Mu Finds Roo

Lost in brambles for days.

Mu Finds Roo

Roo is an indoor only cat, most of the time.  Her family took her for a walk in a park in Renton on the Cedar River.  Something spooked her and she backed out of her harness and ran into the brambles.  They looked for her for hours, but it was dense brush and brambles, and difficult to search.  They called us on the second day.  I thought Mu had a fairly good chance of finding Roo under the circumstances, and we agreed to come out the next day.

We started at 8 AM.  It was a little warmer than we would like, but well inside Mu’s operating range.  I looked at the situation and it seemed like it wouldn’t be a good search for Tino because we just couldn’t get anywhere very fast in that brush.  If Tino did get a good scent trail to follow, we would be stopped by brambles right away.

Mu and I searched all around through the brush between the soccer field and the river for two hours.  I had to lift Mu over a giant cottonwood log.  I also had to crawl on my hands and knees in places to get through the brush.  We found coyote prints down by the river, which was to be expected.

After two hours of searching, Mu found a place where there was an animal trail going into the thick brambles by a large old willow tree.  Mu waited while I took a closer look.  Blackberry thorns are a problem, if you are trying to find a cat, but one useful thing about them is that they collect fur, and you can see who passed by recently.  I thought the fur on the brambles could be a match for Roo.  I texted my pictures to the owner, who was searching another area.  She said she did not think it was a match, but she would come and check. I had Mu poke his head into the thicket, but he did not give a strong indication of a cat, as if the cat was right nearby.  It was more like interest, like a cat had passed through there.

As we waited for the owner to come look at this area under the willow, I went to the car to check on Tino.  I brought him out to see if he could track at all.  As we were getting him started, the owner said she heard meowing at the place Mu had indicated.  I pulled Tino back and put him in the car again.  It was Roo, and the owner was able to grab her.  They had a carrier handy and they popped her in it.  Roo was safe after 3 days in the brambles in coyote country.  Roo’s people were very pleased with Mu.

Mu has had “walk up finds” hundreds of times, where he started whining and pulling hard on the leash to indicate the presence of a cat.  This find wasn’t like that.  He pointed out evidence, and then we followed up on it.  That Mu was so interested in that area was a strong indication that it was cat fur, and not rabbit fur on the thorns.  If it was cat fur, it would most likely be Roo’s fur, because it’s not a place you would expect to find any other cats, far from any home.  Although the owner was skeptical that it was evidence of Roo, I felt the evidence was strong enough that it should be investigated more.  When I took Mu away, and Roo heard her owner’s voice, she made her presence known, meowing, and eventually she came forward.

Roo’s family says she will be strictly an indoor cat from now on, and they won’t try to take her for leashed walks.  I definitely agree with this decision because I know of many instances where cats backed out of harnesses while being walked.  There is a trend of having an “adventure cat” that goes with you into the wilderness.  I strongly advise against this, as there are too many ways a cat could get lost in the woods or in the mountains.  If possible, all cats should be indoor only cats all the time, for their safety.  If you want a hiking partner, please get a dog.  A dog like Mu.

The accompanying video is not especially thrilling, but it gives you a sense of what the area was like, and the working conditions.