Kidnapped Pug and Owner Reunite After Five-Month Search

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Community Homepage Groups Forums Answers Local Listings Game Center Diary Central Account Paw Mail Gift Store My Forum Posts Recent Pal Activity Recent Corral Activity See the Dogs Home » The Scoop Next on The Scoop: Pix We Love: Kids' Day at Dogster and Catster HQ Also: Freebies Watch Dog Book Review: Learn to Lead From Your Dog With "Get the Cookie, Paco!" Travel A Room with a View ... and a Deluxe Pooch Bed ... and Your Very Own Dog Walker Ask a Trainer How to Prevent Dog Bites: Make Sure Your Child Isn't a Statistic Kidnapped Pug and Owner Reunite After Five-Month SearchLast week, thanks to a search effort that went viral in her community, Anne Sutherland finally recovered her stolen pug Molly. Never give up!

Anneli Rufus | May 3rd 2012 |  3 Contributions

Sometimes it takes a village to solve a crime.

On December 12, in Houston, Texas, Anne Sutherland's beloved pug, Molly, slipped out of her pug-proof fence. Sutherland's neighbors watched in horror as someone snatched Molly while the small dog was wriggling through the fence and walked off with her. 

Anne Sutherland, courtesy of MyFox Houston.

After five months of nonstop searching -- during which Sutherland reached out to friends, strangers, and everyone else who would help -- Molly is home again safe and sound, according to MyFox Houston.

"I can't believe it. I can't believe it," Sutherland told MyFox this week. "I was nearly giving up. I never did give up. Nobody gave up on her." 

As part of her search efforts, Sutherland plastered her Houston Heights neighborhood with lost-dog posters. She reached out on Facebook, posting about her search at the Short Mugs Rescue Squad page, which is dedicated to finding missing pugs.

Her search went viral in the community as strangers began hosting "Find Molly" events outside schools and stores, according to MyFox. 

(In a reader? Watch the video here.)

"I know it's not the same as a person, but I'm extremely close to her. I love her very much," Sutherland told MyFox Houston during the search. "She's cute, she's fun and all that, but she's my dog, and I need her, frankly. I really need her." 

Since her neighbors said the person they saw stealing Molly was a young woman, Sutherland spread the word at nearby Ronald Reagan High School that she was offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to Molly's safe return.

Searching for lost pets is not unlike searching for lost people: Two days after a disappearance, the chances of finding the individual alive drops sharply. But Sutherland and her supporters kept their hopes up -- for five long months.

Pug by Shutterstock.com

"For some reason her pain just reached out to me. She was so upset," Houston Heights resident Liz Melton told MyFox Houston this week. Last Friday, Melton was out and about when she happened to notice a pug at a certain house, which she was "certain didn't belong" there. "I e-mailed Anne and gave her the address and said, 'They don't have a pug.' That's how it happened," Melton said.

Sutherland drove to the house, which was fifteen blocks from her own. According to MyFox Houston, she asked the resident to see the dog. When the pug was brought outside, Sutherland called out, "Molly, Molly."

"She literally leapt out of the woman’s arms and climbed up my chest. I never let her go after that," Sutherland said. The news report added: "The woman told Anne her husband had given her the dog as a Valentine's Day gift. Anne believes Molly changed hands several times. The dog had lost weight and is being treated for sores in her mouth. 

The news story notes that Molly is microchipped, but since nobody took her to be scanned at a vet or animal shelter, she might not have made it home otherwise.

Here's to a happy reunion. Now let's all double-check our fences. 

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Woman Put Life on Hold for Months to Search for Her Dog

This photo of Millie was circulated by her owner, who devoted her life to searching for her dog for 2.5 months (Photo by Jen Clark, via the San Diego Examiner)

One night in May, Millie, a timid dog who had been abused before being adopted, bolted from her San Diego home when spooked by a visitor. For the next 76 days, her owner, Jen Clark, devoted her life to trying to find Millie.

Besides putting up the usual posters, checking with animal rescue organizations and “found” ads, and distributing flyers, Clark hung big tarps with Millie’s photo and her phone number. She also consulted pet detectives about her black lab/greyhound mix.

“I’m single,” Clark explained in a SignedOnSanDiego.com story. “She is like my child.”

Eventually people reported several descriptions of a dog that fit Millie’s profile. The dog had been sighted in wild brush under some nearby highway ramps. Clark set up a motion-detection camera and tried to lure this mystery dog into humane traps with food, but she had no luck. With her vacation time at work at an end, it looked like Clark was going to have to give up the search.

But “quit” was not part of her vocabulary. She found a solution that let her maintain her doggy vigil while keeping her job. She started working at her human relations consulting job online from her car. She stayed at the roadside from 6:30 a.m. until 9 p.m.

This went on for some time, and then last week, the mystery dog stepped into the trap. Four of Clark’s friends immediately descended on the trap to make sure this dog did not get out. Was it Millie, or another hungry stray?

One glance was all it took. Millie was back. Clark’s tenacious fight to find her dog had paid off. Clark could breathe again. It took 76 days, but she managed to find Millie and keep her job. What an amazingly devoted, tenacious woman.

I wonder, Dogsters: What lengths would you go to in order to find your dog, if yours went missing? Have you been through anything like this? What do you think of Clark’s actions?

Source: SignedOnSanDiego.com

View the original article here

Hats off to search and rescue dogs and their handlers

Last night I was watching television, watching the horrifying disaster in Japan, while hugging Bashir. He’s not a huggy dog but I think he realized I needed it. The scope of that disaster is just overwhelming.

And while I worry about the Japanese people and our friends in Japan, I also worry about the search and rescue (SAR) dogs and their handlers who have deployed to Japan. Working in those environments is going to be horrible and incredibly dangerous. I know that’s what they train for but I still worry.

My husband, Paul, and I did search and rescue work a number of years back with our two German Shepherd Dogs, Watachie and Michi. The training process was long and rigorous; for both the dogs and the people. However, I found the dog training portion of it easy; primarily because my dog, Watachie, was a hard working dog and if I could figure out how to teach him something, he was more than willing to do it. He was one of those dogs who couldn’t be distracted by anything. A deer bounding past us in the woods wouldn’t get more than an ear twitch.

My part of the training was more difficult. I had never used a compass in my life and although I had good camping skills, grew up running wild in the woods,  and had never been lost; I had never had formal survival training, either. It was hard to set aside what I knew, “But I’ve never been lost!” and learn new skills.

Running a search and rescue base camp was all new to me, too. My Dad had taught me to read a map but that was a street map; this was entirely different.

I enjoyed the other challenges of SAR training. Learning how search rubble of various kinds, doing obstacle training, teaching Watachie to freeze in place without moving a paw, learning how to search from a boat; all of that was fascinating. Teaching the dogs to ride in a plane was easy – a helicopter was a little bigger challenge. Although Watachie took to it easily Michi had a little more unease. He kept looking up at the rotors, as if to say, “What the — are those?”

By the time Watachie and Michi were retired due to health problems – as well as growing older – they had participated in many searches. Some of the searches had happier endings than others but in all of the searches we felt that we – Paul and I and our dogs – as well as the other members of our SAR unit – had done a good job.

However, we had never been called to a disaster such as what is going on in Japan. My heart goes out to the people of Japan as well as all the search and rescue dogs and their handlers. Good luck, everyone, and be safe!

Photo credit: Michi, not doing SAR work here, but pulling his cart. Photo by Liz Palika.

View the original article here

The Search

The #1 New York Times-bestselling author presents a riveting novel where a canine search and rescue volunteer fights danger and finds love in the Pacific Northwest wilderness.

To most people, Fiona Bristow seems to have an idyllic life-a quaint house on an island off Seattle's coast, a thriving dog-training school, and a challenging volunteer job performing canine search and rescues. Not to mention her three intensely loyal Labs. But Fiona got to this point by surviving a nightmare...

Several years ago, Fiona was the only survivor of the Red Scarf serial killer, who shot and killed Fiona's cop fiancé and his K-9 partner.

On Orcas Island, Fiona found the peace and solitude she needed to rebuild her life. But all that changes on the day Simon Doyle barrels up her drive, desperate for her help. He's the reluctant owner of an out-of-control puppy, foisted upon him by his mother. Jaws has eaten through Simon's house, and he's at his wit's end.

To Fiona, Jaws is nothing she can't handle. Simon, however, is another matter. A newcomer to Orcas, he's a rugged and in-tensely private artist, known for the exquisite furniture he creates from wood. Simon never wanted a puppy-and he most definitely doesn't want a woman. Besides, the lanky redhead is not his type. But tell that to his hormones.

As Fiona embarks on training Jaws, and Simon begins to appreciate both dog and trainer, the past tears back into Fiona's life. A copycat killer has emerged out of the shadows, a man whose bloodlust has been channeled by a master with one motive: to reclaim the woman who slipped out of his hands...

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