Pete

Minneapolis residents Josh and Ashley woke at 3 a.m. to their dog Casey barking, and when they looked out the window, the saw a dog outside their house. Possibly a bull terrier/Vizsla mix, the dog was there the next day, too, but ran when Josh tried to catch him. They placed a shelter–a cardboard box lined with a sleeping bag–in their front yard and started putting out food, and the dog seemed pleased to have both.

Although Josh reached out to local rescues to help “Pete,” sadly none were able to come to his aid. However, we learned about Pete through our network of friends and rescue advocates, and Retriever Jen Eidbo went to the house to help.

She found Pete lying in the box–shaking with fear–so she immediately sat to one side and asked Josh to bring her pieces of hotdog and a leash. Pete sniffed her hand with no issues. Jen fed him dog treats and slowly gained his trust. In time, he let her pet his neck, ears and muzzle.

With every piece of hotdog, Jen moved the leash a little closer. When she was finally able to get the leash around his neck, Pete was still shaking but did not attempt to bolt.

They then opened the top of the box and petted Pete for a while, but he wouldn’t come out on his own. So Jen gently pulled the sleeping bag out from under him, causing him to slowly stand and walk out. With a little coaxing, Pete was led into the house and into a crate lined with the same bedding that had comforted him for the last couple of days.

Josh and Ashley fostered Pete for several days until a rescue was found. He was transferred to 4 Luv of Dog for placement into a permanent home.

In March 2014, we learned about a stray Chesapeake Bay Retriever who had shown up in the North Branch, Minnesota, area the previous fall. Fed by several Good Samaritan families, the Chessie had survived on his own in a wooded area through the harsh winter of 2013-2014.

This dog was seemingly friendly, but was not willing to let anyone get within 100 feet to try to help him.

An action plan was put in place and the Retrievers team set out the Missy Trap to try to bring this survivor in from the cold.  Because the families had done such a good job of getting the dog into a feeding routine, he was remaining in the general area and returning to the same two locations for food.

We set up the Missy Trap at 4 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon as the Chessie sat and watched from a distance.  Initially, we’d planned to lock the gate open for the night to allow him to get comfortable with the trap. But since he was not scared away by our commotion, we decided to try to catch him that same day.

For four hours, we observed him from inside a parked vehicle as he walked hesitantly around the trap, too skittish to enter. But eventually, the aroma of the tasty bait and treats inside overpowered his fear. Once he was far enough into the trap, we triggered the gate to close, and we had him.

We named him Winter. He is as kind a dog you could ever meet, and he seemed to be relieved when we caught him. He spent his first night with one of the Retriever team members, and the following morning was transported to the Chesapeake Retriever Rescue of Wisconsin.  He is doing very well in foster care and they have renamed him Yukon.

On December 8, 2013, Samuel slipped his collar shortly after arriving at a local rescue’s foster home. Numerous volunteers from the rescue mounted an aggressive search for the young German Shepherd, putting countless flyers into the hands of residents and businesses in the area and placing signs at many intersections.

In late January, a Good Samaritan in the area noticed Samuel in his yard of his home. At first glance he thought Samuel was a coyote, but he quickly realized it was a German Shepherd. He and his wife recalled the signs they’d seen for Samuel, and they contacted his rescue. For two weeks, the homeowner left food every day in the same location in his backyard, and soon Samuel was making the trip to the feeding station a couple times a day, often around 3 p.m.

Habituating Samuel to the feeding station was key, because now we were able to deploy the Missy Trap where we expected he would be. We set up the trap on a Saturday morning. According to photos from the trail camera, Samuel visited the trap several times that day.

We decided to lock the gate open for the first day to allow Samuel to get used to the trap’s presence and be comfortable going inside. We learned from the trail cam that he went inside the trap each time he stopped by. The following day, February 6, we set the trap door to trigger using an electromagnetic release. Retrievers volunteer Greg James and Samuel’s foster observed from a vehicle parked 200 feet away, waiting for Samuel to make his appearance.

At 3 o’clock, right on schedule, Samuel walked out of the woods and slowly approached the trap. Enticed by the fresh food at the back of the trap, he walked fully inside. Greg cut the power to the electromagnet, triggering the gate to fall closed.

After 70 long days on his own in the harsh Minnesota winter—which had included stretches of subzero weather caused by a polar vortex—Samuel was finally captured and was returned to his foster home. He had lost 30 pounds but was otherwise in good health—a true testament to the resilience of these dogs when they are on their own.

As of this writing, Samuel is safe, warm and doing well in his foster home.

We were informed by Dave and Sheryl in Stacy, MN that a black dog had appeared from no where and had been hanging out in their yard for 5-6 weeks. It was cold and she appeared to become great friends with the neighbor’s horse and was sleeping in the horse barn. After doing some asking around, they found out the dog was a foster dog from their neighbor down the road and she had gotten loose.

Dave and Sheryl started feeding her outside their sliding door and she got into the routine of feeding from that location when she’d see them step out to fill the bowl and hear them whistle. Often she was seen in their back yard playing in the snow with milk cartons or other things she found.

Dave and Sheryl were concerned that the impending polar vortex would make it tough for her to survive and they contacted us to see if we could help trap her into safety and warmth.

I drove up with a Missy Trap on the morning of January 4th and we set up the trap in the location right outside their sliding glass door. I had to laugh because the dog watched me set it up from 50 feet away. The plan was to run a rope into the sliding door and when the dog entered the trap, pull the rope to close the gate on the trap.

As soon as I put the bait into the trap and ran around to the front of the house, the dog immediately ran up to check out the situation. The three of us hid behind the curtains and furniture so she would not see us inside the glass door. She did one lap around the trap and then slowly walked in. I gave the signal to Sheryl and she pulled the rope and we had her. Fortunately it was an easy catch, one that was quicker than actually setting up the trap…

I entered the trap and she was cautious, but allowed me to carry her into their home to get warm and calm down. She was a bit skittish, but quickly warmed up to Sheryl and Dave. They named her Bella.

Dave and Sheryl considered adopting Bella, but after a couple days it was decided that it was best for her to go back to her foster. Bella is now living happily with a family nearby and has taken a great liking to their daughter. Happy and warm ending for Bella.

Dave and Sheryl did a great job of keeping Bella safe and fed until she could be captured. We were happy to help capture her and get her warm. Bella is a young border collie mix and very sweet. We thank Dave and Sheryl for contacting us and for all they did for Bella.

Larry is a former puppy mill dog who was rescued through Retrieve a Golden Minnesota(RAGOM). On a warm day in August, Larry escaped his temp foster’s home in rural Annandale, MN, when the resident dog pushed the door open, allowing Larry to bolt through.

As members of RAGOM’s Lost Dog Rapid Response team, we were on-site within four hours, setting up the Missy Trap at the point of flight and placing yard signs at key intersections. The next day, a robocall with a lost-dog alert reached 750 neighbors within a five-mile radius.

After three days without a sighting, Larry was spotted on the temp foster’s property. It was information from an animal communicator that spurred a second sighting and allowed us to place the trap at locations where Larry was likely to be.

Velvet

Velvet, a shy, pretty Great Dane, newly adopted through Upper Midwest Great Dane Rescue, panicked and ran from her adoptive home in Eagan, Minnesota and into the suburban surroundings.

The area’s wooded parks, recreational areas and quiet residential streets offered Velvet many places to hide. Still, it’s hard not to notice a loose Great Dane, and the rescue received many sighting calls over the next few days, indicating that she remained in the general area.

Because the rescue could not find a live trap big enough to capture a Great Dane, they contacted RAGOM’s Lost Dog Rapid Response team to see if we could help. Our engineer built a new door panel for the Missy Trap with a specially modified taller gate.

By piecing together a pattern of sightings, we determined a likely route that Velvet had been taking and set up the trap in her path. When she failed to show up the first night, we moved it half a block, which did the trick. Velvet was captured the next night after eight days on the run.