We were waiting for the car to be fixed, so we went for a walk. It was raining lightly. The weather app said the rain was going to stop, but it kept drizzling, which was nice. It kept Tino cool, when normally he would overheat on a mid-day walk in August. I like walking in the rain. We walked along city streets with no particular destination, just turning right or left whenever. I stopped in several places to take pictures of Tino against interesting backgrounds. I had my earphones in. I have listened to music almost all of my life, and technology now allows me to walk along a city street in the rain with crystal clear, loud music. The sound quality is not quite as good as some of the best stereos I have owned, but it’s close, and having good music available as you are walking in the rain is amazing.
Tino and I turned a corner, and walked past an empty lot that was being repurposed. A crew of laborers was doing grunt work. My headphones started playing Soul Coughing, Super Bon Bon. It was hard not to strut with my magnificent mutt. “Move aside and let the man go through. Let the man go through.” I was thinking of Tino, of course, not myself. I am exceptionally ordinary, but I take great pride in my extraordinary dog. A few of the workers stopped scraping their shovels along the asphalt and just watch Valentino stroll by, big and confident, ears up, fur wet but he didn’t care. We were walking aimlessly, but on a mission, to enjoy the rain and the downtime, to just walk, to just be. Many people noticed Tino as we walked for hours.
On Monday, the 14th, Tino will be 7 years old. He has lived such a life already. Every day is an adventure for him, even if it’s just a walk to the end of the driveway. If he finds a good stick, look out! He will dance and leap, with his tail doing a dance of its own, synchronized but improvised. Tino has saved lives, including Puppy, Fia, Ruby, Caper, Yeobo, Copper, and a little Pomeranian named BadAss. Just as importantly, he has worked hard to try to find dogs that we never caught up with. Through no fault of Tino’s we only find about 25% of the dogs we search for, usually because we are too far behind on the scent trail. In many cases, we could have had a higher chance of success if we had started sooner.
Tino sings wonderful music. He howls almost every day. He talks a lot. I have video of his first day of life, and he was full of words from the first day. He even talked while he was nursing. Tino also poses for pictures. He has had his picture taken almost every day of his life. He has been alive 2,555 days, and I have at least 25,555 pictures and videos of him. As I scroll through the 153,523 pictures and videos on my phone, probably close to half of the pictures are of Tino. He is very photogenic, and because he has had his picture taken every day of his life, he doesn’t get annoyed with the process the way the other dogs do. Getting his picture taken is just part of life, and often involves cookies or toys. I wish he knew how beautiful he is, but maybe it’s a good thing he doesn’t.
Tino physically damages me. He barks super loud when he is close to my face, due to his enthusiasm for life, when a gentle word would have sufficed. I’m certain I have hearing loss because of him. He pulls very hard, causing pain in my hands and my knees. Tino also heals me. He sleeps curled against my chest, or against my back. I don’t think it would be possible to sleep without him. I need to have him close to me at all times, if possible. He is almost like an emotional support dog, except he is also trying to kill me on a daily basis.
I have written many articles about Tino, and of course some day his stories will be collected into a book. He means everything to me. I am very lucky to live with him and work with him. Because our job is to find lost dogs, I am acutely aware that some day he could simply vanish, for no apparent reason. Maybe an accident, a car crash, a fire, a coyote might entice him to give chase, a stolen car, a door blown open by the wind. I have GPS on him, but the battery could fail. If I lost Tino, my life would just be over.
In July, we searched for Archie. On a camping trip, he was there one moment, and then he just seemed to vanish. When Carly first contacted me, she had been convinced by friends that Archie had been swept down the river. It seemed plausible. I told her that Tino probably couldn’t track Archie’s scent under those conditions because the river would have washed away the scent, and it would be very difficult to find a spot where he hauled himself out of the river. I told her a search dog was not advisable under the circumstances, but that she still had a good chance of finding him. The more she looked at the situation, it really didn’t seem like he could have been swept down the river. It was shallow in that area, and the current wasn’t that strong. It hadn’t rained in weeks. She found some fur and scat in a location, and she thought that Archie was hanging around. After discussing things further, we agreed that Tino could give it a try, even though the odds might be low because of the amount of time that had passed. We did seem to pick up Archie’s scent in a few places, but the scent trail went cold. I looked at the point he was last seen, and it didn’t seem to me that he could really have been swept down the river. I thought it was more likely that he had chased after some wildlife, and no one heard him run off because the sound of the river masked his escape. We did not locate Archie that day, but I advised Carly that I thought she had a good chance of finding him.
Carly did everything right. She initially became convinced that Archie was swept down the river, because people who were with her thought it was possible. We now don’t think that was very likely, but in her emotional state and panic, she had been convinced of the possibility. This cost her time, and we may have missed an opportunity to use Tino when the scent was fresher. Carly did not give up. She started a Facebook group for Archie. She put up a lot of really good signs. Thousands of people know about Archie, and have looked for him. She put up wildlife cameras and set traps. She used drones. She has even received tips from psychics, although I don’t consider those to be helpful. The point is, she has tried every way she can think of to find Archie. She has missed many days of work. She even got a tattoo of Archie, as a sign of her dedication to him. Tino and I came out to search a second time, in an area where Carly found fur like his on thorns. Tino did track that scent, which we believe is probably Archie’s scent. It led to the floodplain of the river, the middle part between the north and south channels. This is an area where most people don’t go, because you have to wade through one of the river channels to get there. In that middle ground, Tino tracked a scent where we saw paw prints the right size for Archie, and it appeared he was following elk. Archie had been know to chase wildlife, and chasing the elk seemed like something Archie would do. The scent trail stopped at the river, again, and we weren’t able to pick it up again.
I can’t say for certain that the scent trail Tino followed was really Archie, but I’m about 75% certain it was him. Although he has been missing about six weeks, there’s no reason to think he is deceased. Statistically, based on my experience with thousands of lost dog cases, I think he is likely still out there somewhere. Carly is probably exhausted, physically, emotionally, and financially, but she is not giving up. She is doing all the right things for Archie. He was there one moment, and she turned away, and she turned back and he had vanished. I can’t help think it could happen to my Tino.
If Tino disappeared, of course I would use every means at my disposal to find him quickly, and I probably would. I would have the other search dogs, Haas and Max, search for him. Mu doesn’t really search for dogs, but I think he could search for Tino, and I would try him. I would use social media, posters, fliers, volunteers, drones, any method I could to find him. I would want all the help I could get. It’s possible that maybe Max and Haas wouldn’t be available to search when I needed them. Although I feel certain that an army of volunteers would come out to search for Tino, maybe people would be busy. I worry that, in the unlikely event that Tino should go missing, the resources might not be available for me when I need them. I know many people have been disappointed when I haven’t been available to help them right away.
For the sake of dogs like Archie, and potentially for Tino if he should go missing due to some fluke, I wish there were more resources available for lost dogs. 10,000 dogs go missing in King County every year. Probably 50,000 dogs go missing in Western Washington every year. Tino and I can’t help all of them. Although I have a small business, Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue, I don’t advertise because I can’t keep up with the demand for lost pet services. Just in King County, there could easily be 50 teams of dogs and humans providing the kind of service that Tino and Mu and I offer, and there would be plenty of work for all of them, unfortunately. If there were more search teams available, who were trained and qualified, owners of lost dogs could get services sooner, when a search dog has a greater chance of being effective.
We love our dogs, and they deserve the best care and services. I can train you and your dog. Our community needs more services available for lost dogs and cats. I have people getting angry with me because I can’t help them soon enough. I know for a fact that dogs and cats are not being found sometimes because competent help is not available right away. Whether you would want to do it as a volunteer or as a paid service, we need more people qualified in Lost Pet Rescue. An 8 week online course is starting tonight. If you have ever gone out of your way to save a lost dog or cat in your neighborhood, then you know how great it feels when you can rescue someone’s family member. Please consider taking this training and becoming a resource for our community. Tino and I need your help.
Most of us realize how fortunate you are to have the relationship you do with all your dogs. And you know any of us who could be available if you needed to find Tino would be there. But I also feel that Tino may somehow wander off someday. But I don't think he would go very far for very long before he started searching for you. He may not be trained to follow humans scent. But I bet he could follow yours.
Such love...