Mu Finds Bodhie

We love our Mu.

(Please click on the photo above to see the full resolution of the 28 megapixel image.)

Of course I love Mu. How could I not. I would love him even if he lounged by the fire all day. I am very fortunate that I get to work with him. When we are working, we don’t know if we are going to find the cat alive and well, or find evidence that the cat did not survive, or perhaps not find the cat at all. When we are working, not knowing the end result, I just enjoy the work. I get to work with my best friend, and he gives me superhuman abilities. I can detect an invisible world with the help of Mu’s nose. Mu turned 12 years old on December 21st. Even after more than ten years of work, going on more than 1500 missions, Mu is still anxious to get out there and do his job. Although I wish no cats would go missing, I am thankful that Mu & I get to work together in the service of cats and their people.

On December 28th, 2022, Mu & I went to Bothell to search for Bodhie, and indoor-only cat that had accidentally escaped. Bodhie had been missing for 8 days, and the temperature had been as low as 14 degrees, with significant snowfall. Just behind the fence at Bodhie’s home, there was a large open field, an inactive construction sight that used to be a farm. It was the ideal habitat for coyotes, and they had been reported there. As we were searching, the first five people I encountered said, “You know, there are coyotes all over….” I wasn’t too concerned that Bodhie had been a victim of the cold or the coyotes, but these were possibilities we had to investigate. We started near Bodhie’s home and worked the yards of the adjacent homes. Mu found a place under some stairs that had the scent of a cat, but when I put my iPhone under there to shoot video, I could see he wasn’t there any more.

The owner of the large lot came to help, and she opened the gate so Mu & I could search the fields and the construction materials. There was a huge pile of concrete rubble, as big as a house, which had hundreds of nooks and crannies that a cat could hide in. I didn’t even have to ask Mu to search it. He just climbed right up the rubble, sniffing. He seemed to find interesting smells of animals, probably hundreds of rats, but he did not indicate a cat. As we worked through that big field, we found surprisingly little coyote scat, indicating they had not been too active there recently. Mu & I searched an area around three ponds on the other side of the neighborhood, and we did find fresh coyote scat there. It did not contain any signs that the coyote had eaten a domestic animal recently. It was normal, what we would expect to find in that area. I would not have been able to find the coyote scat without Mu’s help. I could have been looking directly at it and never have seen it. Mu is an expert at finding all kinds of evidence.

In the middle of the neighborhood, there was an old barn that was used for maintenance equipment and supplies. This was an ideal hiding place for a cat. Mu did indicate he smelled a cat, but he was sniffing up, like the cat was above us. There was a construction crane and some tall trees there, but I couldn’t see a cat. We looked under the hood of the crane. One of the maintenance workers said he often saw cats in the maintenance yard, but he couldn’t recall what any of them looked like, specifically. I noted this as a possible place for a trap and camera, and we moved on to other places.

We started again back near Bodhie’s home, working the yards of the nearby homes. Three houses west of his home, Mu hit upon the scent of a cat. The cat was under a deck, and Mu was pinpointing the exact location, sniffing and whining. I got down on the ground and used my phone to record video with the light on. There was Bodhie! He was not happy about being found by Mu. I sent Bodhie’s person the video of him under the deck. I put Mu in the car, after praising his good work and giving him treats. The owner came over to the deck where Bodhie was, and talked in a calm voice to get him to come out. We played a sound recording of his brother meowing for dinner. Bodhie did not come out after about 45 minutes of talking and waiting, so we set up a trap and camera. It took two days, but Bodhie eventually went in the trap at 6 AM. That it took two days for Bodhie to go in the trap was not surprising or unusual. Although his owner was anxious while she was waiting, I was not concerned when he didn’t go in right away. Bodhie is home, safe and warm, apparently unharmed. He was a little freaked out about being in the trap, but after a few hours at home, he was acting like his usual self.

It’s possible that Mu saved Bodhie’s life. No one would have seen him way back under that deck if Mu’s nose hadn’t found him. It is possible that Bodhie could have come home on his own, eventually. It’s also possible that someone would have seen him out looking for food, eventually, and they could have called Bodhie’s owner. Certainly finding him sooner was better than finding him later, and getting him home quickly reduced his risk from weather and predators. Mu has saved the lives of hundreds of cats in his ten-year career.

If we didn’t do this work, if Mu & I just went hiking in the mountains or sat on the couch reading books, I would love him just as much. That we get to work together, doing important work, forges a deeper bond between us. There are many times every day when I still have no idea what Mu is trying to tell me. It’s not like I can read his mind all the time. Even when I don’t understand what he’s telling me, I am listening. I have a deep bond with my Mu, and I always will. I wish everyone got to work with their dog as partners. Please watch the three-minute video of parts of our three-hour search for Bodhie.

Video