Koda bolted from her new family while dragging a leash back on December 15th. She was on the run and not showing any signs of slowing down. She was traveling between 10 to twenty plus miles a day. She travelled from Kingston to Woodstock, Boiceville, Mt Tremper, Phoenecia, Shandakan, Ashland, just to name a few, then going back and forth from Hunter Mountain to Windham Mountain multiple times, then on to Tannersville, Haines Falls and finally Cairo and Catskill where she was finally captured in Cairo at 1:45 this morning.
Not only was she traveling far and fast but she survived multiple snow storms and brutal below freezing temperatures. Due to the deep snow she was often seen traveling right on the roads but as soon as someone would stop, or call out to her, she would bolt and disappear again. Koda’s owner, Jessica and I spent countless hours, morning, noon and night tracking her sightings and mapping them, pleading with people not to approach, chase or call out to her.
On February 13th we lost track of her, no sightings for a week. This weekend we finally started to receive sightings again, we found out she had made her way to Cairo and Catskill and had been there since February 14th…. in one day she travelled over twenty plus miles to get there. Jessica immediately headed up and started hanging posters. Sightings started to pour in again, she was running a continuous fifteen mile span back and forth on and around route 32.
A wonderful woman named Mary Lupoli contacted Jessica, her neighbor had informed her of a missing dog in the area. Mary checked her home surveillance and to her shock found that Koda had been on her property multiple times during the week. We asked her to leave food out, but that night Koda was a no show, she was once again eleven miles away. Yesterday, more sightings started coming in, she was headed back, six miles away from Mary’s property. Usually when we hear a dog is that far from the last sighting we get discouraged but this is Koda we’re talking about… six miles ain’t nuttin for this girl!!!!
I packed up my truck and made the three hour trek back to the Catskills once again. Then as I got close we got a sighting she was now only a mile and half from Mary’s property. I felt it in my bones she was coming back and when she did, I would be ready for her.
1:41 am my camera started going off, she was back and within minutes safely captured!
This was such an epic Catskill community effort, so many people were invested in bringing this beautiful girl to safety. Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time to hang posters, share her post and call in sightings, WRIP 97.9 radio who broadcasted our girl through the airwaves. You were all instrumental in this happy ending. Mary Lupoli, thank you simply isn’t enough, without you painstackingly going back through your video footage, we may have never known where to set up for capture.
Koda is finally home with her new family and fur siblings. She now begins a new journey, learning that she can trust people. You are loved by so many Koda, let the healing begin!!
