08/24/2026
Sometime around August 12th, four dogs were dumped reportedly in the Monee/Peotone area. Don't get us started on dumped dogs. Unexcusable! Three of the dogs were recovered somewhat quickly but the last dog, a young female, was still on the loose. An awesome volunteer lost dog recovery expert, Genny K., was working hard to rescue this last dog. She contacted her closest drone pilos but neither were available. She continued to work on the dog's rescue. As happens in many cases, well-meaning people who were trying to help called out and chased her. *You should never chase after a loose dog!* The result of this was the dog traveling quite some distance from where Genny was working. She again reached out and this time SmithicAir was available. Acting on a recent sighting, we set up late in the evening of August 21st at the intersection of a recent sighting and flew to the east, the reported direction of travel. *Reporting the time, location, AND the direction of travel directly to the search team is so important. It allows the team to respond appropriately. Keeping the sighting location off social media helps keep the dog safe so the search area is not flooded with untrained people who could potentially push the dog away.
A short 3 minutes and 22 seconds after take off, we spotted a strong heat signature in one of the rows of tall corn in a field approximately a half mile east from our take off position. We called Genny who was already on her way. She set up a trap and sprayed liquid smoke at the edge of the corn field but the dog did not pick up the scent. We decided to encourage her a little with the drone which got her to move some but she still did not pick up the scent. *It is important to note that our drone even with the spotlight on did not and usually doesn't disturb dogs. We had to fly very low to get her to move even a little. Genny decided to return to the field area and spray more liquid smoke (smells like BBQ)! Almost immediately afterwards, the dog got up and walked west to the edge of the field and then for some reason that we do not know, ran away from the direction of the trap. We tracked her as she explored a farm and even approached Genny in her car. She finally settled under some trees much closer to our take off location. SmithicAir headed home around 1 AM. We told Genny that we expected a text with a picture of this dog in her trap by morning. Genny stayed on-site, watching her trap and driving between the farm and the street where we had flown from. Sometime in the next hour, Genny spotted the dog on the street where we had flown from. She hustled back over to where she had set up the trap, packed it in her car, drove it to the new location, and set it up again. We are not doing it justice with this description. This involved a lot of heavy lifting and persistence. At 2:22 in the morning, the dog was successfully trapped safely after following a trail of Frito-Lay's honey barbecue flavor twists that Genny had set up.
Congratulations to Genny and thank you for your dedication to saving lives!
Music from (free for Creators!):
License code: EJEQQ4G1QUCOQHGE
