Long week, lots of walking, still no Lucy

While I am feeling pretty exhausted, deflated and sad, the dogs would like to say this has been the BEST WEEK EVAH! Mom has actually gotten off her butt and taken them hiking every single day this week! Today they got to go twice! The dogs are like, "Oh yeah, this is awesome!"

There was one day when I just took Kaiser by himself -- Wednesday? Luke and Secret weren't quite so keen on that day, but they got to play frisbee so it wasn't all that bad, I guess.

Today marks one week since the Monroe County Animal Shelter lost Lucy the Alaskan Klee Kai. Myself and one staff member from the shelter have been searching for her on a daily basis with no lucky. Please don't even ask about Lucy's owner.... That is probably the most upsetting part of this whole ordeal. We tracked her down by way of her breeder (who was found via microchip, since the owner never registered it) and after contacting all of us on Wednesday we haven't heard from her since. The shelter, for the record, has NEVER spoken to this woman. How awesome is that? Great to know she cares about the dog. Also for the record, should we find the dog, Lucy will not be going back to this person...

Because we have heard of no sightings since Wednesday, I continue to focus my search in the same area around the shelter -- the industrial park across the road and the quarry/trails behind the shelter. The pictures on the blog today are taken in one of the trails we search every day. It's the oddest thing ever, there are over 20 of these hunting dummies spread around the woods on little hidden trails. The whole trail system seems like a great hiding place for a little dog, which is why we keep looking. Today there was a ton of broken glass on a section of the trail, though, so I'm not sure if we'll risk going through there anymore...

We set a live trap back behind the business where I believe I saw Lucy on Wednesday evening. It remained untouched until I went to check it Friday morning and found an empty trap -- as in, not sprung and no food left on the plate. Crap. Double crap. I called my dad and he went out to re-bait it that morning, taking care to spread peanut butter all over the spring plate so that hopefully something would have to work to get that off and set the trap.

Well, something finally visited the trap again today during the day (it was empty this morning) because most of the food was gone when I went to check it tonight. Come on, can't we catch a break?! I can't tell you why all of the food wasn't taken. It does appear that whatever was in there was skittish/in a hurry. And apparently doesn't like frozen peanut butter. Yes, frozen. It's so cold right now, which makes the situation that much worse.

Sadly, I'm losing hope. I feel so bad for this little dog, but I just don't know what to do anymore. I have probably put in at least 10 hours of searching by now -- I didn't have to work today, so I went out in the morning and again this afternoon. The shelter put out a lost ad in the paper, so we're hoping maybe something will come of that soon. It would be nice to have a sighting so we'd have an idea of where to look. Unfortunately the area by the shelter is just the small industrial area and woodlands.

In other news, today was the last day of NADAC Championships out in Utah. I can't tell you how much it stunk to be stuck here in Wisconsin, especially since several of my friends are attending this year (yes, even WAY out in Utah!). My friend Rich has been sending me his course drawings every day and giving me a run-down to keep me in the loop and while I appreciate it *so much* it also makes me sad. They had good courses again for the most part this year and I think my dogs would have done well again. The good news is that word on Facebook is that the local group has done VERY VERY WELL -- I think every single one of them made the finals! I haven't had a chance to check for final results yet, but how awesome is that?

It definitely made me pretty certain that I want to qualify for and attend again next year when it's back in Springfield, IL. It was a wonderful facility and the drive wasn't bad at all. I'll have to see how this next year goes with Luke as to if he would come again or not. Sadly he'll be just shy of getting to run as a double-digit vet, but he would still be able to run in the 12" Vet class. We'll see. All depends on where my life is at a year from now, too!

We have two trials this month that I should probably start to think about entering. We have NADAC in La Crosse in a couple of weeks and then USDAA over at Think Pawsitive the weekend following that. I only plan to enter on Sunday because they would get to run more classes, but we may go over Saturday night since Secret will be running in the first class (MASTERS/P3 Jumpers!!!) and we all know my history of driving over to that trial in the early morning hours...

In other news, I officially am "cutting back" at the shelter. I didn't really want to quit full out because I do enjoy what I do there and being part of the shelter culture, but I just need to have some time to myself and some time to actually spend with the dogs. Today confirmed that we all need this -- They were so happy to have me with them all day! I finish out the October schedule next weekend and then go to two days a month (one weekend or two single days). I'm hoping that I'll start to look forward to going to the shelter again once it seems like less of a burden....