Monthly Archives: February 2018

Never underestimate a dog’s ability to survive – even a senior dog.

Stuey, a 12 year old Lab/Corgie, was on a walk with his owner at an off leash park on 1/31. They were just wrapping up their walk when 2 dogs rushed Stuey, quarreled with him and ran him off. Bruce walked and walked calling for Stuey with no luck. He put posters out at the park. Two days went by and nothing. Not being too tech savvy, the owners didn’t know about LDI, NextDoor and didn’t have FB accounts. Someone at the park noticed the sign and posted it on their page.
A few days later someone else posted a sighting of a small lab 1.5 miles north. Someone on FB made the match and an LDI fan got in touch with the family to start the process. Stuey was reported to LDI, Animal Services and posted on NextDoor. The owners embraced the process of generating sightings through signs and flyers. A sighting came in but then we hit the cold spell. Temps were -10 and windchills -20+. Another day, no sightings but the owner and helpers kept widening the flyer range… every day but were growing weary. Finally! Wednesday night they got a call that Stuey was seen that morning. Thursday morning the troops went out. Some of Stuey’s tracks were found and through more door knocking, more people reported seeing Stuey. While out flyering, a call came in that Stuey was in a cornfield about a half mile away. The owner and helper rushed to the sighting! Bruce had been coached that Stuey may not recognize him and to get low, use a slow approach and try familiar  commands. At first Stuey just looked at Bruce, debating whether or not to run. Bruce kept repeating the commands “want to get in the Jeep”…. phrases Stuey knew. It worked! Stuey snapped out of it and ran right over to Bruce!!!
Click on:  Stuey:  “I am coming home” video
This 12 year old boy lived 8 days in the brutal cold and traveled at least 3 miles overall! He has frostbite on his nose but besides that, he’s in fantastic shape!!!

Ouch, my nose!

Often owners can’t see their pets living through extreme weather, especially older gentleman like Stuey. Sometimes it’s emotionally easier to assume the worst. As a helper, I understand that. But believe us when we tell you, they are resilient; they are strong; they can make it!
Don’t give up. Push on for them! Flyers and Signs get dogs home! 💗

Stuey, at home, resting on his favorite bed and teddy bear.

Thank you, Stephanie, for sharing Stuey’s story!

The Reunion That Almost Didn’t Happen

Simba, fox terrier mix,  went missing on January 22, 2018.   Simba’s family posted his flyer around their neighborhood and posted on local Facebook pages.  As we all know, many people still don’t know about Lost Dogs Illinois so Simba’s family did not file a report with us until January 29, 2018.  

On January 27, 2018 a person surrendered Simba as his own dog to Chicago Animal Care and Control (CACC) 
Copy of surrender form – dog’s name is no name with an arrow to that.
Since the dog was treated as an owner surrender, a rescue was able to transfer Simba into the
its own program the same day he was surrendered.    In our opinion, two red flags  made this owner surrender suspcious but were unfortunately ignored. First the dog did not have a name.  Second, there was no surrender questionaire done. Typically a rescue or shelter will ask questions about the dog’s medical history and behavior to help determine what he/she needs to be adopted into a new home.    It is very important that shelters and rescues ensure that owner surrenders are indeed owned by the person who is surrendering them.  Otherwise it is far too easy for someone to surrender a dog that isn’t theirs, as was the case with Simba. 

Luckily a Lost Dogs Illinois fan made the match to CACC’s Petharbor listing saying where Simba was transferred to.  Our director contacted the rescue to let them know that Simba was a loved family member who had been reported missing.   The rescue still required Simba’s family to pay an adoption fee instead of simply being able to reclaim him.   An anonymous supporter paid for Simba’s reduced adoption fee.  

There is still so much work to be done for lost and found dogs.  We need your help and cooperation!  Keep promoting Lost Dogs Illinois on the neighborhood pages so that owners and finders know that they should file a report with us!  If you know of shelters, rescues vet clinics and police departments that are not using our partner, Helping Lost Pets as a FREE centralized database to ist their impounded strays , please keep putting the pressure on them.  By gathering all of the listings in ONE place, there is a much higher chance that a match will be made quickly. 

Here is the video of Simba’s reunion with his family. Simba did not need a new home; he needed to go home to the people who love him.   I don’t think there will be a dry eye after watching this video.

Link: Simba Reunion Video