Secret = Search & Rescue dog? Not quite, but we try.

 It's been a tiring few days here. Earlier this week we got word that there was a Klee Kai brought into my local shelter (in Monroe County -- not the one where I work in La Crosse County). Well that's fine and dandy, but she ESCAPED from the play yard when she was left out there unsupervised shortly after she arrived. Sigh. Just goes to show they know nothing about the breed.

They had managed to scan the dog and found a chip before she disappeared, only to find out that the chip was never registered and was traced to a vet clinic in California. We were able to figure out who bred the dog with that information and therefore track down the owner, but it's just been a very odd situation... Let's just say at this point our main concern is to find Lucy and then we'll deal with the rest.

The lost poster above just has a generic Klee Kai photo, as we hadn't yet managed to make contact with the owner for an actual current picture. She provided one today, so this picture is actually Lucy. For those who aren't familiar, she's more of a "Dark" Klee Kai, which isn't a color we see as often.

We went out searching last night, which the dogs thought was great fun! We parked at a gas station just west of the shelter and took off walking on a road going north. We ran into a snowmobile trail, so I followed it and came across a really old trail of some sort, which we then followed back to the highway at a point east of the shelter -- so we covered a lot of ground! Thankfully Luke helped to find the way back to the car. The path back was pretty thick and obscured and we would have missed the turn if not for him. Secret had gone running right past it.

We heard lots of rustling, but there was a lot of wildlife. We saw several deer on our way out of the woods and thankfully I got Secret back on leash before she registered what they were.

Tonight we went out again, but hit up the area across the highway from the shelter. The first positive sign I encountered was when I discovered a business had placed a water dish and a food dish (that was empty) out on their front sidewalk. Hmm, I thought that was interesting. We explored the land all around the business and didn't find anything, so we continued on our way.

We found this really interesting trail system that apparently belongs to some hunting store nearby. I thought it would be a good place for a Klee Kai to explore and hide out! We followed the trail to the end and then hit the road and continued until we hit the next highway before turning around to go back to the car.

I decided to go back up to the business where I'd found the dishes before throwing in the towel for the night. It was almost dark, so there wasn't much more I could do. As we were walking up the drive towards the dishes I spotted a small figure in the parking lot about 100 yards away or so. My eyes didn't register it well at first and it wasn't moving. As we started to walk towards it the animal took off. I called out, "Lucy!!" and she stopped, looked back at me and then ran into the woods. I think it was her!!

Long story short, my dad brought a live trap over and we set it at the entrance to the woods where she ran off. I called and left a message at the business to let them know what is going on and hopefully get some information from someone there if there have been sightings.

I am exhausted. I really hope we find Lucy soon. I torture Kaiser and squeeze him extra hard because I can't imagine if he was out there scared and alone.