The places we go.
Yesterday, Mu and I searched for a cat in Lake Stevens. She had gone missing in a business area. She had had a spinal injury before she went missing four days earlier, and we knew there was a good chance she would not be alive when we found her. Mu was interested in an area around a large old building. On the backside, it had a row of about a dozen heat pumps that were working hard, kicking out hot air. I couldn’t imagine what sort of business would require that much cooling on a cool, rainy day, and then it finally occurred to me that it must be a marijuana grow operation with dozens of grow lights heating things up. It appeared to be an old windowless farm building that had been converted for this new type of farming. It had old plywood sheathing around the foundation, and there were holes where critters had infiltrated in decades past. Mu found cat fur on the edge of one of the holes, and it appeared to be generally a match for the missing cat, which meant that we were going into the crawlspace. Inside the dark crawlspace, along with the newer plumbing and wiring, there were parts from old farm vehicles strewn about the dry and dusty soil. It was very hot in the crawlspace, like an oven. The space was about four feet high, 100 feet long and 50 feet wide. Mu located the cat’s remains about in the middle, not far from the hole where we had seen the cat fur on the edge. We brought her out, and the owner positively identified her. She was grateful that we were able to locate her cat and that we were willing to search in the hot and dirty crawlspace.
It wasn’t the worst crawlspace that we had been in. Mu located a cat in an mobile home park, underneath one of the units. Mu could smell that the cat was right near the edge, near a vent, but the cat was at the farthest corner from the opening. Mu got to wait in the car while I slithered 60 feet through moldy debris and rodent carcasses to reach the cat in the far back corner. We got that cat out alive. Also, there was the crawlspace that Stewart was in, at the apartment complex. When we opened the hatch to that crawlspace, the opening was covered in spiders that appeared to be black widows. There were bones and skeletons of small animals down there. Stewart seemed perfectly happy down there, but he didn’t mind coming out. A couple of weeks ago, Fozzie and I went to a career fair at a school, and the students were asking us what kind of environment we work in. I didn’t say that we often end up in crawlspaces with spiders and bones. It got me thinking about the wide variety of places we go. We never know where we are going to be on any particular day. The dogs and I have probably done at least 2,000 searches all over Western Washington and parts of Oregon. We don’t really get to choose where we do our searches.
We searched for a lost cat up near the Canadian border. We searched for a lost dog on farmland in western Oregon, a 4 hour drive away, where Tino did find compelling evidence that that small dog had been taken by a coyote. We have searched as far west as Aberdeen, and as far east as Ellensburg. In McCleary, deep in the woods, Tino found a giant old dog named puppy, stuck in a mud pit, where he had been for days. Kelsy and I got stuck in deep mud in a forgotten corner of the Arboretum, and it took me 10 minutes to extract us both. Mu and I did a search in Mud Bay, although not the muddiest part. We searched a wetland of rushes that smelled really good, and Mu got an excited look on his face. I unhooked his leash, and he ran in circles in the wetland, zooming wildly for a minute, and then he got back to work. Mu and I did a search in Portland, and Mu found 17 cats that day.
We searched on Cypress Island, which is only accessible by a special water taxi, a boat that drives up onto the beach and the front end opens to let passengers on and off. We tried to rescue a stray dog that we heard barking in the middle of a vast wetland in Snohomish County. Tino and I worked hard at it for hours, but we could never get to the dog’s location. The dog’s barking eventually moved out of the swamp, and she was later found at a nearby farm. Mu and I searched in a typical suburban neighborhood in Olympia, and it had a vacant lot that seemed to be ignored by the locals. It was filled with meadows of trilliums and bleeding heart, a magical oasis that seemed like had been put there just for us to discover. We often end up in ravines behind homes, forgotten spaces where no one goes, except lost cats and dogs. One day, Fozzie and I were searching for a black Lab, and the scent trail led into a blackberry patch. A black Lab could get through it with no trouble, but a human and a poodle with curly fur could not get through easily. I keep pruning shears in my pocket just for blackberries, so I started cutting my way in so Fozzie could track the scent. We went in deeper and deeper, and I kept thinking that we would get through the blackberry patch soon. It took us two hours to get to the other side.
On some days, we have crossed over $50 million worth of residential real estate during our searches. On those days, I double check to make sure I have plenty of bags in my pocket, knowing that Mu is likely to go right in the middle of a pristine, manicured lawn, right in front of a picture window with the residents looking out at us. We have searched in some of the worst neighborhoods of Seattle, where homeowners put razor wire on the top of their fences and everyone who can afford them has surveillance cameras. In that neighborhood, Mu and I searched a crawlspace that someone was living in. It was open to the outdoors on one side, and there was a couch and a coffee table and a lamp, and signs that someone was living there, I didn’t ask who. We did not find the cat in there, but I was just glad that we didn’t find a severed foot or something. We have searched in homeless encampments under the freeway. Under a freeway interchange near the Tacoma Dome, Mu helped locate a cat that had jumped out of a car after an accident. On the side of the 518 freeway in SeaTac, we trapped a dog that had been seen on the freeway many times. On I-90 in North Bend, I almost caught a sweet pit bull who had escaped after an accident. Many other people came to try to help me, and I was unable to keep them all away. They spooked her onto the freeway, and I had to pick up her body from the center lane, rushing out to grab her and get her off before more cars came along at 75 MPH and hit her again.
We have searched for many lost cats and dogs at SeaTac Airport. Mostly, they escaped from the air cargo area, when their travel crates were opened, which I advise you should never do. Mu found one cat in an area that was closed off for construction. The cat was under a giant boulder in a landscape feature, where his leash was stuck. Mu found him in five minutes, although it took us five days to line up permission to access that area. Mu and Max searched for a cat that was last seen running into the baggage area. We searched through a labyrinthe of tunnels and conveyor belts. The passageways were at odd angles to each other, and newer corridors intersected and overlapped old, forgotten tunnels. We never did find that cat, but I was mostly glad that we eventually found our way out of the maze.
We have searched up in the mountains, sometimes in the snow. Tino and I searched for Fia in The Palisades, and we found her after a two hour hike and a short search. We searched for a dog east of the town of Skykomish, where he had fallen from the peak of a mountain. We searched down the back side of the peak, off the trail, for hours. Although we weren’t exactly lost, we did hit rough terrain, and we were four hours overdue coming back. My favorite search, in terms of location, was a search that was canceled because the dog was found. We were supposed to meet the owner at the trailhead at dawn to start the search, but when we got there, the dog had come back to the parking lot. Since we were already at a magnificent trail, and our job had been canceled, Kelsy and I just went for a short hike on a beautiful day. Because we weren’t working, I could stop and take as many pictures as I wanted to, and we didn’t actually make it very far on the hike because there were so many beautiful flowers to see. We eventually made it to a vast meadow that seemed specifically designed for Kesly to play fetch. I gathered up a supply of sticks, and Kelsy ran across that meadow forever. Her barking echoed off the surrounding mountain peaks. I really enjoyed just being with her, with nothing to do, no cell reception, and just amazing beauty everywhere we looked. I knew at the time that I would always remember that perfect day with Kelsy, and that park has a special spot in my memory palace. I revisit that day and that place all the time, to spend time with my Kelsy, and I always will.
Beautiful stories, especially the last about Kelsey. So happy you had that experience with her.
Super comments. Great adventures. Hug animals❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾