Viktoria, Part One

How to catch a dog by not catching her.

We have had more than 80 reported sightings of Viktoria, ranging from Everett to North Seattle, over the course of a month. I have seen her myself a couple of times. Someone had already tried to trap her and that attempt failed, so she is especially cautious. Normally,  I write about a dog after we catch her . In this case, whether or not we catch her depends on the cooperation of the general public. I will write part two of Viktoria’s story, but I don’t know if I will write about her capture or if I will be writing about picking up her body off the freeway.

If you see Viktoria, please pretend that you don’t see her.  Look away.  Turn your body away.  Use the selfie camera on your phone to look over your shoulder at her.  Pretend you are getting the mail or pruning a hedge.  Let her know that your attention is focused away from her, and that she is completely invisible to you.  Walk away from her.

Do not try to catch her.  Please, do not try to catch her.  Many people think they are great with dogs, and that a dog would come to them more so than to other people.  People think because they have good intentions, the dog is going to know that and come to them.  Viktoria has become conditioned that if someone looks at her a certain way, then next thing that happens is that the person is going to try to catch her.  She is not going to stick around to find out if you have good intentions.  She is going to bolt as soon as you look at her.

I have a wealth of experience catching dogs that are difficult to catch.  For 15 years, starting with my volunteer work at Missing Pet Partnership, I have been catching stray dogs.  I started a nonprofit for stray dogs 11 years ago: Useless Bay Sanctuary.  The five dogs I have currently, 3 were captured as strays, and 2 were unwanted by their owners.  I have written books about catching stray dogs.  I spend 80 hours a week helping lost pets.  I can’t catch this dog with some neat little trick, or with good intentions.  If I can’t catch her, the chances that you will be able to catch her are essentially zero.  There is a significant chance you may get her killed if you try to catch her and she runs into the street, or onto the freeway.

So, how do you catch a dog you can’t catch?  With a kennel trap 10 feet long.  Bonnie was a dog that was missing for 7 years.  People attempted to trap her when she first went missing, and she learned how traps worked.  When we got reports of her living in a ravine, just a few miles from where she originally went missing, we set up the kennel trap and she basically walked right in.  Trapped and safe after seven years on the run.  UBS volunteers want to set this kennel trap for Viktoria, but we need her to settle in one place and become conditioned to returning to a feeding station without anyone interacting with her.

The reason I have named this stray dog Viktoria, even though I have no idea who owned her or what her previous name was, is because she is behaving very much like Viktor.  He was a dog that ran from Everett to Seattle, and it took us five weeks to catch him the first time.  After a week in my house, he escaped, and it took us another week to catch him the second time.  When we were trying to catch Viktor, there were several instances when we were very close to catching him, but people with good intentions interfered.

The best way to help Viktoria is by ignoring her.  Please just report any sightings.  There have been a few instances where she settled into someone’s yard for a nap, and the homeowner was able to see her out the window without Viktoria being aware.  That would be the ideal situation for our team, if we can just get her to settle and be comfortable in one spot.  We can bring the giant trap, but we need her to stay put.

Viktoria has crossed I-5 at least ten times, hopefully using an overpass or underpass each time.  She was seen running along the shoulder of the 525 freeway in Lynnwood.    So far, she has avoided being hit by a car, but her luck may not  hold out indefinitely.

If you want to help Viktoria, please spread the word that people should just report the sightings and ignore her.  UBS volunteers can catch her if we can get the cooperation of the general public.  Please join the Facebook group for coordinating the capture of Viktoria, and ask others to join.  If we can make the public aware of how NOT to catch Viktoria, it will greatly increase our chances of being able to set the giant trap for her.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/395853136368133/?ref=share_group_link