Useless Bay Sanctuary helped 6 dogs this week

We can help more dogs with your help.

On March 6th, we were contacted about a German Shepherd wandering scared near a freeway in Renton.  Because I happened to be available, I loaded up Tino and a folding trap and headed out to see what I could do.  The dog’s  name is Jojo and she was recently adopted. She came from Toledo, Washington, so she was not familiar with her new home. She had not been at her new home very long before she escaped, and panicked and ran off. It’s not unusual for a dog coming to a new home to feel a lot of anxiety. Dogs are prone to escaping and running away at this critical moment in their lives when they don’t understand what is happening.

Over the course of three days, Jojo was seen in the area, and on the third day, she was located next to the freeway, 12 blocks south of the point of escape. She was underneath the bridge, avoiding people. There was no fence to keep her off of the freeway at that point, just a concrete Jersey barrier which she could easily jump if panicked. She was in danger of running onto the freeway if she was approached improperly. Fortunately, she had a patch of woods and underbrush to hide in, to avoid people.

When I got to the location near where she had been seen, her new owner was there, and he pointed out to me the places she would go.  They had been feeding her near her safe place under the bridge and at the edge of the woods.  I explained to her owner how the trap would work.  He had to go home for a while, so I set the trap in a safe place, where I could see it from a distance, and where Jojo would feel safe.  After not very long, I noticed movement in the area of the trap.  I tried to shoot a video of her going into the trap, but the shrubs made it hard to see.  In a few moments, I finally realized she was in the trap, contained.  I had first received a text from the owner at 2:19 PM, telling me Jojo’s location.  By 4:23 PM, I was able to send him a text with a picture of Jojo safely in the trap.  She was nervous, but she settled down when I approached her with claiming signals.

Jojo had been on the run for days, and she was seen in an area where she was at a high risk of ending up dead on the freeway if people approached her wrong.  Because UBS volunteers have the proper equipment and training, we were able to rescue Jojo fairly quickly, and in the safest way.  People don’t know the best ways to help a lost dog because it’s not something they have to deal with very often.  They use the usual approaches, what the average person might think would be appropriate for catching a lost or stray dog.  They call out to the dog, they move towards her, they look directly at the dog to convey their desire to help, and they often chase the lost dog, hoping to catch up and contain her.  All of those things are exactly what you should not do for a dog who is panicked and nervous and avoiding people.  Because we deal with these situations every day, we know the best methods for helping these sorts of dogs.

Once Jojo was in the trap, the owner and I carried the trap, with Jojo inside, down the hill and loaded it in the car.  I drove her to his apartment, twelve blocks away, and then we carried the trap into his apartment.  Only when she was fully enclosed inside the apartment, with the door shut, did we open the trap and let Jojo out.  Then we used calming signals to let her relax and come up to people when she was ready.  UBS volunteers and training and equipment helped Jojo, and she probably would not have survived if we hadn’t been there to help her out of this difficult situation.

On March 8th, UBS volunteer Kari Fiore was able to capture a chihuahua on Beacon Hill.  This dog had been seen running in traffic and was limping, probably injured.  Lily Burns instructed people in the area on how to use calming signals to get the dog to stop running.  Kari went there with a humane trap, but was able to put a slip lead on the dog when she came close.  The dog’s injuries don’t seem too serious.  She was taken to the shelter and is now with a foster.

On March 9th, UBS volunteers were finally able to catch a dog in the mountains north of Gold Bar.  This German Shepherd had been seen in the area for days, and he had run in front of cars on the country road, almost getting hit several times.  He had been seen since at least the 5th, and UBS volunteers had been trying to help him since the 6th.  We set one trap, and then the next night we set a second trap.  We had three cameras watching the traps.  When I set a trap on the 7th, I saw the dog about 15 meters away, lying down.  I tried not to disturb him, but he did get up and walk off a little way.  By the evening of the 8th, we had two traps and three cameras watching them.  UBS volunteer Brenda Jorgensen  drove to Gold Bar on the 9th to look for him.  She asked some people in the area and they said they had seen the dog at Deer Flats, less than a quarter of a mile from where our traps were set.  She went to the area and saw him, and she was able to lure him with calming signals and treats.  She got him into her Jeep without too much trouble.

It turned out that the Gold Bar dog had a microchip.  His name is Luke. When we called his owner, she didn’t even know he was missing!  He was supposed to have gone hiking with some friends, and those friends (possibly former friends) had never notified the owner that Luke had gone missing.  She was very glad to see him when UBS volunteers transported him home, and Luke was happy to be back with his family.  Although Luke may possibly have been found, eventually, without the help of UBS, he was in a dangerous situation, and UBS volunteers helped get him to safety faster than anyone might have without our help.

On March 9th, we learned of a black dog in the South Seattle area.  A photograph of her was posted in the Lost Dogs of King County Facebook group.  The afternoon of the 10th was the first time I had the chance to go to the area.  When I got there, I did not see the dog.  Using the photo that was posted on Facebook, and searching outward in a spiral from the location given, I was finally able to match up the photograph with some objects in someone’s yard.  I saw the man working in his yard.  He said that he had seen the dog the previous day, and had set up a dog house for her to get out of the weather.  She appeared to have not used the dog house, and was no longer visible in the man’s yard.  I gave him my card and asked him to call me if he saw the dog again.

I had only driven a few miles when he called and said the dog actually was still in his yard, but she had been behind a wood pile where he didn’ t notice her.  I went back and set a trap.  She seemed cautious, but I felt confident she would go in the trap when she was ready.  I set a camera to watch the trap.  I had to leave to go to Olympia to search for another dog, so I asked Kari to come and watch the trap area.  Kari was actually able to get the dog to eat out of her hand.  Kari led her to the trap, and because of Kari’s use of calming signals, the dog was comfortable enough to go into the trap.  Kari got her to the shelter where she would be safe.

A border collie mix escaped in Carnation, and ran a couple of miles down the road.  She was seen going in and out of a field, and crossing the main highway at a curve.  It was a dangerous place for her to be.  Two UBS volunteers, Judy and Susan, set up two traps and two cameras in the area.  On Monday, March 11th, at 10:15 PM, she went into one of the traps after 5 days on the run.  She had originally escaped from a pet sitter.  She was a skittish dog, and any other method of trying to capture her, near a busy rural highway, risked driving her into traffic.  The trap was definitely the safest way to recover her.  Cameras notified us immediately when she went in and was trapped. Malyshka was very happy to be home, and she zoomed around her house.

Last night, March 13th, someone posted on the Lost Dogs of King County Facebook group about a dog under a car in SeaTac.  She was dragging a leash, and the leash was stuck on a tire.  The witness wanted to help this dog, but she was growling, and seemed unsafe to approach.  Kari went to the location, and was able to get this girl out from under the car using calming signals.  Kari was having a little trouble convincing her to get in the car, so she asked me to assist with a humane trap.  When I got there with the trap, the dog decided to get in the car after all.  She had a serious but fixable medical condition, possibly a prolapsed uterus.  The dog was not at all bothered by her condition.  We took her to the emergency vet, and they would hold her overnight until animal control could talk to them in the morning and decide what should happen next with her.  She was very friendly, and I had trouble taking her picture because I couldn’t get far enough apart from her to get a view of her face and body.  I had Kari hold her leash so I could step back a few steps and take a picture.  I’m sure her condition can be treated and she will be a very happy dog for someone, either her original family or a new family if she is not claimed at the shelter.  She was stuck under a car, growling and in need of medical assistance, and UBS volunteers were able to get her to safety.

Useless Bay Sanctuary volunteers helped 6 dogs in 7 days.  We used calming signals, humane traps, wildlife cameras, and our knowledge of dog behavior to help these dogs.  Each of these six dogs had a significant risk of dying without the intervention of an organization like UBS.  Another way that UBS helped these dogs is simply that we were willing and able.  Animal control generally doesn’t respond to a dog stuck under a vehicle at 10 PM, but UBS volunteers will.  Animal control doesn’t really have the resources to send an officer out to the wilderness beyond Gold Bar to look for a dog they may not find.  Our volunteers will, when we are available.  Good Samaritans often want to help dogs in these situations but they lack the equipment and knowledge. No one besides UBS volunteers really has the equipment, experience, knowledge, and adaptability to help a frightened German Shepherd in the woodsy right of way beside a freeway without putting her at serious risk of death.  For 11 years, we have been helping hundreds of dogs each year.  This year, with the overcrowding crisis at our local shelters, and Animal Control being pushed beyond capacity, UBS volunteers could probably be out there helping stray dogs every single day of the year if we had the volunteers and the donations.  Almost every day, I see a post about a dog wandering lost, and I know that I could help that dog if I were available.  If we had more volunteers and donations, more lives could be saved.  UBS was founded on the idea that there is a category of stray dogs that really wasn’t being properly addressed by other rescues and by shelters.  These dogs just didn’t fit in with those resources.  In 2024, probably because of lagging effects of the pandemic, there is a stray dog crisis, and the need for UBS volunteers, donors, and supporters is greater than at any time in our rescue’s history.  Please help us help dogs.  If you have five or ten hours a week, we can train you how to help these sorts of dogs.  Your donations help us buy traps, cameras, scanners, and other equipment.  We need foster homes to take these dogs after we catch them.  If you can’t volunteer time or donate, you can help UBS by sharing our story and helping us get the attention of people who can volunteer and donate.  I just looked at Facebook and saw several dogs that could be helped by our volunteers if we weren’t stretched thin.  We can do more with your help.

http://www.uselessbaysanctuary.org/