The rescue of Luka began on January 26th when she was given away by a "breeder" shortly after having an emergency c section and blood transfusion. Still drugged up on Tramadol, she bolted immediately after arriving in the driveway of her new home, because she was placed outside the car with no collar or leash. A local resident, heard about Luka and shortly after I was contacted to come capture her.
Through tracking the sightings we discovered that Luka had travelled the power lines from Highbridge to Annandale. Traps were set but she was chased away and we had to start from scratch locating her again. Posters went up and three days later the sightings started pouring in. Traps were again set but she was having no part of them. A large enclosure was set up and monitored through live feed cameras. She was acutely aware of any threshold and would stand at the entrance looking in, it took days for her to cross only part way over the threshold and stretch in, half in, half out, which for Luka was great progress. One night Luka finally went in but not all the way to the back of the enclosure where we needed her to go, then suddenly she stopped coming all together. Luka had a food source elsewhere and we needed to find it!
Poster coverage was expanded and the large circle Luka was travelling became quite clear. It was then that we found her other food source, a dead deer carcass on a property off Studer, where we spotted her chewing on bones from the carcass. The enclosure and traps were moved to a new location and each time she got close she was chased away by well intentioned people.
We finally received a call from a resident, who lived on Stacey Drive, his daughter spotted Luka laying in the sun in the woodline along his backyard. They knew from the posters not to chase Luka and called us immediately. We immediately went over and were able to safely capture her as she slept. Thank you Mike, Colleen and Alison Fink for doing the right thing and NOT chasing her, without you Luka's rescue would still be ongoing!!
After 26 days surviving through subzero temps, Luka is now safe and begins the healing process. Luka has a fever, her blood work was normal, showing no signs no infection. She was sent home with antibiotics, flea meds and wormer. Her injured foot will need surgery and she needs to gain weight as she is emaciated. Two weeks of sleeping in my car was well worth it when I was able to hold Luka today and tell her she was now safe. Thank you everyone who called in sightings and were so concerned for Luka. Welcome home precious baby!!
