Hello..
I have received a lot of great emails from people, with a lot of great questions, so I thought I would answer a few! It seems crazy that after almost 3 months, we haven't been able to catch a dog! I know I am surprised myself! Seems easy, but boy we were wrong! The first problem we have is the area. when you think about a wash you think its a clear open area full of sand, well nope, its like a regular desert down there, its been so long since we had a good rain, nothing has been cleaned out. There is so many place to hide, she has been known to be 20 feet away and you don't see her, besides the fact her coloring matches most of the vegetation in the wash. She has been known to be miles away from her feeding tree, the wash goes on forever, and she knows her way around it well! Or we get something all set up and people walk by or a dog runs up, and she is gone!
As for the things we have tried, well lets see, two different traps, a snare, homemade snares, nets underground, and above ground, and numerous other things brought in by a professional. We have had people out there from dawn to dusk. Waiting for her to step into one of these things. We have been there in the dark with flash lights! We have had someone even dug down in hole a covered in trees! We have had a catch pole, and even animal control came out, and pretty much wished us luck!
This girl is so smart, I am now thinking we need to really look closer on how smart dogs really are! I have seen her investigate every little new thing in the area, or anything moved, I have seen her go back and check places we were at weeks ago to make sure we aren't there! She knows some of our voices and our smells.
Tranquilizer guns and pills prescribed by a vet are a option, but if we loose her after she is under the influence of these, we risk the chance of her going down, in the cold or amongst the coyotes, its a dangerous option, but one we will look at it again.
I have also had people say well just leave her alone, she obviously does not want to be caught, well maybe, but when we first started this she was in bad shape, she has gotten healthier. We really don't think she would be alive today if we hadn't stepped in.
When we do something big, and try something to catch her and it fails, we step back, we don't want to be in catch mode everyday, we risk her just leaving the area altogether. I am sure we have made some mistakes along the way, but hey we are trying! There has been a lot of people come and go, but there is a handful of us still left. We always got a new plan up our sleeve!
We really would like to see her out of there, before it heats up and the rest of the dangerous critters come out!
Again, thank you all for all your support and continuing to ask about her!
We will continue to update!
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She is sociable and will stick around people who are not trying to catch her. She responds to seated people. Perhaps you could have the person who is planning to adopt her have items with his scent around the area where you are feeding her. Also, it would be best to have that person feed her and speak to her, etc. She may need to get very hungry to come to an individual for food--preferably the adopter. It is just a matter of time before the coyotes get her. She is around every evening waiting for food. She was at the base of the ramp leading from the wash to Mehl Park tonight. I saw her three times this week. As I said, if she is hungry enough, she may come to preferably the adopter. Have one person consistently feed her. Only put a tiny amount in the dish or none at all to encourage her to come to you--rather than trying to catch her.
ReplyDeleteGoogle "Richmond's Legendary Black Dog". A stray that wandered around Richmond Virginia for nearly 20 years. No one could catch him, not even animal control. The community decided to take care of him, he even had his own bank account.
ReplyDeleteYour adventures with River sounds so much like Black Dog. I wish you luck catching her or taking care of her. It's people like you, your friends and family, and some strangers in this community that make us smile. :)
Loved the story! Posted on the blog!
ReplyDeleteWe have only three people feeding her, right now unfortunatley, its hard for one person to get out there everyday. When this all started in the begining, we did, do all the things you mentioned, she never ever got close enough to anyone. We werent even feeding her way back then, we only used food to try to ge her to come to one of us. We did that for a while before we started trying different ways of capturing her. As for the coyotes, we do not know how she has made it this long, and have seen them all out there and hear them at night.
ReplyDeleteWe are glad that we starting feeding her, she has gotten very strong and healthy, and her limp is gone too. Who knows maybe one of these days she will just walk on up to someone!