It’s not unusual to have a network of friends and responsible kids to trade support with when traveling so that your pets get as close to the care you give them when you’re not there. There's a lot of trust in this network and sometimes the details are missed in what to do if an emergency strikes.
For Kody, his family was getting on a plane to Europe just hours before his caregiver’s plane landed, so it was arranged for him at the caregiver’s house so he’d get immediate attention as soon as his caregiver arrived. This, being summer and vacation time, wasn’t so unusual.
What no one expected was Kody's uneasiness in being in the house alone and then seeing a friend come in, someone he didn't know. He bolted out the front door and into a neighborhood that wasn't his own. She tried to coax him back, but each time she got close to containing him, he ran away.
We pet lovers are a committed bunch. There was an amazing depth of support and concern that everyone involved displayed. Folks out on late afternoon strolls would point in the direction they saw Kody run. Others joined in as they could. It was a limited, harrowing, but inspiring community effort to get Kody to safety.
But it wasn't quite enough. As darkness came, they lost track of him, and they had to give up. There was a much loved dog somewhere who was scared, lost, and probably in pain as he ran for hours trying to find familiar territory.
Darkness or not, a small group took up the search and traveled the local streets until close to midnight. When they realized the combinatorics of streets he could travel was huge, they decided to wait until daybreak and go in separate cars.
It was just before 8:00 the next morning that a call was made to the local police department to see if any lost dogs had been called into the station. Kody had been spotted by an officer shortly after 5pm the evening before, about an hour after he first left the house. He was now at the Humane Society, waiting to be picked up. This wonderful guy was safe and uninjured and hadn't been out long.
What went well here and what could have been done differently? How could we affect change so that anyone who might find themselves in a similar situation would feel supported, guided, and given the right information and tools to act quickly and efficiently on a pet's behalf?
