Fostering

My wife and I started fostering rescue dogs mostly by accident. We adopted a Shih-tzu mix, who seemed completely relaxed when we met her at the rescue. When we got home, we eventually figured out that she was terrified, and freezing was her coping mechanism. Once she got a little more comfortable, she started hiding from us in the house. It took many months, but Molly eventually warmed up to us and we gained her trust.

For as frustrating an experience it is to have a dog be absolutely terrified of you for no reason, it was also incredibly rewarding to see her come out of her shell. We decided that we wanted to help other dogs in similar situations, so we started fostering. It's been several years, and we've fostered dozens of dogs. For a long time, we fostered for A Tail to Tell, which unfortunately recently closed. More recently, we have been fostering for Lucky Dawg Animal Rescue.

Blanche

This week, however, we had a "first", and not a good one. We picked up a new foster dog, Blanche, on Sunday. We have a nice fenced in yard, and we immediately took Blanche out back into the yard. She was very skittish, and we gave her some space. She immediately dove into a row of large evergreen trees in our yard and hid. Eventually, I had to go in and carry her out, which was not a simple task given the size of the trees.

The next morning, I let Blanche out and saw her run into the same trees. It was very hot, and after about an hour, I started to grow concerned and went out to look for her. She was not in the same tree as last time, but I figured she was hiding in another one. There are several trees, and it is fairly difficult to see into them. I started exhaustively searching the trees, and I couldn't find her. I also found a part of our fence that was slightly pushed out, as if something had forced its way out. She had escaped.

The Search: Monday (Day One)

My wife and I were very upset, but we shifted into action. We reported Blanche as missing on PawBoost, our community Facebook page, called the local police department, and notified our rescue, Lucky Dawg Animal Rescue. We quickly began receiving sighting reports of Blanche. She was initially seen at approximately 10am in a wooded area next to a busy road. I went to the area and searched for her while my daughter and wife started talking to neighbors and handing out flyers. I saw no sign of her in the wooded area.

We spent the rest of the day trying to put up posters on telephone poles, which is harder than it seems! Tape doesn't adhere very well to dirty telephone poles. The trick is to tape all the way around the pole so that the tape sticks to itself.

We received another sighting report at 5pm, this time on the other side of the busy road. The report was of a dog "playing/fighting" with a chicken. Fortunately, I knew which house this was at from the description. Around the same time, two members of our rescue arrived to help. We went to the house and I talked to the owner, who revealed that Blanche had attacked her chicken. She chased Blanche off, and Blanche ran into the woods. While I was talking to the owner, our rescue members saw Blanche in a large field nearby. Blanche spotted them, and ran into a wooded area near a creek. I was able to reach the other side of the wooded area, but the experts decided that it would be better to leave a food station for Blanche so she stayed in the area rather than try to chase her.

The Search: Tuesday (Day Two)

The next morning we received a few sightings of Blanche near our neighborhood again. More surprisingly, my wife left our fence gate open and saw Blanche sniffing around the fence around 8 am. Unfortunately, Blanche ran off. It was very hot, and Blanche presumably slept during the day.

That evening, the rescue returned and put out a trap with lots of food, and a remote camera to monitor it. We cranked up the volume on my phone so that every time the camera detected movement, we would wake up. We were woken up several times, but it was mostly false positives. At 1:59am, a cat wandered by. At some point, the cat triggered the cat, and at 2:28am we were greeted by a picture of Blanche studying the cat in the trap.

I snuck outside, and saw Blanche eating food about 10 feet away from me. It was frustrating to be so close but not be able to do anything. But our rescue members told us that it was safer to make her feel safe and comfortable with the trap. She clearly enjoyed the food that we had put out for her. She would be back.

After Blanche finished eating, we freed the cat from the trap and added more food, but we didn't see Blanche again that night. Stupid cat!

The Search: Wednesday (Day Three)

The next morning, Blanche was sighted in many of the same places, including near our house. Unfortunately, she was also seen crossing the road again. We were worried that a car would hit her. She slept during the day again. In the evening, there was heavy rain, and we decided to wait until after the rain to put the trap out. Naturally, Blanche showed up during the rain, and we missed an opportunity to catch her. Fortunately my wife had put out a couple pieces of food, so she didn't leave empty handed.

We armed the trap again and waited. She came back around 9:43pm and began investigating the trap. She was very cautious, and decided to yank out the towel on the bottom of the trap. She stayed for a very long time, as we waited in suspense for her to trigger the trap. Eventually she entered the trap, but it didn't trigger for some reason. It was frustrating, but not the end of the world. She would begin to think the trap was a safe source of food.

Blanche stayed around for a long while, but eventually left. We examined the trap. When she yanked the towel, it actually disarmed the trap without activating it. We fixed the trap and waited again, hoping she would be back later that night.

At 2:05am, she came back and began to investigate the trap again. We waited for what seemed like forever. At 2:15am, we received this picture of her deep in the trap.

The camera we were using would take a burst of three pictures every time it detected motion. After that picture, we didn't receive any more pictures. This could mean that she was in the trap, or that the trap had not triggered and she had left. We waited for a while, and then snuck outside to check. We had caught her! We carried the trap inside and put her back into her exercise pen, and finally got some sleep.

The Aftermath

Blanche is not very happy to be back inside, but she ate, drank, and is safe. She hasn't been very lively yet, but this is not uncommon with mill rescue dogs, who often need a few days before they start to interact and show personality. Hopefully she'll quickly realize that we're not so bad, and that she is safe and sound in our house.

We have a long list of interesting stories from our years fostering rescue dogs, but this was certainly one of the more interesting and stressful ones. On the positive side, we met a lot of our neighbors, and we were pleasantly surprised by how helpful and supportive they were, without exception. Many people wanted to help in whatever way they could. We really live in a cool little community.