Second Chances

A near miss is a warning of what could happen, and a chance to prevent a disaster next time.

(Note: please don’t read this if your pet is currently missing.  It probably won’t help your state of mind.  This is intended for those of us who have lost a pet and then that pet returned to us, giving us a second chance.)

I woke up at 2:30 to start the process of getting ready for work.  With five dogs, it is a 100-step process to get everyone their walks, breakfast, and pills.  Tino and I got in the car by 5:00 and started driving to our 6:00 AM search.  As we drove, watching the sunrise, I thought about what the dogs’ owner had told me over the phone the day before.  Both of her dogs were about ten pounds. Neither of them would ever jump the fence, and there was no way for them to get out.  One afternoon, the female disappeared from the fenced back yard.  They assumed she must have been taken by a person, since there was no way for her to get out.  Two days later, at 11 PM, the male dog vanished.  She asked if there was anything I could do to help.  I told her that if her dogs were taken by a human, my search dog probably could not track a dog that was carried away by a person.  I asked her address.  Looking at the map, seeing that she lived right on a golf course, I asked how tall her fence was.  Two feet.  I tried to be as tactful as possible as I told her that the manner in which her small dogs disappeared from her fenced yard, silently, was likely the work of a coyote.  They can jump fences 6 feet tall, and a two foot fence would hardly be a speed bump to a coyote.  I told her that, in the past, Tino has been able to track where a small dog was carried by a coyote.  It was possible we could find something.  I also told her we might not find anything.  She wanted us to try.

When we arrived at the house, a fog bank to the east kept the sun at bay.  Tino overheats quickly, so the delay of full sun was a blessing for us.  In the backyard, I presented the scent item, a favorite blanket, to Tino.  He ran his nose over the blanket like a vacuum cleaner, gathering a full profile of the lost dog’s scent.  He immediately took me to the fence to the south, and hopped over into the neighbor’s yard.  That house was for sale, vacant.  After crossing that yard, Tino hopped the short  fence into the golf course.  He took me through the tall grass to a spot about 150 feet from the house.  The grass was flattened there, although there was no obvious sign of what animal flattened it.  Tino spent a long time, at least 30 seconds, smelling that spot.  As his nose worked all over the ground, his eyes shifted from side to side as if he was imagining what happened there.  He seemed to visualize the story that the scents told him. Based on past experience, I think he was smelling the aftermath of a fatal attack, although I couldn’t say that with certainty.  From that point, Tino continued following a scent trail, but with less urgency, as if the scent had changed, or he understood we were too late to save the dog.  After following the scent through the tall grass another 300 feet, he led me to a construction site.  Some of the ground was smoothed out for building, and the fine sand was the right consistency for prints.  I saw the prints of what I thought was a coyote family, one about 60 pounds, probably the male, one about 35 pounds, probably the female, and what looked to be coyote puppy prints, one larger than the other.  I checked around the area, but didn’t see any collars or any sign of either dog.  We searched around the golf course looking for evidence, but didn’t find anything more.  Most significantly, we didn’t find any more scent of the lost dog.  That dog’s scent went to a point, and then no farther.

I returned to the yard and told the woman’s husband what Tino had found and what he didn’t find.  I explained that the disappearance of the two dogs was consistent with coyote attacks where we did find evidence to show what happened.  Because we didn’t find any hard evidence this time, I told him I couldn’t be certain that coyotes had taken his beloved dogs, but it was the most likely explanation.  The yard and the house were tailored to the dogs, and anyone could see these dogs were the heart of the family.  The man said that when the first dog disappeared, he didn’t think a coyote was responsible because it was the middle of the day.  He didn’t say so, but perhaps he didn’t want to consider the possibility of a coyote attack because that would mean her story was over, with no chance to be found. They assumed a person must have taken the first dog.  The next day, after dark, the second dog, the male, came in through the dog door with wide eyes and trembling, as if he had had a frightening encounter.  The next night, the man went out periodically to check on his dog, and then when he checked at 11, his second dog had vanished.  I wanted to ask him the obvious question, but I didn’t, because it could serve no purpose after he had already lost the heart of his family.  I wanted to ask him, after you lost the first dog, and after your other dog came in the house looking terrified, why did you leave him in the yard unattended the next night?  Maybe there was an excuse, a distraction or a complication, I don’t know.  We all make mistakes. I could see, though, that these dogs meant the world to him, and that he would deeply regret his errors.

After leaving their house, I took Tino to go play fetch in a field.  I would tell you how much I love Valentino Squishy Wordsworth, but I already have so many times.  He means everything to me, and I can’t be happy if he’s not happy.  We found a huge empty field beside a church.  Acres and acres of tall grass.  It called out for a dog to play fetch.  I threw Tino’s orange ball and he dove into the grass to get it. It reminded me of a time we were trying to catch a dog that had been seen at a playfield.  I brought Tino out to get the dog’s attention and keep him close.  I was tossing Tino’s ball to him, which really interested the stray dog.  Our little game of fetch was working and helping him relax, on the other side of the fence.  I planned to move Tino around to the other side of the fence and see if I could get the dog to come to me.  Tino is very good at catching his ball, but on one of the tosses he bobbled it, and the ball bounced away from him.  Tino lunged at it again and he booped it farther away.  Although we weren’t close to the road, and there had been no traffic all morning, Tino repeatedly, uncharacteristically, kept missing the ball slightly and knocking it farther away, towards the road.  I hadn’t had a firm grip on his leash, and his lunge yanked it right out of my hand.  Then a large dump truck with a trailer came down the steep hill.  He honked his horn repeatedly, but Tino couldn’t focus on anything but his ball.  As Tino chased his ball into the street, the truck slowed and swerved to miss him, but Tino bobbled the ball again, towards the path of the truck.  He was right near the enormous tires.  Tino had one more chance to get the ball before it went under the wheels.  If Tino caught the ball, he would live, unscathed.  If he bobbled it again, under the tires, he seemed intent on getting it and oblivious to the mortal danger.  Obviously, Tino was successful on that last grab.  If he hadn’t been, I would have had to stand by and helplessly watch my dog get crushed.  My life would have been over, just on the random bounce of a ball.  As we went to play fetch in this field, I was extra careful to keep him far from the road.

I took this picture of him.  I think it’s a great picture for a lot of reasons.  I like the lighting.  I like the look on his face, the angle I shot it at, the way the field of tall grass runs on forever.  Mostly, when I look at this picture, I see that I am the lucky one who got a second chance and didn’t blow it.  The two little dogs we searched for, their family obviously loved them and cared for them.  They weren’t neglected.  What struck me about their sad story is that, after losing the first dog, they had every opportunity to keep the second dog safe.  Whether the first dog was lost to a human or a predator, obviously something happened, and simply being with the other dog in the yard at all times would have been the simple solution.  It wouldn’t have been hard to do.  He was their best friend, so spending time with him wouldn’t have been a hardship.  They got a second chance, an opportunity to keep the second dog safe, and they failed.

So many of the cases that I see on Facebook, it is the second or third or fifth time the dog has escaped.  In one case, a husky escaped 21 times, that we know of, until eventually someone took her to the shelter and the owner didn’t redeem her.  Some people seem to think, when they lose a cat or dog, and then the dog or cat was later found, that it means that a pet going missing isn’t that serious. Everything will usually turn out okay.  Well, in reality, you get away with your mistakes until you don’t.  Instead of interpreting the situation of a pet being lost and then found as an amusing adventure, you could learn from your mistakes and keep your beloved family member safer in the future.  Accidents will happen, and you could lose your cat or dog even when you do everything right.  But every single day I deal with cases where this wasn’t the first time the cat or the dog had gone missing.  After the previous escapes, there were opportunities to make the family member, the heart of the family, safer and more secure.   A near miss in an opportunity to learn and improve.  Almost everyone who asks for the help of Tino and Mu has lost a pet in the past, prior to this current loss.  In almost every case, there were precautions that could have been improved.  I know many of my friends have had their dogs or cats escape for brief times and then they found them, with much relief.  Most lost pets are found, but sometimes they aren’t.  I would hate for any of my friends to lose a dog or a cat, and not ever find them, knowing that a simple precaution could have prevented the loss.  The thought of that potential loss certainly gets my attention, and I am careful to always keep Tino and Mu and all the others as safe as I can.  So many lost pets could have been kept safe with relatively minor, simple, inexpensive precautions.  We protect what we love.  Show them you love them by giving them the best protection.

Loss prevention for dogs.

Loss prevention for cats.