Shaggy Lou

Shaggy has endured a lifetime of emotional trauma and sadness. His former owner had passed away and he spent several days alone in the house with her body until authorities were alerted. He was then housed at animal control until a rescue stepped up to take him.

As if that story wasn’t tragic enough, the rescue that took Shaggy in had spoken to those who knew him during his time with his former owner, he lived a life of constant fear and never fully bonded to any people, even his owner. She had rescued him from a local rescue group that has since been raided by authorities and shut down due to cruel and deplorable living conditions. While we don’t know how long he was there or where he originated from before that, it was clear he was pretty much a feral unsocialized dog who never had good experiences with humans. He mostly hid in a corner once adopted, avoided any visitors to the home, and even with his owner never sought out affection, played, or seemed to really enjoy his life.

A month ago Shaggy was adopted by a wonderful new family. The one thing Shaggy really seemed to enjoy was car rides. A brief stop at Dollar General turned into horror when Shaggy was able to escape a window that was left slightly opened. Chase ensued and Shaggy was gone and dragging a very long leash!!

Shaggy was spotted by his new mom early on but in true feral fashion, he looked right at her and took off.

The first night I began working the case, I set a trap in a quiet area near the point of escape. Most dogs will return to the point of escape even if it’s an area that is unfamiliar to them… it is instinct. Unfortunately, that night Shaggy was a no show.

Although he was wearing an AirTag, it was completely unreliable. The worst was feared that he was hung up on his leash somewhere. Finally, after four days, we received a ping. The location pings from an AirTag are not an exact location, it shows the location of the bluetooth device that communicated with the AirTag, often delayed hours and sometimes days. If a dog is not within a 100 feet of a bluetooth device, it is completely useless and even when Shaggy was within range pings were few and far between. AirTags are great for inanimate objects like keys but I do NOT recommend AirTags for lost dogs.

Like most dogs in flight mode, Shaggy was mostly moving when it got dark, through the middle of the night and in the early morning hours (between dusk and dawn). This is the time dogs in survival mode feel most comfortable and safe to move around as people are inside their homes or asleep, traffic is at a minimum and they can move amongst the shadows searching for food, water and shelter without being seen.

I climbed the ridges and cliffs where it was believed he was hunkering down and set cameras and feeding stations. At times he was within feet of the feeding stations but not interested, he was not a food motivated dog even in his home.

The most beneficial sightings we received were from the people who had seen the posters that were hung in the area. Last night, a gentleman had sighted him running down the road and he had quickly darted into the woods. Those woods led right back to the area where I originally had the trap set when I began working the case. He was going back to the point of escape as suspected… eight days later.

Shaggy appeared on my camera quickly, scoped the area and left. He smelled there was food and had to be hungry, I knew he’d be back. Three hours later, he came back, still dragging his long leash which was a miracle considering the rugged terrain he was traveling. He surveilled the area making sure the coast was clear and circled the trap for quite some time. He was doing what I call the trap dance, one step in, one step out… two steps in, two steps out… until he did the hokey pokey all the way in. It can be heart stopping to watch from the live feed cameras and I am often holding my breath.

Shaggy is now home safe and sound and his joy riding days are over. He also will now will be wearing a new reliable GPS collar.

Welcome HME Shaggy Lou!!!