From the Director: Behold, the Power of Bacon

Reyna is one of the most traumatized dogs that SHUG has had in foster care. In Spain, Reyna belonged to a hunter with a reputation for being harsh with his dogs. (This is like saying he was the mime that all of the other mimes found annoying.) As a result, Reyna has a fear of men that she's struggled to overcome. This is all a roundabout way of saying Reyna is possibly the worst dog in the world to get loose during a walk.

Monday

But that's exactly what happened. Reyna's regular foster mom was away on vacation and her temporary foster lost her hold on the leash during a walk. Near a busy highway. It was pretty much our worst nightmare.

If you've been paying attention, you may have noticed that one of SHUG's most important strengths is our network of truly awesome volunteers. When the call came in on Monday afternoon, we dropped everything and mobilized. Volunteers took to the streets putting up flyers, to the woods searching, to the phones making calls, and to social media. When you've lost a dog, Facebook is your friend.

Within hours we had the word out and that meant sightings! Reyna's first day out, we spoke to literally a dozen people who saw her. She crisscrossed between the two main roads in the area, making a well-defined circle . . . then nothing. No sightings after 3 p.m. We ended the day cold and scared, knowing that she was, too.

Not too cold, though. One of our lucky breaks in this search was that Reyna was wearing a very distinctive purple coat. It made taking sighting information much easier. It also made Reyna much safer. Not only was the fleece coat warm and water resistant--it kept our little fawn Galga from looking like a deer.

Tuesday

After a quiet night, action picked up again bright and early the next morning. By 7 a.m. Reyna was again making her well-defined circle across two busy streets, giving us all ulcers and permanent hair loss. Again, dozens of people saw her. When the phone would ring, the first question I'd ask was -- WHEN!? She was covering just a couple of miles, but her unauthorized shortcuts were much faster than our cars could travel by road. By the time we'd get up and around through several lights and over to her new location we'd get a call that she was already back on the other side of the highway!

By the end of the day, it seemed that Reyna had finally settled into one area. An RV park and a church that backed onto a large park. Here's the twist . . . the church's back lot had been set up as a haunted "park." Over several acres of woods, there were large sheets of black plastic hung between trees, abandoned cars, 2 school buses full of life size skeletons and clowns, multiple sheds and shacks full of headless dolls and other dismembered body parts. It was unbelievably creepy.

Our second lucky break in this rescue, was that it snowed (just a little bit) that first night. Not enough to endanger Reyna, but just enough to show footprints. Just outside a little red barn full of hay in the middle of the haunted park, we found footprints--and a long straight line next to them in the snow, which looked like the trail of Reyna's leash. Inside the barn, a Galga-sized indentation in the hay convinced us this is where she had spent the night.

Kristie and Travis, who had fostered Reyna when she first came from Spain, drove hours to join the search. They stayed in the haunted woods, and had our last sighting of Tuesday--at 10 p.m.--near the barn, which had become the center of our search. The wusses among us--of which I am one--high tailed it out of those woods when it got dark. Like Kristie and Travis, I had also fostered Reyna for many months, so after spending all day traipsing through the woods and getting good and stinky under four layers of clothes, I left my tank top in the little red barn in the hopes it would entice her back.

We also left something even more important, a live trap donated by Greyhound Rescue, Inc. Jenny of Her Majesty's Hounds drove pretty much through the dead of night to bring the trap back to the haunted woods and a very, very brave team of dedicated volunteers set it up amidst the ghouls and ghosts. We were ready!

Wednesday

Could Reyna have picked a creepier place to spend her time?

 

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. There were no sightings all day Wednesday. Volunteers checked the trap every couple of hours. I fielded texts and calls through the night and always the same. Nothing. By noon, panic had set in. We had another trap donated by the local SPCA but our concern was that Reyna had been chased out of the area by the flurry of activity the previous day. Or worse. She could be caught by her leash somewhere deep in the park. Volunteers scoured the area for any sign of her.

So we had to stop and rethink our strategy. I made the decision to pull everyone out of the woods. We asked all volunteers to stay away from the area and refocus on flyering the neighboring communities. That meant we would have to close the traps. It was just too cold to risk her getting caught in one if we weren't going to be checking them. And if we were checking them, we thought she wouldn't come back to the area. It was a classic Catch-22 scenario.

What made the situation slightly more bearable was the addition of cameras. Sandra, a local dachshund mom, and Cindy, a volunteer with Greyt Expectations Greyhound Rescue, set up cameras near the little red barn and we all backed quietly out of the woods.

On other fronts, the search continued. Volunteers put up a more colorful new flyer, and I spammed all of Northern Virginia with a robo call by FindToto.com. Within hours I had 7 calls from people who had seen Reyna . . . the day before. 🙁

It was a very long night.

Thursday

We woke with a new plan. If Reyna didn't come back to the little red barn, we would have figure out her new location. To that end we contacted a tracker with a scent dog who had a good reputation with other rescues. She was searching for a cat that day (I shall make no comment.) but could come out on Friday.

As we were planning for the tracker and trying to find a good "scent" item of Reyna's, Cindy and Sandra headed back to pull the memory cards from the cameras. And ran right into Reyna at the little red barn! The hunt was on again! Although Reyna ran away from them, they had her on film! Reyna had arrived back at the little red barn about an hour after we had vacated the woods the day before!! The time stamped pictures showed Reyna just hanging out, wandering around the area, eating the food we'd left, investigating the closed traps, and basically having a lovely vacation at the expense of a our peace of mind.

baconThis was when we decided to bring out the big guns. I hopped into the Target down the street and bought a camp stove, 3lbs of bacon, and new underwear. The camp stove and the bacon was plan A. Reyna had spent the night curled up with my tank top. If we didn't get her today, the underwear was plan B. (I was willing to sacrifice the current pair, but I wasn't driving home commando.)

Just before noon, we set up the camp stove in the clearing in front of the little red barn and commenced Operation: Bacon to the Rescue. The cooked bacon went into the two traps, the grease was poured in a trail in front of them, and the smell went . . . EVERYWHERE. Around 12:30 the trap was laid and I retreated to the church parking lot with Cindy, her Greyhound, Sandra, and Sandra's little dachshund Mandy. There may have been some snuggling.

An hour later, we were all starving, so we came up with a plan. I'd sneak back into the haunted park to check the trap and then we'd go get lunch. It sounded great in theory, but I'm not very sneaky. I really didn't want to scare Reyna away if she was in the area, but the snow had melted, revealing the leaves again, which are very noisy.

Over the past three days, I felt like I was the only one who hadn't actually gotten a glimpse of Reyna. I was always on the wrong side of the highway or just in the wrong place at the wrong time. So when I crested the top of the hill and saw that Reyna waiting for me patiently in the trap, it was pretty awesome. I'm not sure what I did or said, but I clearly remember Reyna wagging her tail at me and looking not at all sad to have been caught. Of course, she was also full of bacon.

Safe and warm
Safe and warm

Shockingly, Reyna was in excellent shape. Her pretty purple coat wasn't even dirty! She was dehydrated and did need to get subcutaneous fluids, but she emerged from the haunted woods remarkably unscathed. I'm not sure the rest of us can say the same. This week will definitely leave a mark--but I think it's one we'll cherish. We've made new friends and feel like we've accomplished something amazing. We've once again gotten to see the wonderful things people (especially dog people!) can do when they band together for a common cause. And as stressful as this has been, that's pretty darn awesome.

Thank you. To everyone who came out to help search for Reyna, to Fawn who manned the phones, to Holly and Mimi who helped keep us organized. To volunteers from other rescues and groups who pitched in, donated traps, and their time. To everyone who called in sightings. To everyone who kept Reyna in their thoughts and hearts over this week. Thank you.

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10 thoughts on “From the Director: Behold, the Power of Bacon
  1. Happy dance. Everyone did a terrific job. Those of us following all of you and Reyna are smiling. I got chills when I read of the “capture”. Thanks for the whole story.

  2. That was one of the best stories I’ve read in a very long time. And entertaining as well! Thank you to each & everyone involved! From one Greyhound lover to others….owned by 4 here in Oklahoma.
    HUGE HUGS!!

  3. reading this I cried she just like my beautiful daphney big beautiful lady fawn I adopted her in 94 she died in 2006 she was 11 years old… im so very happy u found her she had the same personalty had had a fear of men .but a lot of hard work and much love she became very close friends with my husband.. it took a year in fact when he would go to bed she went with him and crawled right up beside him… the first night she did it he cried … and she licked his face then from there they was the best of friends . he talked to her every day … coax her with toast every morn but he never pushed his self on her .. he did this with her slowly .. and very gently… he would even lay on the floor . and when she would come up he would softly say high baby girl how you doing daddy loves you sweety and some day you will be my sweetie and daddy will never hurt you . year of this and love gentleness. she finely on her time decided ok I love my daddy and he will never hurt me .. mom sleeps on couch . I sleep with dad ..lol I eat breakfast with dad and I lay in by the tub while daddy showers .. and I have to be in the bathroom laying on the rug while daddy uses the tolet.. lol I lay by daddy when he eats .and when daddy had a big glass of frute punch and he took a nap ill stick my long tougen down in his glass and drink it for him why he loves me and don’t care. im old now and I cant play has well .. this male human never gave up his love and kidness was true . im glad I had the years to know the true meaning of love never a day went by that my humans didn’t touch me hug me and kiss me .. never a day didn’t go by I got up and lay by daddy at the table and have my wheat toast with him and he would reach down and pet me … time takes away fear , and the nightmares I indored , love heals .. I took my last breath with daddy holding me in his arms telling me I love you baby girl love heals fear it takes time

  4. I was very worried during this entire ordeal and remained preoccupied with Reyna. I couldn’t stop thinking of her. Honestly, I couldn’t check her status this morning expecting the worst. So I went to my Moose lodge near Reyna’s sightings where I’d put the word out about her and had asked several folks to look out and share her status on FB. Someone asked me if “the dog” had been found and before I could answer, another member, Stacy, said YES. She had seen the status update on FB. I thank those who went the extra mile for Reyna and as I look at my Greyhound Mikey, I take comfort knowing there may be people willing to help if he should ever be in a bad way.

  5. Great News! I’m so impressed to learn what beautiful,giving people you all are and that the ending was just deserved! PS.I think my heart skipped a beat when I read that Reyna was FOUND!