Maggie

On February 18th of 2022, I was contacted by the owner of a dog who had gone missing in Woodstock, NY. The owner’s name was Alessandra, and she was vacationing with her family at the time that Maggie went missing. Maggie was staying with the in-laws when, unfortunately, she got spooked, slipped her collar, and took off. She had been gone for a couple of days by the time I was contacted. I agreed to consult over the phone, while they reached out to someone local for the trapping. I made this poster to the left for them and told Alessandra where to get posters made at a reasonable price. 

Maggie’s owners were flying in the following morning and heading straight up to the location where she was last sighted. I spoke to the family as they were making their way into town, talking to them about the new previous night's sighting. After stringing a few sightings together, I noticed that all the sightings ran along Sawkill Creek. They said they wanted to go to the spot right away, and I explained to them that Maggie was following the waterline. I told them to be careful if they see her, as we did not want to spook her out of the area. Fifteen minutes later they called me to say that they had found her! 

When they arrived to look around the area, they noticed that behind the library, where she had been sighted the night before, was Sawkill creek. They walked back there towards the water and Maggie came cautiously over to her mom. This photo was taken at the moment of their reunion. 

This case reminds me of how important it is to look for the pattern of travel. A lot of times the dog’s movement can look random, but once you find the common denominator, their movements and motivations become clearer. When I recently contacted Alessandra to see how Maggie was adjusting, she sent me this photo. Looks like Maggie is settling in simply fine.