"Rudy", Siberian Husky, White with Grey, Concord - Found!

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Search Details:

Rudy is a 12 year old, light grey Siberian Husky. He is wearing a brown, leather collar with no ID tags and he is not microchipped. 

Rudy took off late one night after a side gate got left open by accident. 

There were numerous sightings of Rudy before, during and after the search.

See GPS Maps at the end of this blog.

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Craigslist ad:

RUDY THE TWELVE YEAR OLD SIBERIAN HUSKY IS HOME!!! (concord / pleasant hill / martinez)

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Date: 2011-12-28, 8:16PM PST
Reply to: comm-yymgt-2773429368@craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

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I brought Rudy home about 30 minutes ago. Thanks to everyone who contacted me to report sightings, to make me aware of dogs that could have been him, but weren't, and to give their good wishes and suggestions. Thanks are not enough for Kim and Spencer who saw him, checked Craig's List, called me, waited outside to keep track of him until I could get there, and then spent an hour or more helping me to round him up and catch him. Thanks are also due to the neighbors who helped Kim and Spencer.

Rudy is a little thin, very dirty, and has a slight limp, but he is alive, safe, and happy to be home.

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Email received December 25, 2011:

"Thank you Jackie.

At least some of the postcards were delivered yesterday – I got one in my mailbox. I have also had two calls in the last two days that I think were from the postcards, but it was old information. One reported sighting was from Tuesday. He had been in a neighborhood in the opposite direction of the skate part, and the other one was from “the other night”, and he was seen running down Cowell Rd. I will call both parties to thank them and get more information, but I think those two pieces of information are out of date.  I don’t think any of the postcards went as far as the park we were at yesterday.

I am not sure what to do next. I went back to the park yesterday afternoon/evening and put up and handed out more flyers, talked to some people in the neighborhood, and walked and drove around. A teenager in the Coast Guard housing said he had seen Rudy in the pasture with the cattle the night before. I don’t know whether that is accurate or not, but I did see a hole in the fence he could have gotten through. I have no idea what to do with that information if it is accurate. I also went back this evening and drove and walked around with Jacques. I thought maybe if Rudy located our scent around there he might stick around – no idea whether that has any value, but it couldn’t hurt. I have had no response to the flyers I put up and distributed yesterday, and of course don’t know whether that means he has left the area, or it just needs more time and more flyers. I will go back tomorrow and spend some time there with Jacques.

If you have any ideas for further action, I would like to hear about them.

Thanks again, Jackie."

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Email received December 26, 2011:

"Thank you Jackie.

I know the cards were sent to the area around my home. I e-mailed PetHarbor and asked whether they could mail out cards to addresses centered around a location other than my home. I have not had a response yet.

I just talked to the first caller, and it was not Rudy. The dog he saw was reddish in color and had been around his neighborhood for a week before Rudy got out. I left a voicemail for the second caller. Her report is consistent with the sighting at the skate park. So, so far all the sightings and other information has him going down Cowell, and in the direction of that park.

I forgot to mention that Saturday I took a flier to the main police office, and also spoke with the dispatcher who said he would put Rudy’s information on the board, and call me if they saw him or got a report. I also called the Martinez shelter, and asked to be called if they saw or got a report about Rudy, and was told that is “beyond the scope of what they do”. Funny that it is not “beyond the scope” for the police to help with a loose dog, but it is “beyond the scope” for animal services!

The idea that he has gone into that pasture with the cattle is very scary.

I am prepared to spend more money on postcards, robo-calls, or whatever else has a chance of being effective, but I have to be careful to target carefully because at some point the money will run out. I can print as many fliers as I need for free at work, but so far no one has stepped up to help distributed fliers, so the limit there is time and energy.

Thanks again, Jackie."

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Email received December 27, 2011

"At the Martinez shelter I could not get past the person who answered the phone. She kept trying to transfer me to the volunteers, but would not transfer me to anyone else.

I heard back from PetHarbor about the postcards. They sent me a list of the streets where they sent the postcards, which is helpful. They can target any area I ask for, and exclude any addresses they have already sent to. I just need to decide what area is most likely to get results, and I am just not sure at this point. It is the same for the robo-calls. I need to figure out some kind of strategy.

So far these are the sightings that have been reported:

·         Sunday 12/18 10:30-11:00 PM on Cowell Rd, not far from the skate park. This is the day he got out.

·         Friday 12/23 AM Willow Pass Park.

·         Friday 12/23 1:00-1:30 PM skate park heading toward BART station.

·         Friday 12/23 evening in the pasture with the cattle across from Willow Pass Park. This is extremely scary, and I really hope the kid was wrong!

·         Friday 12/23 evening Oak Grove and Apple Street (near Monument Blvd). This is  long distance from the other evening sighting. I need to call the guy back and try to find out what time he saw Rudy. Tonight I distributed about 50 fliers around there putting them on mailboxes, utility poles, and handing them to people.

I got the call about the last sighting this afternoon. The guy had seen a flier I put up at Baldwin Park, which is several blocks from Willow Pass Park. No one has reported seeing Rudy in Baldwin Park, but there is a dog park there, so I decided to put a flier there even though I didn’t expect any results. The guy saw that flier today, and called to tell me he saw Rudy in a completely different part of town. It’s all so random! You never know what is going to get results.

No sightings since Friday seems worrisome. It also makes it difficult to know where to target the postcards and robo-calls. These things are not cheap, and money is not unlimited, so I have to try to make all the expenditures count. I guess the only thing that makes any sense at all is to target the areas where we know he has been, which would be Willow Pass Park, the area around Oak Grove and Monument, Cowell Rd, and the area around the BART station, and the neighborhood the track led through. It seems to me that if he is moving back and forth between two areas he is more like to use the same or similar route each time. Does that fit with what you know about behavior of loose dogs?

Thanks again for your help."

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Email received December 28, 2011:

"It looks like the Friday Evening sighting at Oak Grove and Apple St was very confident. I brought Rudy home about 30 minutes ago from Pear Street, which as you can guess is in that same neighborhood. I got a call just as I was leaving work tonight from someone who saw him in the neighborhood, and checked Craig’s List. They stayed outside keeping an eye on his whereabouts for more than an hour until I could get there, and they said the neighbors were out there helping to try to round him up. After I got there they helped herd him back and forth until he finally seemed to realize who I was, and I was able to catch him.  I think it helped to calm him down that I had Jacques with me.

Rudy is a little thin, filthy dirty, has a slight limp, and he was very thirsty and hungry, but he is healthy, safe, and happy to be home.

Thanks for your help and support, Jackie, and please feel free to use me as a reference."

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Email received December 28, 2011:

Yes, I was very, very lucky that he decided to end up in such a nice neighborhood with so many caring people. It sounds like that’s where he went Friday night after his adventures in Willow Pass Park, and he either kept going back there or stayed around after he got there. The people on Pear St said he had been around for several days. I really couldn’t believe the couple stayed outside watching him for over an hour, then helped me to catch him. I learned one nice thing about Rudy’s temperament, too. Earlier, before I arrived, one of the neighbors actually caught him, but he slipped out of his collar. Apparently all he cared about was getting away, and as terrified as he must have been it never occurred to him to bite. Every dog has a bite threshold, and I guess Rudy’s is very high.

I will write up the letter for your blog. It is interesting that the most expensive thing I did, the postcards, was the least effective, and what finally did bring him home was the free listing on Craig’s list.  Probably if I had done the postcards sooner they would have been more effective, but it took me too long to discover that option, and then to decide to spend that much money. I don’t regret it, but (     ) is a lot of money, and most people probably just don’t have it to spend in the hope that it will work. I think the biggest lesson is that you never know what is going to bring your pet home, and have to use every possible means you can afford.

I made a commitment that if Rudy came home I would give him more time and attention than I have been, and I will. I was actually planning, once I got my training field installed, to teach him some of the agility obstacles just to keep him entertained and in shape, and now I will do it for sure. For now I will have to do some serious brushing to get all the sticky plant seeds and burrs out of his coat!

Thanks again to you – and to Dino! – for the time, help, and support. You helped me keep going when I was pretty sure it was hopeless! I’m sure Rudy thanks you too. He seems pretty happy to be home again."

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View Rudy Siberian Concord in a larger map

Created by My Tracks on Android.

Total distance: 12.39 km (7.7 mi)
Total time: 3:21:06
Moving time: 1:36:23
Average speed: 3.70 km/h (2.3 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 7.71 km/h (4.8 mi/h)
Max speed: 16.30 km/h (10.1 mi/h)
Min elevation: 4 m (13 ft)
Max elevation: 43 m (141 ft)
Elevation gain: 519 m (1701 ft)
Max grade: 14 %
Min grade: -11 %
Recorded: 12/24/11 9:32 AM
Activity type: -