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Darla: Lost and Found This story comes from Sam Connelly,
of Pure Gold Pet Trackers. It involves three
Golden Retrievers (two belonging to Sam), and their
adventure rescuing a third at Lake Linganore in May
2006. You can learn more about lost pet tracking at
Kat
Albrecht and Pet Hunters International
and also
International
K-9 Search & Rescue Services for Missing People and Pets.
Phil and Sandy Heimlich had
driven three hours down to New Market, Maryland from their
home outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their
daughter, Debbie, had recently delivered their new
grandchild and they were going to put serious
grandparent fingerprints on her.
Rather than board their new
Golden Retriever, 2-year-old
Daisy, since they had only had her for three weeks, they
opted to take her along on the road trip. Daisy was just
getting used to being a house pet after being purchased
on a co-ownership contract from Judy Breuer of Copperlee
Kennels. She was also adjusting to a new name, as she
had been called “Darla” for her first two years. The
extended car ride had made her very queasy, (two hours
into a three hour trip is a terrible time to find out
your new dog gets carsick).
After they arrived at their daughter’s home on a scenic
hill above Lake Linganore, in New Market, Maryland, they
settled in and then Sandy took Daisy out in the yard for
a bit of a stretch and a potty break. While she was
walking up the driveway she let out the flexi-leash and
Daisy moved out ahead of her to sniff around the
recently emptied trash cans. As she moved around to the
far side of the cans the leash tipped one of them over
and it crashed to the pavement making a terrible noise
and spooking the already nervous dog. Daisy bolted away
from Sandy yanking the handle of the retractable leash
out of her hand. The panicked Golden disappeared down
the tree-covered hillside at a dead run.
Phil and was inside holding the baby when he heard his
wife screaming in the front yard. He quickly passed the
baby to his daughter and ran outside. Sandy yelled, “She
ran off that way,” pointing down the hill. Phil ran
after her but to no avail, Daisy had vanished into the
wilderness area surrounding the lakeside development.
Phil and Debbie left Sandy with the baby and drove
around the area in their cars hoping to spot the
frightened dog, keeping in touch by cell phone. By dark
they were frantic imagining all kinds of horrors that
might befall their inexperienced kennel dog in the
wilderness.
They looked for her for the whole weekend, called the
area vets, called the Animal Control and the Frederick
County Humane Society. No one had picked up a female
Golden since she was lost on Friday. They were worried
sick about her since she was in a strange place and
dragging an extension leash along behind her (probably
adding to her terror) that could get tangled in the
dense underbrush and either choke her or even drown her
if it happened in the water. There were terrible
thunderstorms too that weekend and their hearts ached
for the terrified Golden alone in the storm.
They put up posters at the community mailboxes and
anywhere the locals would shop or congregate (the
community association prohibited posting signs on the
streets in the neighborhood). When they called the
Humane Society again on Monday the person there
suggested that they call around to the neighboring
counties as well since a dog can cover five – ten miles a
day. So they called all of the Animal Control and Humane
Societies in the five counties nearby. The last one they
called was Howard County who gave them some encouraging
news. They told Phil about a local lost pet tracker
named Laura Totis of LJT Training and recommended that
they call her.
When Laura got the call she was at her “day job”
managing a boarding kennel and doggie daycare in
Hampstead, MD. She told Phil that she could not come
until the following evening but that there was another
team in the area that might be able to come earlier than
that. She referred him to Sam Connelly of Pure Gold Pet
Trackers up in Baltimore. Sam also was at her “day job”
managing a veterinary equipment company. She, however,
worked the late shift and agreed to drive out to New
Market first thing in the morning to look for Daisy with
her two Golden Retrievers, Brando and Salsa.
Sam and Laura had met while members of Mid-Atlantic
D.O.G.S. Search and Rescue several years before. Sam’s
male Golden was originally training for man trailing and
her female was working on both, wilderness air scent and
cross-training on cadaver when Sam had to retire from
Search and Rescue for medical reasons. Not wanting to
waste all of the work she had done with these two
talented dogs, and knowing that they would drive her
crazy without a job, she decided to train them for pet
tracking.
Eight o’ clock Tuesday morning Sam and her Goldens
arrived at Debbie’s house and met with the anxious
owners. Daisy had now been missing for over three days in
the Lake Linganore neighborhood with no sightings
reported.
The only scent source was the back seat of the owner’s
car where Daisy had ridden on the way down (along with a
trace of her last meal). Sam put on latex gloves and,
using sterile gauze pads, gathered a scent article for
the dogs to work from. She wiped the gauze along the
seat picking up a couple of clumps of hair and dropped
it all in a Ziploc bag. Leaving some more gauze on the
seat for Laura to use later in the day, she left the car
closed and instructed Phil and Sandy not to clean it.
Sam pulled out her big, 7-year-old, male Golden, Brando,
and put on his tracking harness. He was so excited to be
going to work she could barely get it fastened as he
bounced and wriggled in anticipation. Once the harness
was secured he received the command to “down” so he
could be introduced to the scent of the missing dog.
Opening the scent bag, Sam held it in front of him and
he thrust his slightly-graying muzzle into the bag. As
he sniffed deeply she told him “mark” to let him know
that was what he was looking for. “Okay, Bran, go find!”
Sam instructed him and the big dog jumped up and went
right to work. He sniffed the car, then walked up to the
front door, turned around and followed the scent back up
the driveway, then turned and went across the yard and
down the hill beside the house.
Phil walked, ran, climbed and slid along with Sam
throughout the neighborhood, across steep back yards and
along the muddy banks of the lake as Brando followed
Daisy’s path of escape. After a couple of hours of
tracking they had found no trace of Daisy and Phil was
very disappointed. Sam explained that his dog had a
three-day head start and that it would probably take quite a
while to find her. A tracking dog is just to give you a
direction of travel and to verify sightings. You will
never “catch” a running dog with a tracking dog. The
tracking dog will get you in the area where the dog has
been but it will take the cooperation of people
reporting sightings, timing and a lot of luck to
actually recover the dog. Usually, if the dog is too
smart to go into a trap, or if you never get a good
sighting to determine the location for a trap, it will
be captured by accident when it gets so hungry and
desperate that it goes to someone’s home looking for
food. Not the words Phil wanted to hear knowing he had
to leave tomorrow to go back home. Sam also had to leave
as it was now 10:30 and she had to be at work in
Baltimore at noon.
She noted the location where they had left off so Laura
had a starting point for the afternoon track. She
reassured Phil and Sandy that they would come back to
verify any sightings and advised them to run a lost dog
ad in the local paper with both their phone number and
their daughter’s as well. She gave them her card to
leave with their daughter in case there was a sighting
when Phil could not get down from Philadelphia to check
it out (since she was only an hour and a half away). Sam
told the owners that the team would continue helping
them until they found Daisy.
Laura arrived in the afternoon as promised with her big
Rottweiler, Xena, and her high-drive German Shepherd Dog,
Chewy. Xena, also a retired Search and Rescue dog had
been cross-trained for lost pet tracking for a couple of
years now. Chewy was trained for basic tracking and then
she too was trained for pet tracking. All of the dogs on
the team had very good track records of frequently
recovering the pets they were looking for.
Laura and Chewy led Phil through even more treacherous
terrain than Sam and Brando had earlier. For hours they
followed the trail of the frightened Golden only to have
to call the search for the night when it got too dark
and too dangerous to continue.
Laura told Phil and Sandy basically the same thing Sam
had told them. Be patient, don’t give up hope, be
persistent and keep track of all of the sightings,
location, time of day, description given by the witness
of the dog’s behavior, etc.
The next day Phil and Sandy packed their car and the
saddened couple went home without their Daisy.
The following Wednesday Phil got a call from a lady in
the development across the main road from his daughter’s
development. She had seen a Golden playing with the
little Cairn terrier across the street a couple of times
over the past few days and then saw her again down by
the beach. She didn’t realize who the dog was until she
saw the ad in the paper. When she called Phil she told
him the dog had string or something hanging from her
collar. Phil immediately called Sam to see if she could
meet him back in New Market the next day to check the
scent with Brando to see if it was indeed Daisy. Then
perhaps they could track her to where she had gone or at
the very least set up a feeding station to attract her
back.
Sam agreed to meet him in the morning and when they got
there they spotted a Golden lying in a yard up the block
from where the sighting had been. For a moment there was
that little tingle of adrenaline as the hopes rise,
then, subside as you realize that the dog in the yard
was larger than an average female, not to mention darker
and a had heavier coat. It was probably a male that
lived at that home.
They went on up to talk to the lady, Mary Smith, who had
called in the sighting. She repeated the description of
the dog that had come to play with the neighbor’s
terrier and felt confident that it was the missing dog.
She said the last place she had spotted the dog was on
the path down by the beach. Sam suggested they take her
playful female Golden, Salsa, to use as a “magnet dog”
(a dog that encourages other dogs to come play with them
to attract shy dogs to come out of hiding).
Sam, Salsa and Phil walked down the street to the main
entrance that led down to the beach. About halfway down
the path they saw a pair of dogs in a yard. The little
female made their hearts leap until they realized that
she wasn’t a shaved down Golden but a yellow Lab like
the other dog (a larger male). They wondered if that was
what the witness had seen and Phil climbed up the steep
stairs to their house to see if the female had gotten
loose from the invisible fence in the past week or so.
The owner said that neither of her dogs had ever been
out of her yard unaccompanied. Phil thanked her and the
three searchers continued on down the path to the beach.
After half an hour playing ball on the beach they
decided to go back and get the tracking dog, Brando, to
see where Daisy went from her visit with the neighbor’s
dog.
Sam and Brando ran a cross track through the neighbor’s
yard and moments later Brando was charging down the back
of the yard toward the water where there was a narrow
trail at the water’s edge. The scent was strong and he
followed it around the curve of the lake and right back
onto the same trail by the beach. The track continued
around the path at the far end of the beach. It led to a
concrete walkway that ran from that neighborhood all the
way back around to the main road nearly half a mile
away. They came out on another pathway that led up and
across the road at a very treacherous location next to a
hill and a curve that limited visibility but didn’t
limit the speed of the passing cars. The scent trail
went across the busy road and continued up a path on the
other side into the woods along the water.
Unfortunately, it was 10:30 and Sam had to leave for
work. She promised to come back the next morning to pick
up where they had left off. Phil was disappointed but
encouraged that Brando had confirmed the sighting in the
other neighborhood. Maybe tomorrow would be the day.
Bright and early the next morning Sam and her
Goldens
met Phil near the place where they had ended their track
the day before. Phil brought his niece, Dafna, to walk
along with them. Dafna was a volunteer wildfire fighter
who worked with the US Forest Service to control the
damage done by wildfires each year. She was definitely
fit and eager to follow the trail of the missing Golden.
She had never watched a tracking dog work and found the
process fascinating.
The trail led along a creek that fed into the lake and
past an ancient cave that had been used by the
indigenous people who had lived in this area hundreds of
years ago.
Then they came to a cross trail and it took the big dog
a few minutes to determine which direction their subject
had taken. Soon, though, he crossed over a little
footbridge and up a path that climbed a steep hill with
rocky outcroppings. The trail wandered around the top of
the hill for a little bit then came out in another
neighborhood across the creek from the neighborhood
where she had escaped.
Her path ran through several back yards and up under a
deck where there was a strong pool scent, indicating she
may have spent one of those recent stormy evenings
hiding out there. She had checked out all of the local
trash cans and a couple of barbeque grills for traces of
food. Then the trail went down a yard and out onto a
dock where it ended with the big tracking dog staring at
the water and then back at his entourage. Apparently,
she had gone for a swim at that point. This was another
disappointing development and another day where the
searchers had to go home without even sighting their
quarry. How long could she survive? Where could she have
come out of the water? What do they do next? So many
questions and no real answers yet. Sam had weekend plans
as did Phil but they planned to keep in touch and pray
for sightings.
The following Tuesday evening Phil received a call from
Patti Flanders who had seen a small blonde Golden
running up and down along a small beach across the creek
from her home. Her home was only two blocks or so from
where Phil’s daughter lives. That would mean that the
dog was on the same side where we had been tracking her
the previous week. It appeared as though the dog was
afraid to go into the water for whatever reason, perhaps
because the bottom of the creek was deep mud and very
difficult to walk through without getting stuck. She may
have had a scare when climbing out from her swim the day
we lost her track and could not bring herself to go back
in. The most encouraging comment that Patti had made was
that she had spoken to Phil that first day and then seen
the poster with the dog’s name on it. She had called
“Daisy” and then “Darla” across the water to the
frightened dog. When she called “Darla” the dog looked
right at her and appeared to want to come to her,
desperation in her eyes. Her heart went out to the poor
starved dog and she wondered how they were going to get
to her. The area was marshy all the way around that
little point where she was stranded. Quite inaccessible
by car or on foot and the water in the creek was too
shallow for a boat rescue but the bottom was too deep
and muddy to walk across. They were expecting severe storms again that night so
Patti advised against attempting a rescue in the dark.
Sam told her that she could get there by 8:00 the next
morning so Patti spent the night periodically going out
and “checking” on the dog by calling “Dar-la” across the
creek. Each time the frightened Golden popped out on the
beach and frantically ran up and down looking for a way
across. Even in the midst of the storms at 2:00 am Patti
called her and the poor little girl came out looking
longingly across at her only hope. The situation was
heart-wrenching as the night dragged on and the rain
poured down.
The dawn came up clear and bright. Sam arrived at 8:00
am with her little female “magnet dog”, Salsa. She also
had a bright green ocean kayak on top of her SUV.
Patti took Sam down to survey the area and to see if
they could lure Daisy out onto the beach. “Dar-la”,
Patti called in the familiar tone. Within moments a shy,
thin Golden stepped out of the wood line onto the beach.
Sam caught her breath as she realized this was certainly
the dog they had been looking for. Two feet of cord hung
from the clip on her collar. It was all that was left of
the flexi-leash she had been dragging.
The women spoke comforting words to her though the
meaning was not important, just that she felt connected
to the two people on the opposite shore who were
encouraging her to stay there.
The pair went back up the hill and fetched the kayak
from the truck and took it down to the water’s edge. Sam
stuffed her pockets with a slip-lead, treats and little,
pop-top cans of Fancy Feast cat food. She also brought
lots of bug-repellant/sun-screen as the mosquitoes were
voracious and plentiful.
They found a likely place to put in and Sam launched the
boat into the creek. Thanks to the storms the night
before the creek was higher than usual allowing the
kayak the clearance it needed to navigate across to the
stranded dog.
Paddling slowly and quietly, Sam slipped up to the beach
at one end and grounded the kayak to begin the wait. She
called the dog as Patti had but she fled deeper into the
brush so Sam stopped and sat silently in the boat for
nearly half an hour. Still the dog refused to come out
and show herself. Sam signaled back to Patti, watching
from the other shore, to call the dog. “Dar-la”, Patti
called with a strong voice. Sam saw movement in the
underbrush but the dog was too frightened to come out to
the stranger on the beach. Even when Sam threw treats
into the bushes and onto the sand the fear was stronger
than the hunger, though the starving Golden watched
anxiously from her shelter.
Sam decided to move away a little bit to see if she
would come out and eat the treats. She paddled a short
distance around the bend of the creek, out of sight, and
at the same time surveyed the shore for a more
accessible path back to the beach. The thick brush and
trees grew right down to the shore and the blackberry
brambles made an impenetrable barrier. She steered the
kayak back over to where Patti waited and asked her to
go get Salsa and bring her down. Minutes later a
beautiful, wavy-coated, blonde rescue dog came dashing
down the steep stairs to the water. Sam yelled to Patti
to let her go so she wouldn’t drag her down the stairs.
She didn’t have to worry about Salsa running away,
because all she wanted to do was go kayaking with her
mom. She jumped into the water with great delight nearly
capsizing the kayak in her enthusiasm. Sam paddled back
across the creek followed closely by the ebullient
Salsa.
As they came up to the beach, Salsa climbed out and
began snacking on the treats out on the shore. Sam
tossed out some more then threw a couple more into the
brush. After several minutes of this, the curious Golden
in the bushes peeked her head out to see what was going
on. Salsa was running up and down the beach in absolute
joy at having discovered her very own mother lode of dog
snacks growing wild on the beach. Then Sam popped open a
can of chicken giblets in gravy and set it in the small
indentation on the front of the kayak (like it was
designed for it!) The smell drew Salsa over to “check it
out” and Sam let her taste it a little while petting her
and telling her what a good dog she was. This was more
for the sake of the little Golden in the woods than the
one standing next to her.
Soon the hungry Golden could no longer contain herself
and she crept out of the bushes onto the narrow beach.
Cautiously she approached Sam and Salsa who appeared to
be completely distracted by the contents of the little
can that smelled soooo good. Salsa took little notice of
the dog that was creeping closer and closer to her
private “good dog party”. When she finally did notice
her, she trotted over and made her welcome with a wag
and a play bow. After munching a handful of treats that
Sam was throwing in front of her, drawing her in closer
and closer, Darla stretched out her nose as far as she
could to reach the intriguing can of food in the center
of the bright-green buffet table. As she took her first
taste of the meat and gravy she trembled and then
surrendered to her starvation. Committing completely to
the first meal in three weeks she savored every last
morsel of the tasty food. Sam popped open another can
and held it out in her hand. The grateful dog came over
close to this wonderful person with the magic cans in
her pockets devouring the second can as Sam reached out
slowly and tied the end of the dog’s two-foot cord to
the double-ended lead that was snapped to the tie-down
on the kayak.
Salsa came around to the opposite side of the kayak and
the three of them slipped back into the water and
paddled across the creek to a teary-eyed Patti. “That
was the most amazing thing I’ve ever witnessed!” she
exclaimed as she helped Sam get the dogs out of the
water and safely on shore. “I will remember that
forever.” “It gave me Goosebumps!”
Sam told her “That is how we always hope our searches
will end.” “Gotta love a happy ending!” she said with a
grin as she climbed up the hill with the two Goldens
walking happily beside her. She put the two dogs in the
truck and went back to get the rest of her gear. After
helping to tie the kayak back on the roof rack, Patti
let Sam use her bathroom to change into dry clothes for
the drive home. First, though, she called the anxious
owners and gave them the good news. They couldn’t
believe they were going to get their Daisy back after so
long, nearly three weeks.
Phil and Sandy drove down to Sam’s office, an hour and a
half from their home in Pennsylvania, to pick up the
thin but otherwise unharmed Golden girl. What an
adventure she had taken them all on. Judy Breuer,
Darla’s breeder, called Sam on the way home to thank her
and congratulate her on her excellent service. “You need
to be better advertised!” she told Sam. “I didn’t even
know that pet-trackers existed much less how to get in
touch with one in an emergency.” She assured Sam that
she would keep her contact information handy, just in
case she or anyone else she knew ever lost a pet again.
“We will definitely be sending you a better expression
of our gratitude very soon by mail for all of your hard
work and your expenses.” “We appreciate what you’ve done
more than words can say.”
Sam and Laura were just glad to have reunited the little
runaway with her owners, for that is truly the greatest
reward of all.
Sam Connelly has been a friend to the Land of PureGold
for many years now. She actually won Fourth Place in our
Treasured Golden Bonds Storywriting Contest, with her
entry: "Emilee, The
Throw Away Dog"
Sadly,
Emilee recently left Sam's side, having earned her
Golden wings on June 30, 2006. The following was written
a mere five days before. "My dear friend, SAR partner
and companion, Emilee, has been diagnosed with
pancreatic cancer. At 12½-years-old she was spunky and
playful until last weekend when she became very
lethargic. She did her last therapy-dog event at Port
Discovery children's museum on Saturday and was
exhausted afterward. She refused to eat that evening and
the next morning so I made an appointment at the vet. He
did blood work and x-rays and then explained very gently
and caringly how quickly this form of cancer progresses.
She will probably only be with us for a couple of weeks
or so as she now needs help to go outside and has to
have several small meals a day to keep her blood glucose
up. He has prescribed Prednisone for her to make her
more comfortable.
I am very fortunate that I have a job where I can take
her with me everyday. She still enjoys being at our
waterfront office where she can watch the ducks, herons
and geese in the yard. I know she has made many friends
out in the world between her search and rescue work and
her therapy work as well as being an outstanding
ambassador for GRREAT and the Golden Retriever breed.
I
just wanted our friends to know that her story is coming
to an end though she will never be forgotten. |
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