Left Hanging
Last Sunday, I left a dog story “hanging” (A Tale of Turkey and Dogs). I started the tale of Bruno, the Mastiff wandering a mobile home park thirty minutes south of here. He’s been “out” for almost a year. No one really knows how he turned up at the Park. Did a resident move out and leave him, or did someone drop him off at the front gate, or did he just wander onto the place? Only Bruno could tell that part of the story, and he’s not talking.
But he did find himself in a good place. While he spent last winter finding shelter under empty mobile homes, he also found people who would help him out with food. In fact, even the mailman became attached to the wandering boy. Bruno wouldn’t allow petting, and shied away from “go for a ride”, but he would take a treat, right from his hand.
Another resident, who lives towards the back of the Park, fed Bruno since last February. They bonded. She could pet him, and he’d follow her around. They spent the summer playing with toys in an open field. And he would go up on her porch. But he still wouldn’t go inside, even in the worst weather. And when she tried to put a leash on him, he wriggled out and disappeared for two days. But he came back. Unfortunately, the resident is terminally ill. So she and the mailman reached out to our group, Lost Pet Recovery: what could we do to help Bruno? She wanted to be sure he’s safe, with someone to take care of him.
Trapper’s Instinct
My wife Jenn is a “trapper”. She is able to think “with” the dog. It’s not about making him do anything, the rule is, “It’s all on the dog’s terms”. But she tried to convince Bruno to go into a trap. There’s a foster home waiting for him, if only Bruno would “come in”. It excruciating: as the winter sets in, and the temperature dropped into the teens, we’d drive off watching Bruno huddled on the grass by the mobile home, shivering with the cold. A warm home, with food and friends and other dogs, is only a couple of steps away. But he wouldn’t go in.
He’s “trap smart”; especially since the local dog warden already tried three times. And he even ignored our much larger trap, with the “magic” McDonald’s double cheeseburgers as bait. So Jenn tried a different kind, a panel trap, one that looks like a kennel fence instead of a wire crate. And Bruno slowly eased into it, stepping farther into the doorway each time. Dinner time was 9:30 pm, so Jenn spent almost two weeks, driving over to the Park, and leaving paper plates with a mix of Kroger roast “savory” chicken and dog food, four plates staggered to draw Bruno farther into the trap. On Thanksgiving night, there was even a portion of our hickory smoked turkey from our table.
Dancing in the Back
It took more than a week. Bruno was waiting at 9:30 pm, right at the corner of the mobile home. If Jenn was a couple of minutes late, and he’d give her “the look” – where have you been? He allowed Jenn to get close to him, in fact, she sat on the ground and Bruno ate chicken from her hand. In his mind, Jenn was “The Chicken lady”. But Bruno always kept an eye on the other hand, the one without the chicken: “No funny business, Chicken Lady!!!”. And each night, he went a little farther into the panel trap. We could see him on the trail camera, dark night shots of the dog with first his front paws over the transom, then four paws, then stretching his whole body forward to get to the next plate.
And finally, in the middle of the night on Tuesday; he was all the way in the back of the trap, getting the prized fourth plate with the biggest portion of dog food and chicken. He danced with joy. We did too, he was where we needed him. Thank goodness: the Park Management didn’t like Bruno, and they didn’t like the trap and camera either. We had a deadline – get him by Friday, or get out.
Technical Glitch
Wednesday night we set the trap. Bruno stood and watched Jenn lay the plates out, a pathway to the “pot of gold” at the back. He even watched Jenn hook up the electronics, a laser light that when broken, de-activated an electro-magnet that held the door open. It sounds high-tech, and it kind-of is: like a garage door version of the famous Tom Cruise scene with laser beams in Mission Impossible. A lawn mower battery powered the system.
And Wednesday Bruno went all the way back – and — comfortably ate. The system didn’t work. As John Wayne would say: “My fault, your fault, nobody’s fault…”. The door didn’t close. Bruno was very pleased with the “pot of gold”. Jenn, and LPR Director Don, were disappointed: try again Thursday.
It was almost three weeks since LPR got on the case, more than two weeks with the panel trap. And, unlike most of the “cases” we work on, we not only had Bruno in sight, but in contact, day after day. We talked to him, and watched him play, and dance, and run around on the warm nights. He looked happy. But he shivered so much from the cold as the temperatures dropped.
There weren’t many good alternatives if the panel trap failed. “Knock-out darts” are hazardous. They can hurt the dog if they hit in the wrong place, the dog can react badly to the drugs, but most of all, the drug takes minutes to take effect. Meanwhile the dog’s been “shot”, and he’s running. So after the dart hits there’s a frantic search – can we find where the dog is hiding, where he passed out? The window is only a couple of hours.
Deadline
Thursday was the last night. We showed up at 9:34, and, unlike other nights, Bruno wasn’t around. Jenn put the plates in and set the trap. She nervously came back to the truck to wait. Already something was different – no Bruno waiting for his “handout”. But it only took a few minutes, and Bruno was IN, all the way back!! The door still didn’t close. Bruno finished up the “prize” and wandered out to find what other “goodies” might be around. Don texted – well, not a nice acronym, and Jenn determined that we’d reset and try again. The “high tech” system got the ultimate fix – a system restart, pull the plug, then power it all back up.
This time, the prize was a plate of Vienna Sausages. And this time, before Jenn could even it back to our truck, the trap door slammed shut. There were four startled barks, and the sound of the panel trap shaking furiously as Bruno tried to force the door. But then, the “Chicken Lady” was there, saying “NO-NO-NO-NO”. Bruno stood still, terrified, but trusting enough to stop trying to wreck the place.
Then he laid down, eyes glazed. He was drooling, almost frozen with fear. Jenn continued to talk to him, and Don came to figure out how to get him out. It wasn’t like a regular trap, where we’d just pick the whole thing up and transport trap and dog to a closed environment. And it was clear Bruno wasn’t going to come out on a leash. Don had us place a regular trap up against the panel door, then went into the enclosure to coax Bruno out. As soon as he felt the lead go around his neck, Bruno made a mad dash, out the door, and straight into the trap. We could now transport him to his new home at the foster.
Safe and Warm
But Bruno still didn’t unfreeze, didn’t settle, until the lady in the mobile home came out. He heard her voice, felt he hand; and immediately relaxed. She cried a little bit, but he knew that if she trusted us, he could as well.
Bruno’s at the foster home now. He’s met the foster parents, hung out on the couch, had a bath and slept beside his new foster brother. He’s still a huge flight risk, the fosters have to watch every door. But he’s warm, and fed, and seems happy to adjust to a new life as a “house” dog.
Oh, and the lady from the Park made sure he has his favorite toys.
If you’d like to donate to our group, Lost Pet Recovery – here’s the link – hit the Donate button:
Or if you’d like to send a check –
- Lost Pet Recovery
- PO Box 16383
- Columbus, OH 43216
Sunday Stories
- Riding the Dog – 1/24/21
- Hiking with Jack – 1/31/21
- A Track Story – 2/7/21
- Ritual – 2/14/21
- Voyageur – 2/19/21
- A Dog Story – 2/25/21
- A Watkins Legend – 3/7/21
- Ghosts at Gettysburg – 3/14/21
- Lessons from the State Meet – 3/28/21
- More Lessons from the State – 4/4/21
- Stories from the Road – 4/11/21
- A Bear Wants You – 5/1/21
- My Teachers – 5/9/21
- Old Friends – 5/23/21
- The Gift – 6/6/21
- Echoes of Mom – 6/20/21
- Stories of the Fourth – 7/3/21
- Running Memories – 7/25/21
- Lost Dog of Eldora – 8/1/21
- Dogs and Medals – 8/8/21
- The New Guy – 9/5/21
- Stories of 9-11 – 9/12/21
- The Interview – 9/26/21
- Night Moves – 10/3/21
- Funeral for a Friend – 10/11/21
- National Security – 10/24/21
- Boots on the Trail – 10/31/21
- Taking Care of Mom and Dad – 11/14./21
- Dogs Found and Lost – 11/21/21
- Watching Brian 12/12/21
- Stories from Shiloh – 12/19/21
- Team Trips – 12/26/21
- Uphill, Both Ways – 1/9/22
- Old Trophies – 1/30/22
- The Last Time – 2/7/22
- Olympic Miracles – 2/13/22
- Mind Numbing – 2/20/22
- Track Weather – 4/3/22
- What’s Missing – 4/11/22
- A Scouting Story – 4/17/22
- Waterproof Paper – 5/8/22
- Origin Stories – 5/22/22
- Origin Stories – Part Two 5/29/22
- Back at State – 6/5/22
- Out in the Country – 6/19/22
- Pataskala Downs – 7/4/22
- Car Stories I – 7/24/22
- Car Stories II – 7/31/22
- Old Man Experience – 8/7/22
- Cross Country Camp – 8/14/22
- New to the Pack – 8/21/22
- Car Stories III – The Bus – 8/28/22
- A Day in the Life – 9/4/22
- Stupid Human Tricks – 9/18/22
- Fair or Foul – 2/26/23
- Immigrant Story – 3/12/23
- Busy Season – 5/15/23
- Of Jeeps and Bucks – 5/28/23
- A Pole Vault Story -6/11/23
- End of an Era – 6/25/23
- Paybacks – 7/2/23
- Graying in Pataskala – 7/17/23
- Being a Goat – 7/23/23
- Toy Truck – 8/20/23
- Medical Terms – 8/27/23
- Missing Margaritaville – 9/3/23
- The McGowan – 9/10/23
- Who’s Watching – 10/22/23
- The Saturday Before – 10/29/23
- A Tale of Turkey, and Dogs – 11/26/23
- Bruno’s Story – 12/3/23
