03/04/2019
Harley's story of coming home.
Written by foster mom, Tonya. "Harley went missing around 3:45pm on Tuesday, February 19. We walked the neighborhood and knocked on doors. Along with the assistance of GDR and HHRT, we began putting a plan in place to notify lost and found sites, post on neighborhood apps like nextdoor. com and making flyers to distribute so that we could get the word out quickly that little Harley was lost. I was having a difficult time thinking that he would have even thought about leaving the yard if he could, as he was not fond of being outside at all. He was a bit of a chicken and would run right back inside as we were working on potty training.
All sorts of things were running through my mind. He was a little guy, so I wondered if a hawk could have swooped in to pick him up? Nothing was making sense. The next morning, Wednesday, I stuffed over 150 mailboxes and put up flyers on every stop sign in the neighborhood. If someone left the neighborhood, they would see the flyer. A fellow GDR mom, Jeryl, also assisted by riding through the neighborhood looking for Harley, and then posting flyers in businesses near the neighborhood while I continued to distribute to vet offices, local animal shelters, schools, and churches. Still no luck and no sightings.
Thursday more searching in the woods nearby, and water drainage ditches and more neighborhood walking. A few neighbors contacted us to check if we had found him, as my phone number was on the flyer and assured us they were keeping their eyes open. Still nothing.
Friday morning I received a call from a neighbor who was taking a morning walk. She told me that she was certain that she had just seen Harley at a neighbor’s house and that he ran underneath a moving trailer. She walked over, but he was scared and would not let her touch him. The location was about 150 yards from my house. I told her that I would be home in 15 minutes. When I arrived he was gone. I continued looking throughout the day. Nothing. I was notified that GDR had secured a tracker who would assist with the search on Saturday. I was instructed to put something with Harley’s scent on it in a sealed bag to be used the next day.
At 11 am on Saturday, the tracker dog used Harley’s harness and bed to scent. We set off in the neighborhood with the tracker dog but did not receive anything definite on a location. The plan then was to set a small animal trap. We would use something that would have my scent on it like a sheet or towel, rip it and lay a trail that would hopefully help guide him toward the trap. In addition, that evening a GDR foster mom brought Harley’s sibling over to walk the neighborhood, hoping that Harley would recognize something familiar and it would draw him out. We also rubbed a towel all over his sibling to use as part of the scent trail as well. The trap was set with a nice meal of chicken, and the scent strips were placed all around the area. My husband also set a camera up, hoping that we could catch a glimpse of him if the trap failed to work. Then we waited.
The next morning, Sunday, we checked the trap…nothing. We checked the camera and low and behold, little Harley was tiptoeing around, even went into the trap, but somehow did not set it off. He was there at about 1:30 am and then again around 5 am. Not understanding how the trap could have failed, we decided to test it with my own dachshund to determine the issue. Doxies are clever and my pup was also able to steal the chicken without tripping it. We learned that we needed to do more than just bait with food, but had to secure the food to the very back with string so that he had to work for it just a little bit. We greased the trap trigger as well just to make sure it would trip easily. We set the trap again Sunday night and used more scent strips and reset the camera. At approximately 2:30 am we checked the trap. When my husband came around the corner, I just knew he was going to tell me that we had to reset it again because Harley had outsmarted us once again. However, to my surprise, he was right there before my eyes. When we got him home and let him out, he smothered us with kisses and was quite happy to be safely home again.
A HUGE shoutout and thank you’s to Tonya for taking so much time and effort to look for Harley, and Carmen Brothers and her dog, Magic, with Found Coast to Coast Pet Trackers for traveling from Virginia to help us find Harley. A final thank you to our donors for ALWAYS supporting us!!!! — at Getalong Dachshund Rescue.
