Tux is a ten plus year old, neutered DSH. He is not wearing a collar nor a microchip. He showed up at the Botanical Gardens in Tilden Park a couple of years ago and stayed. He is outdoors for the day and sometimes would come in at night, less in the summer and more in the winter. He had been missing for one week when I was called.
The person who went with me was a top volunteer at the garden.
Per their request, they wanted to give the garden a quick look around in case Tux had been hiding and they did not find him in their initial checks. The garden is very well maintained, so I did not think that he was able to keep hiding without being seen. The biggest challenge is that inside the park all the plants are protected so I had prevent Dino from lifting his leg anywhere. I had him take care of his business outside and I told him he was not allowed to do that inside because the plants were very special. He did not attempt to lift his leg until we were outside.
What I did was to walk Dino around the office and have him check for the most recent scent to see what direction Tux last went to. We found a track away from the office and around some of the paths and then out one of the large water pipes that went out to the street. From there the track went into the golf course that is just across the street. We checked for a track leading out from that gate, but we did not find anything.
I checked on the main road in both directions, but did not find any tracks leading out. There is another road just across from the main gate that is closed in the winter, and that road had been closed just three days prior. We did find a track that led up that road for a couple of miles that deviated a couple of times into parks and then through the parks and back onto the road.
We followed the track up the road and then it went onto a hiking trail that went in and around the hillsides for several miles. I had no idea where we were, but the person I was with said she knew where we were. We eventually followed the track back down to a parking lot that was near the edge of Oakland and Berkeley.
The track led down into Berkeley and through some neighborhoods and then back onto a fire road that led into the hills alongside and near the Berkeley campus. At this point, Tux's person decided to stop the track since we still had a long way to walk back and it was getting late and it would soon be dark. She said she would continue the search for Tux at that point. She said she still wanted to have us check the garden again just in case Tux was still there.
We checked the garden again, but still did not find Tux.
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