention to Viktor, not using calming signals. I asked Bonnie to ask the men to move away, which she did. Sharon and Linda asked the men to stay put, and they stayed there. Viktor came close to Dori, but eventually spooked and ran off. I can't know for sure if it was because of the men, but it seems likely. I called Linda and let her know that if Bonnie asked them to do anything in the future, they should be sure to do it because Bonnie has years of experience in this sort of thing. Linda and Sharon got mad and left. In a rescue operation like this, volunteers will have varying ideas of how to catch a dog. I can advise them based on my experience. I try not to alienate people by giving advice contrary to their instincts, but it often happens that people become upset when they feel that your actions are hurting the chances of recovering the dog. If then knew everything I knew, they would trust my judgment, but it's hard to convey all my years of experience in a few short sentences.
So, Viktor took off, and it took us a long time to find him again. I went home and got two traps and the big net. Bonnie had an idea, similar to an idea I had been considering. Bonnie suggested we set up the trap in a narrow spot behind the houses, between a retaining wall and the fence to the mortuary. We had witnessed Viktor using this passage many times. It was an escape route between the safe zones of the undeveloped field and the grassy area behind the mortuary. I set up the trap against the retaining wall, and I covered the gap between the wall and the fence with the big net. The idea was that Viktor would come trotting along his safe route and find it blocked off except for a small opening, which would turn out to be the humane trap. We first did this with Talulabell. If Viktor wanted to go back, there would be a bunch of people blocking his way. We had 13 volunteers for this. Dina and Tonja set up on the far side of the net, in case Viktor managed to get under the net somehow. It was staked down to the ground, but you never know. Tanya and a friend were near the opening, with instructions to ignore Viktor unless he tried to get past them. Then they should make themselves know and encourage him to go into the chute behind the houses. A group of four volunteers was set up to be a moving wall, acting like they just happened to be there, but moving to keep Viktor going into the chute. Two more volunteers were set up on the street just outside the swale where Viktor was sleeping. They would herd him toward the field. The theory was that Viktor was in the habit of using that narrow passageway as an escape route, so he would go that way to stay away from us. Dori and I came up from the south to get Viktor started in the right direction. Unfortunately, Viktor was sound asleep in the ditch, and when we woke him up, he was startled and panicked. He ran west, the wrong way, right past the people who were intended to herd him into the chute. I thought he would go northeast, toward his safe route. If he had seen us coming, and had time to think about it, then he probably would have gone toward the trap. Instead, because he panicked, he ran the wrong way, away from us. In hindsight, I should have used my flashlight to locate him and made sure he was aware of our approach so he would have time to choose the right way to go, toward his safe passage. The volunteers followed Viktor around for a while. I could tell that some of them were primed to chase after him. I had to ask them, several times, not to chase him. I was the last one of us to see Viktor that night. He was trotting down the hill to the east, across Sylvan way, toward a new neighborhood. I made the decision to let him go, to leave him alone for the night and let him rest. I got a call later that night that he was seen five blocks north of where I last saw him.
On the 14th, I set up a list of things to do. As I was searching for Viktor, I was conscious of my own fatigue and stress. I felt guilty, because I was responsible for losing Viktor. When my clients are in this situation, I advise them to write things down because they may have diminished concentration and memory. I certainly found that to be the case with me. In the seven days Viktor was on the run, I spent 80 hours looking for him, in addition to at least 100 hours other volunteers contributed. I've worked 80 hours a week in the past when I worked overtime or when I held two jobs, but this was harder. I was always questioning my decisions, wondering if the wrong choice would get Viktor killed. Like the guy with the net. I should have walked up to him and yanked the net out of his hands. Trying to be reasonable with him ended up with Viktor running into traffic and nearly being hit by two cars. I was trying to make all the best decisions while being aware of my diminished capacity. Not being able to sleep much or sleep well also contributed to my fatigue and stress. I was not eating right. I was not getting things done at home. I was not spending time with my other four dogs, and they were telling me that they did not like being ignored. One way I tried to focus my thoughts was to set up a list of actions and potential actions:
1. Signs up farther out.
2. Contact Get Jesse about Whistle failure.
3. Check West Seattle blog regularly.
4. New CL ad.
5. Research cost for programmable traffic sign.
6. Set up a schedule for volunteers to be on call in the area.
7. Set up a log of sightings.
When I got home on the night of the 14th, after nearly catching Viktor so many times, watching him all day long, I was so exhausted that I wasn't functioning right. I nearly passed out walking from the car to the house. I fell asleep fast, but it wasn't a restful sleep.
The morning of the 15th, I drove to the area of the last sighting, at 31st and Raymond. As I was approaching the little park there, I got a call from someone who saw Viktor. I pulled up and saw the person calling me, and then I saw Viktor. I got out and tossed chunks of hot dog to him. He came right up to me, although he stayed a safe distance. This was a fine arrangement for Viktor. As someone joked to me, he considered me to be meals on wheels, and it was convenient for him that I followed him everywhere he went and brought him treats. I didn't attempt to capture him at that meeting because I didn't have backup. When he wandered away again, I let him go and watched his movements. I explained to people who saw him wandering that we were working on a capture plan.
I actually can't remember all that happened on the 15th. I know I was very tired. At one point, I either blacked out for a moment or I had some sort of hallucination. I remember seeing a woman in the little park just east of the entrance to the cemetery. She was walking two small dogs. I had the thought of giving her a flier for Viktor. I looked down, and then I got out of my car to give her the flier, and she had disappeared. There were no cars or buildings to obscure my view for fifty feet in any direction, but she had vanished. Did I space out for a second and not realize it? Or was the woman with the two dogs never really there?
I do know for sure that Dina came to that area later in the day. She located Viktor and was giving him hot dogs. She gave him 1.5 valium, hoping he would fall asleep so we could grab him. He wandered off, and several volunteers, including Alisa and Renee, kept track of him. Viktor settled against the side of a house at 30th and Graham. When he would lay down next to the house, the tall ground cover completely hid him from view. I'm not sure who's idea it was, but Dina and I decided to try using the large net to trap Viktor. Alisa stood just around the corner of the house, out of sight. She was going to block his exit if he tried to squeeze between a shrub and the house. We got the net out of my car and planned how we would sneak up on Viktor, hidden by the fence. At first, I planned for us to rush up and block him off. Dina imagined she might trip over the edge of the large net and blow our chance. Then I imagined how we could walk up slowly and quietly until I was past him, and then I would move quickly toward the wall, blocking him in. We got it all set up, and we practiced moving in on an imaginary Viktor, represented by my jacket on the ground. A crowd had gathered and at least two dozen people watched us from windows and front porches. Sindy was there, too, trying to direct people around our operation. People were very resistant to go around. She had to explain it to them three times before they would understand why we would ask them to cross the street. Renee sat in a parked car and watched Viktor. She gave us a thumbs up gesture if Viktor's head was down, and she held out her palm for us to stop if he raised his head. Just as we were about to try putting the net on Viktor, Dina stopped the operation and said she didn't feel comfortable doing it. She imagined too many ways it could go wrong. We decided to try calming signals, rotisserie chicken, hot dogs, and drugs again.
Viktor let me come up and sit down about six feet away from him. I leaned against a fence. I got him to come within a foot by tossing bits of hot dog to him. He took the pill, and he wanted to fall asleep, but he moved a little way away from me before settling in for a nap. A man in a red shirt watched us for over an hour, and he kept moving and bobbing up and down, getting Viktor's attention. I texted with Dina, in oder to remain quiet. She brought me a snappy snare by sneaking up along the fence line out of sight of Viktor. When I ran out of hot dogs, Renee went and got a rotisserie chicken. Dina brought it to me, again sneaking up along the fence line. She also brought my jacket because sitting on the ground made me cold. Every time Viktor would start to nod off, someone would walk close to us or a child would scream. I sat there beside him, stuffing him with food for over an hour. Two school buses let out right in front of us, one at 6:00 and one at 6:20, waking Viktor up but not scaring him away. Who gets out of school at 6:20? As I sat there beside Viktor, waiting for an oportunity, dozens of people watched the spectacle, and they refused to be quiet. Dina texted me that she would need to leave soon and that her keys were in my jacket pocket. I don't know why,probably because I was exhausted, but I tossed Dina's keys onto the grass about six feet away. For some reason, this made Viktor get up and move away. Dozens of people and school buses and screaming children didn't scare him away, but tossing keys quietly onto the grass spooked him. Viktor ran off, and we let him go for the night, confident that the drugs had worn off by then, and wouldn't make him too groggy to avoid cars. After Viktor took off, all the people disappeared, and the intersections was as quiet as a cemetery.
We made improvements to our posters by taking one of Viktor's pictures and painting the background white. This made him much easier to distinguish in the pictures. I used the picture I had taken at Queen Anne and 1st Ave North. It showed his ears, one up and one down, and his big-dog body on his little short legs. I had a poster on the back of my car that had the improved picture of Viktor and bold lettering that said Do Not Chase. The morning of the 16th, Friday, the 6th day of Viktor's latest adventure, I received several calls about him and found him near 31st and Graham, a block away from where I'd left him the previous night. I had hot dogs and valium, and I wanted to lead him to the cemetery, three blocks south, so that he could settle down and take a nap without a crowd of people making him nervous. I took my time leading him there because I was waiting for reinforcements. Bonnie and Amy were coming in a little while. I lost track of Viktor for a little while and then found him again. I led him down the sidewalk, five feet at a time, by dropping bits of hot dog in front of him, making a trail toward the cemetery. Bonnie and Amy talked to the kids getting out of school to let them know what we were doing and ask them to give us some space. It felt like it took a long time to get him to the cemetery, but it may have been about 45 minutes or so.
When we reached the cemetery, I sat down by the grave marker of Gary Cooper, but it wasn't High Noon, more like two in the afternoon. I gave Viktor two vallium in bits of hot dog. For the next hour or so, we moved slowly through the cemetery, sitting by this tree or that tree, moving about twenty feet each time. Viktor rolled on the grass and stretched. He seemed drowsy, but he never quite went to sleep. Amy stood guard on Sylvan Way below us, in case Viktor decided to go that way. I could get Viktor close to me with treats, but whenever he got drowsy, he would move at least six feet away before settling down to maybe take a nap. I was able to take a few nice pictures of him in the parklike cemetery, and video of him rolling around in the grass. It was a nice day, a warm afternoon for that time of year, with high, wispy clouds swooping like brush strokes. I enjoyed hanging out with Viktor, but he wasn't giving me an opportunity to grab him. At one point, I got up and walked away from him, and now I can't remember what my reason was. I think my plan was to walk away towards the north, circle around, and sneak up from the south because the north wind would keep him from smelling me as I approached. I remembered sneaking up on Smilla in the cemetery in Renton, getting within three feet of her, quietly, and then she suddenly woke up, probably because she smelled me. As I was telling Bonnie and Amy my plan of sneaking up on Viktor, Amy suggested that I slowly roll toward Viktor. Amy said she had caught several dogs that way, sometimes rolling across an entire field. This was a variation of calming signals. I had tried just lying down on the ground, and dogs had come up to check me out, but I had never rolled up to a dog before. I was willing to give it a try. As I approached from the south, Viktor saw me right away, so sneaking up on him was out of the question. I was getting ready to try to roll across the cemetery toward him--fortunately, all the grave markers were flat on the ground--but Viktor decided to wander back toward the noisy, busy housing development.
Viktor settled somewhere out of sight just north of the cemetery. It took us a while to locate him in the landscape. Bonnie wanted to try the snappy snare. I have had a low success rate with the snappy snare. Bonnie had been practicing on her dogs, makiing a game of it where they would get treats when she caught them, so I figured Bonnie would have a much better chance of using the snare successfully. I stood watch behind Viktor, and I signaled to Bonnie when she should approach and when she should stop. Bonnie sneaked up along the edge of the grass, near a fence and a tall hedge. She was in shadow, less visible, and downwind so that Viktor wouldn't smell someone approaching. I had set my package of hot dogs down, in order to have less stuff in my pockets, and the crows had found the package and were attacking it, making a ruckus. I couldn't decide if this was a distraction or if the crows were making cover noise that would help disguise Bonnie's approach. Viktor seemed to ignore it. Bonnie crept within striking distance, and Viktor pipped his head up to chew on some fleas on his flank. He was looking away from Bonnie, unaware she was three feet away. His head came back to a normal resting position, giving Bonnie the perfect target for the snappy snare, but in a split second, Viktor decided to bite the fleas more, and his head moved away from the point Bonnie was aiming for. The snare glanced off his neck. Of course, he spooked and ran, again. At least it wasn't me that spooked him.
It took us about twenty minutes to find him again, in the big park in the center of the housing development, near 31st and Graham where we started the day. Bonnie was of course distressed that she had just missed her chance to catch Viktor, but she was relieved that we found him again. He was in a swale near the play equipment, wedged between a boulder and the base of a red osier dogwood. Mostly he slept, lifting his head now and then. I got the idea that if we had ten people, we could surround him and pounce on him in the swale. This was a desperate measure, and in hindsight it seems somewhat foolish. I asked for volunteers on Facebook, and it is probably fortunate that I could not round up enough volunteers quickly. Viktor seemed really sound asleep in the ditch. I imagined how I could sneak up on him from the back side of the boulder and then quickly reach over and grab him. I started to sneak up, slowly and quietly, and Viktor was unaware that I was just about eight feet away from me. Bonnie watched me from a distance. A child started to approach the play equipment, inexplicably screaming as she approached. Why do all these children scream? They probably don't even know. It seems to be a meme that spreads like a virus, children randomly screaming without warning and without cause. I tried to convey to Bonnie to stop the screaming child from ruining my chance, using sign language. I don't know sign language, so I gave Bonnie the middle finger and pointed over my shoulder to the screamer. I intended to say, "Bonnie, please go around the play equipment, quickly, and tell that child to f**k off." From the look on Bonnie's face, she seemed perplexed about the message I was trying to convey, possibly misunderstanding, justifiably, whether the middle finger was a gesture directed at her for some reason. In a moment, it didn't matter any more because Viktor's head popped up to check out the screaming child, and he looked up right at me. I looked away, like, "I'm not doin' nothin'. I just happened to be standing here. I wasn't thinking about pouncing on you while you slept." Viktor wasn't buying it, and he moved away in the ditch.
Then I went and got the humane trap. I didn't think it would work, since we had already caught Viktor in the humane trap once. It wouldn't hurt to try it, though. I set it up near the swale, with some tripe as bait. Viktor eventually got out of the swale and walked toward where Bonnie happened to be standing. She tried calming signals and treats, and Viktor was coming closer until someone else came along and scared him away. He went to a different swale, half a block away, and settled down for a nap. You would never know he was there if you hadn't seen him go in. I moved the trap over to where he was sleeping, but every dog that came by stole the bait meant for Viktor. As it got dark, Viktor wandered away again. Dori made another attempt at calming signals and treats, much later, but again a pedestrian came along and disrupted the process. We left Viktor's neighborhood, Friday night, and planned on making a big attempt on Sunday. We would have hopefully a dozen volunteers, and we would have back up plans. We would make up signs to ask people to stay quiet and stay away, and we would have volunteers to redirect people as much as possible. Satureday would be a day of observing Viktor and keeping people from chasing him, and Sunday would be the official capture day, with traps and nets and the whole nine yards. Even though I was sad about missing so many chances to catch Viktor, I was encouraged that he stayed in the area and let us find him fairly quickly. I was optimistic about our chances of catching him. I actually slept that night better than I had in a while.
Saturday, Dawna and I arrived at about the same time, and I just got a call that he was sighted in the same area. We looked around, but it too another hour before Dawna finally located him. I went there and fed him hot dogs. He was happy to see me, and not overly cautious or worried. Even after he finished his hot dogs, he just rested on the grass near me. I think that was the life Viktor wanted: wandering the streets and having his dedicated catering service bring him tasty treats everywhere he went. When Viktor wandered off, I let him go. This was just going to be a day of observation and building trust. I made half-page fliers telling people what we were doing with Viktor and asking them not to chase him. About an hour later, Dawna brought me a beef soft taco from Taco Time, and some mexi-fries. I was glad for the Meki-fries, but being a vegetarian, I decided to give the taco to Viktor. I don't know why they call it a taco when it looks like a burrito. Anyway, I unwrapped it and placed it on the ground in front of Viktor. He looked like it was Christmas. He gentle picked up the whole taco, and trotted off a little way behind a bush to enjoy his treasure. As he walked away, you could see the taco sticking out on either side. I looked at that spot after he was done with his meal, and you could see that he carefully picked out the lettuce and left it behind. Viktor wandered off again, and I followed along, handing out fliers and keeping people away from him. About an hour later, Dawna brought him a second Taco. We waited until he woke up from his nap, and then I sat down near him and broke off pieces of the taco to toss to him. He sure did like those beef soft tacos. When I tossed one chunk of it to him he didn't really react the way I would expect a dog to. If I tossed part of a taco to one of my dogs, he would chomp it in mid air and swallow it in a fraction of a second. Although Viktor did enjoy his tacos, he just let this piece of taco land right on his head. Then he ate it off the ground after the bounce. He had a smear of sour cream on his head for a while after that.
Dawna offered to stay a while and keep an eye on Viktor while I went home and let my dogs out. Then I would come back for the night shift and Dawna could leave for the day. After about an hour, I got the message from Dawna that Viktor was napping between two houses in a perfect place to box him in. I came back as quick as I could, and he was still sleeping there. He was right up against a house, sound asleep. The two houses were about 12 feet apart. The far end of the space was fenced off. Our big net would close off that space. I got the net out of my car and tried folding it different ways so that it would be easy to hold and also so it would stay down on the ground so Viktor wouldn't just scoot under it. I went over the plan with Dawna a couple of times, and in about five minutes, we were ready to go. I could picture this plan working very well. Sometimes, like when I was thinking of having ten people gang-tackle Viktor, I can't really picture how something will work out, but I just hope for the best. As we got ready with the net, I had a clear image of it working. It was possible that Viktor could get under the net, but there was a good chance it would work. We approached very quietly, keeping the net off the ground so it wouldn't make any dragging noises. It rained gently, masking our footsteps with white noise. The sun was setting behind the overcast sky, and the twillight helped us be less noticeable. Viktor didn't move a muscle as we moved the net in place. He was trapped, but he was still asleep. I moved forward to put the net right over him, and as I stepped on the gravel, the noise woke him up. He panicked and ran immediately. He was focused on me and tried to get away from me, going closer to Dawna, who was around the corner of the house. Viktor ran right into the net and got himself tangled up. He was struggling to get himself free, and I pounced on him. I threw my body on his little 35-pound body and smothered him. He squirmed in the net. I grabbed his harness with one hand and his collar with the other hand. He had gotten his head out of the net and was about to escape again when I got a firm grip on him. He nipped my arm as he struggled. He also pooped and peed all over the place as he panicked. I grabbed him up under my arm, I'm not sure quite how, and I carried him to my car with one hand firmly on the harness and the other on his collar. Dawna opened the back hatch, I climbed in, and Dawna closed us in the car. Viktor was caught. We both smelled terrible, but he was caught. He went up to the front passenger seat and just curled up and laid down. It was a struggle for me to get between the two front seats, but I wasn't about to open any doors, and I eventually got into the drivers seat.
There was my Viktor, on the seat beside me. I was so relieved and happy to see him. He seemed disappointed at being caught, and not at all happy about being trapped in the car with me. He didn't fight or struggle, though. I rolled down the window just enough to talk to Dawna, and I thanked her for spotting the opportunity and helping me catch Viktor. At that point, I was pretty sure Viktor would spend the rest of his life with me, whether he wanted to or not. I knew he would prefer to just wander the streets and be fed tacos, but I couldn't imagine anyone else being able to manage a dog so determined to escape. A fenced yard wouldn't hold him. Viktor came home with me, and I used two leashes, one on his collar and one on his harness, as I escorted him into the house and into a closed kennel inside the house. Viktor is now kenneled whenever he is in the house, which seems to suit him just fine. It has now been two weeks since we captured him the second time, and he is only warming up to me very slowly, if at all. He wears two GPS trackers, and he is always walked on two leashes. I can pet him, but he doesn't admit to liking it. I sit beside his open kennel and read The Man Without Qualities. I have changed his name to Ulrich, a name which no one seems to like besides me. Every day, when we go out for our walks, I worry about tripping and dropping the leashes or something. Every day, I tell Uli that I love him, and he ignores me.
Many people helped capture Viktor, including Alisa, Amy, Bonnie, Dan, Dawna, Dina, Dori, Harrison's mom, Jeannine, Jenny, Linda, Nancy, Renee, Sharon, Sindy, Stacie, Tanya, Terri, Tonja, Yolanda, and at least five other people whose names I can't recall. Seattle Animal Control Officers also spent some time trying to catch Viktor. Over seven days, I invested 80 hours and other volunteers contributed at least 120 hours. Probably more than fifty people reported sightings of Viktor. We used our training and experience from many other stray dog captures, such as Sophie, Tuck, Stella, Smilla, and Jackson.
One of the lessons learned in finding Viktor is that it would not be realistic to expect to hire someone like me, like Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue, and expect a paid searcher to simply go find your dog. Ideally, that would happen, but the search dog tracks right up to the lost dog only about 20% of the time. The other times, a search dog only provides a clue, a direction of travel. The search dog is only one way to find your dog, and you still need to do all the other things like posters, Facebook, Craigslist, fliers, checking shelters, setting traps, going door to door, putting a sign on the back of your car, and simply spending the time out there looking. In some cases, a search dog is not even a viable tool, if the lost dog keeps looping over old trails or if the scent trail is too old, for example. It took over 200 volunteer hours to find Viktor the second time. I could not afford to hire myself for 200 hours of work. Even if someone was willing to pay Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue for 200 of work to find their dog, (roughly $5,000) I can't devote that much time to one case when the phone rings every day with a new lost pet. The optimal way to use a service such as Three Retrievers is to have the expert do those things that only the expert can do, such as working the search dog, giving advice and direction, and placing the trap in the best location. For everything else, the professional is an adviser, and it is up to the owner of the lost dog to assemble the friends and volunteers necessary to mount a proper search effort. Quite often, people want to pay $250 for a search dog and handler, and have a final result that the lost dog is found. Some people don't want to learn how to conduct a proper search; they just want someone to come out and do it for them. In most cases, that is not a realistic expectation, and such an approach will not give you the best chances of finding your dog.
What else could we have done better in capturing Viktor?
1. Obviously, the little cat door should have been well and truly sealed.
2. Viktor should have had a working GPS tracker.
3. Communications were a problem sometimes when people didn't get text messages. In a future operation such as this, one person should be in charge of communications and making sure that everyone can get the message. That might mean that one or more persons acts as a relay, repeating messages to those who aren't technologically capable of receiving the message through the main channel.
4. The signs should have had better pictures from the start.
5. The signs could have had bolder writing if a fatter marker had been used.
6. Volunteers should have been advised, clearly and plainly, that they would need to follow instructions from team leaders even if they didn't necessarily agree with those instructions.
7. Car signs could have been clearer and larger.
8. It would help if we had a better understanding of how various drugs would affect a dog.
9. Large signs could be made up in advance, telling people to give us space and stay quiet.
10. A contingency fund could be set aside to pay for expenses in a case like this.
11. I don't know how it could be done, but it would have been very helpful if I was able to get Viktor to like and trust me before he went missing.
12. It would take some thought and planning, but there needs to be a set of hand signals specifically for catching stray dogs. This could be written up and distributed as a PDF so people could have it right on their phones and refer to it in real time.
13. It would have been helpful to schedule volunteers in advance, in shifts, so we would know when we would have help available.
14. I should have just walked right up and grabbed the fishing net out of the Good Samaritan's hands, to prevent Viktor from being chased off that day.
15. I personally need to have a reserve fund so that I can afford to take time off in the case of an emergency like this. It was a strain financially.
16. Ideally, we would have a drone available with quiet propellers and motors, with an infrared camera.
17. A net gun would have been useful here. Unfortunately, they cost about $4,000.
18. Having more trained volunteers would have helped. We can conduct training sessions to prepare for situations like this.
19. Viktor's harness should have had my phone number written in large numbers so that someone could read it without having to get too close to him.
20. Keep a map of everywhere we put up posters so that we can go back later and take them down.
In spite of the little things that went wrong, we did a lot of things right for Viktor. Mostly, we were never going to give up on him, no matter what. We would have caught him eventually, somehow. Our experience with Viktor should help us avoid future escapes and speed up our recovery times. Thank you, Viktor, for letting us catch you twice. Don't do it again.
