Maumelle, Arkansas TEAM WORK>>> The Search for Lucy. the Rat Terrier Cade & Karin join with Handlers Angie and June and their K9 TEAMS to work the case together. In November, Lucy a 5 year old Rat Terrier went missing in Maumelle, Arkansas. The recovery efforts for the shy dog were immediate and expansive. The media stepped in and the possible sightings and leads poured in. Very quickly it became difficult to know which sightings were Lucy and which were not. This week, Christi and David at the Doggie Spa called and asked if we could come in to help with the search. Due to the length of time missing, I knew this was going to be a lengthy search so I called June Queen and Angie Rutherford and asked if they would come in to work the case with me. Both Angie and June said “Yes. They arrived in Maumelle with their full K9 teams; in total we would have the luxury of nine tracking dogs working with us. We began the day at a frosty 20 degrees and the mercury would continue to fall from there. By mid-day, I was freezing and Cade was showing signs of feeling the cold. Doggie Spa outfitted Cade in a warm jacket and I headed to Wal-Mart for more clothes. By the end of the search, David and Christie donated several jackets and sweaters to our dog teams so they could keep working as the temps dropped digit by digit. By the end of the day one, we had checked all the sightings and leads that had been given to us on a list and found that only one was Lucy. We headed to Marche Rd where the dog teams, picked up Lucy’s scent to the north east. Our goal for the next day was to start in the north east, and continue to track in an effort to catch up with the wandering little dog. On day two, we began to work an air scent perimeter strategy and as we had the day before, we used every dog we had. Cade started us off and picked up Lucys scent at the end of Marche Rd.; he tracked to the north. We continued and after a few hours, we were rounding the bend near a large soccer field when one of the pet owners said that there had been a sighting at that soccer filed but they had eliminated it as they did not think it could be her. We tracked by the soccer field where Cade alerted that Lucy had in fact been there and continued on through the creeks and woods. Coming up near Odom Rd., we tracked on the outskirts of a subdivision and were then told that over the past month four or five people had called about seeing a dog that looked like Lucy at nearby Lake Valencia. These sightings had not made the list as there was a dog that looked similar to Lucy and it was felt that all the sightings were that dog and not Lucy. I made the decision to go check these sightings and see for myself. David and Christi met us at the Edgewood sighting and located one of the witnesses who had seen a dog like Lucy on December 26th. We started three different dogs from the location she pointed to and all of them tracked the exact path the little dog had taken; one of the tracking dogs actually tracked all the way to the pizza parlor where the witness had lost sight of the dog. The little dog the witness saw that day was Lucy. It was getting late and none of us had eaten all day. We stopped to eat at the very pizza parlor the witness had described and while eating the server came up to us with a Lucy flier and told us she was sure she had seen the little dog twice in the past week outside the pizza parlor looking for food. More signs have been ordered and a new strategy has been designed. Lucy’s family along with the Doggie Spa volunteers spread out and got the signs placed where we designated. In order to expedite the sightings, Private Investigator Jamie Katz is taking the witness and sightings calls. Once a sighting comes in, volunteers along with Lucy’s family will dispatch to the location in hopes of capturing her. Traps and feeding stations have been set up and all hands are on deck as we wait for THE calls to come in. Our thanks to David & Christi from the Doggie Spa who made it possible for us to join the search. They have been instrumental in making it possible for the search for Lucy to continue. Our thanks to Lucys family who braved the cold while we worked and were able to provide directions and information about the area in which we searched. My personal thanks to Angie and June and their dog teams who donated their time to work with me on this search. Please cross your paws and say a prayer for little Lucy that she will overcome her fears and show up again where witnesses can see her and call in the location.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 00:19:17 +0000