This was taken directly from a Craigslist ad.
"Finally the day came, Sunday, June 6th, we got a call and someone found him. He was so skinny and dirty that I didn't even recognize him! But when I said his name he got up (the frailty and weakness was so obvious) he walked to me and I knelt down and he started to lick me. I grabbed him right away and in tears I asked what happened to you? I hugged our angel who found him for us and thanked him immensely. Right away we took Rudy to the vet because he clearly needed professional care and at least an exam.
The vet told us that it was the second case that she had seen that weekend of a lost pet found. She said that the day before a woman came in with a cat that had been missing for 7 MONTHS! The cat was found in someone's backyard, like Rudy, was very weak and starved. 7 MONTHS!"
Rudy is a seven month old Chihuahua/Pug mix. He is wearing a collar with ID tags and is microchipped. Rudy was staying at a relative's house when he took off from the house. There were a couple of sightings of Rudy running in the downtown area, near the location of the house he took off from.
We started at the last sighting. We followed the track all the way into the far hills of Morgan Hill. After several hours, Rudy's people stopped the search. They said they would get back to me to see if they wanted to do another day of searching.
Search #1:
View Rudy in a larger map
Total Distance: 16.39 km (10.2 mi)
Total Time: 3:43:54
Moving Time: 2:15:40
Average Pace: 13.65 min/km (22.0 min/mi)
Average Moving Pace: 8.28 min/km (13.3 min/mi)
Min Pace: 5.48 min/km (8.8 min/mi)
Min Elevation: 30 m (98 ft)
Max Elevation: 250 m (819 ft)
Elevation Gain: 748 m (2453 ft)
Max Grade: 6 %
Min Grade: -17 %
Recorded: Wed May 12 14:39:45 PDT 2010
Search #2:
View Rudy 2 in a larger map
Total Distance: 42.47 km (26.4 mi)
Total Time: 4:46:15
Moving Time: 3:26:36
Average Pace: 6.74 min/km (10.8 min/mi)
Average Moving Pace: 4.87 min/km (7.8 min/mi)
Min Pace: 0.62 min/km (1.0 min/mi)
Min Elevation: 49 m (160 ft)
Max Elevation: 230 m (755 ft)
Elevation Gain: 750 m (2461 ft)
Max Grade: 3 %
Min Grade: -3 %
Recorded: Sat May 15 14:47:15 PDT 2010
This track was a little different than others. We found Rudy's scent on the Coyote Creek Trail, and we were trying to jump ahead on the trail to catch up to him. We found it along the creek a couple of places, and the found it again at the Coyote Creek Golf Course, where it went around and around, until we finally had to stop because it was getting dark and they would be closing the course soon. We stopped the search there, and I suggested Rudy's people continue to look in the area west and north of that course since it looked like he was in a northbound direction.
Over three weeks later Rudy was found. I was never directly informed that Rudy was found. I found this out because I saw an ad in Craigslist, which is listed above.
His people do not believe that Rudy ever traveled as far as we tracked him. All I know about where he was found was somewhere in Morgan Hill, which is not surprising, since we tracked him to a golf course in Morgan Hill, at the San Jose border. They believe that Rudy was safe somewhere this whole time nearby where he was lost. By his description, he was on the streets this whole time, exactly as we described.
Rudy's people continued to post on Craigslist nasty and negative comments about me and my services. There are comments attached to this blog. They also contacted Missing Pet Partnership directly to complain about my services. Based on this single complaint, MPP/Kat Albrecht removed me from their directory, even though I had received numerous positive letters about my services.
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This search with Jackie was a big waste of time and money. I did lose some weight after all the walking though! Our dog was found almost 4 weeks after he went missing, and no thanks to Jackie's services. She advised us to keep looking North which we did for a few days after. But many friends and family urged me to not believe her and thank god I finally came to my senses. After doing some detective work of my own I stopped believing her and the "track dogs" and turned my efforts back to Morgan Hill where our dog was lost. Rudy turned up about 1/2 mile away from home! In the end all that matters is that we found him! But I urge people to be aware of this service, your money and efforts might be better spent making fliers or putting up a big reward. Don't let your desperation and vulnerability get the best of you, FOCUS on your pet who needs you, not on some far fetched theory that he is travelling 15+ miles away from home!
ReplyDeleteWe tracked Rudy for several hours over two separate days at the request of his people. Rudy did travel many, many miles through some extremely remote and difficult and demanding terrain, and we stopped at their request at a golf course in northern Morgan Hill.
ReplyDeleteI never said that Rudy was in San Jose, and I never said to look there. Based on the track that we had found, I said that he could still be in the area of the golf course since we had no idea how old the track was that we were following, but it was only a few days since he had been missing.
I did explain thoroughly that Rudy could make it back to the area of their home or remain near the golf course or go north since he was unable to go east due to the freeway, but he was obviously capable of traveling very long distances in any direction. I highly recommended they continue to look for Rudy, even though they wanted to give up, since many dogs do travel long distances and do get found, and many make it back to their area.
It is very, very common that people can not and will not believe that their pets travel long distances when they are lost, but they do over and over and over. Many pets make it home. Rudy was lucky. He had a collar and microchip on. Many pets do not have either.
Based on the description of Rudy when he was found, he was obviously on the street barely surviving the entire time, which easily describes the extensive track we followed behind him. Rudy was not sitting nearby his home, comfy inside somebody's home waiting for them to come get him. He was barely surviving on the streets, which is what I described to his people would be happening based on the track we found and how remote it was.
I am glad that Rudy is safe at home. That is most important. However, my highly trained and experienced dogs did exactly as they are trained. They followed the dog exactly where he went, under some very demanding circumstances, and we did so until we were told to stop by his people. If his people decide to not believe what their dog was capable to doing, that is their choice. We did our job exactly as we were asked to do.
My guarantee I make is as long as we have the proper scent article and the last known location we can follow the track until we find the pet or until we are told to stop. I have been able to uphold that guarantee for almost 180 cases, and I will continue to offer that guarantee until I can physically no longer do my job. 95% of my cases stop the track/search before the pet is ever found, even though we are 100% on the scent. The rest of the pets are found alive or deceased while on the track. Most pets who make it home, are found following the search since people now know where to look, and they are no longer looking where the pet is not.