Return 2 Home Lost Pet Resources, Fredericksburg, Fredericksburg, VA (2025)

04/10/2025

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04/09/2025

Woo hoo!! Oreo is home safe after 3 1/2 days in the woods after being in a rollover car accident on an exit off of I95 on Saturday! The owner was fortunate to have "only" a sore back (they can be miserable!) and serious injuries to her left wrist and fingers, but is otherwise ok. Family and friends scoured the woods for Oreo, but to no avail. We printed signs for them (as always, thank you Minuteman Press!) and they were put up yesterday. But there were zero sightings. We contacted Stafford Animal Control and they didn't receive any calls. Usually, lost dogs require some patience and eventually are seen. But because this was a car accident we were concerned that Oreo could be hurt, or worse. Although he was wearing a harness and vest, we weren't concerned about him being hung up because, most of the time, the dog will chew through it (and Oreo did!). So, Laura and I decided that we needed to use our dogs. She loaded Truman in the car and we all met at the accident site. The owner's entire family came. They brought toys as scent articles. We explained that it's not likely that we will find Oreo -- tracking is usually a tool for where to concentrate your efforts with signs. And if the dog is nearby, tracking can push him further away. I stayed at Laura's car because it's 1/2 mile of rough terrain before coming out on the other side, and I would have to drive to her to pick she and Truman up. They headed out and I watched their progress on the app for Truman's gps collar. Truman was doing a lot of circling...under a fence, then back again (Laura's knees are dirty and wet!) They were gone about 20 minutes or so, then I saw Laura and Truman walking down the hill, but Truman was next to her, not in front of her like he should be when trailing. When they came out of the woods, we could see why! Oreo was with them! Truman found Oreo on top of the hill (only 150-200 feet from our camera and feeding station, but we never saw him). Truman is super friendly with humans and dogs, so Laura crouched down and let Truman approach Oreo. They sniffed each other and wagged tails. Laura carefully approached and was able to get hold of the harness. Then Oreo was all wags and wiggles! She put a slip lead around his neck and brought him to the waiting arms of his owner! Welcome home Oreo!! And for those of you who will say that this could have been avoided if he'd been secured in the vehicle I'd like to remind you that it was only a couple of weeks ago that we witnessed an accident where the car burst into flames after hitting a tree. If a dog had been in that car, he would have perished. So please don't judge others!

04/09/2025

Oreo is safe!! Details soon!

04/07/2025

McDonald's double cheeseburgers for the win! This sweet dog was seen all day running around the Fire and Rescue Company #5 and the neighboring church on Rt. 3 all day today. When Animal Control would arrive they either did not see her, or she ran. They contacted us asking for help. I put the trap out at about 6:30 this evening, baited with canned dog food and Vienna Sausages. She showed up minutes later and went in far enough to eat the chum trail, but didn't go all of the way in to step on the trip plate. She paced around it and went in and out for about 30 minutes, and then she left to explore. That gave me time to add 3 more cans of Vienna's. She came back, but did the same thing again. That's when she decided to lay down next to the trap for a while. After about an hour, she went exploring again, and I ran to McDonald's to get a "higher value" bait. And it worked! It was a total of 3 1/2 hours, but at least I'm not having to sleep in my car!
And it's the first time using our new Tomahawk Live Trap with the gravity door!

04/07/2025

My current situation...*sigh*

04/06/2025

Frodo, the one-eyed cat, went missing 12 days ago. Although the owners said that he was an indoor cat, he was actually an indoor/outdoor -- they let him out frequently, but "he never goes far" (do you have any idea how many times we've heard that????). We were contacted, and went over the usual stuff -- signs being the most important. They got a few signs up, but they also did a lot of searching. They would hear him, but not see him. At one point, they did see him in a storm drain, but they couldn't get to him. They contacted Animal Control who came out and climbed in the storm drain, but Frodo ran. AC would not put a trap in the drain because if it rained, there was a high risk that Frodo, if trapped, would drown. The owners contacted us again, and Laura headed over with a trap and a camera, thinking that the cat was stuck and could not get out of the storm drain. One of the owners climbed down and set the trap, and then the problem of how to position a camera so that it had cell service was presented. They decided to strap it to the lid of the storm drain. It gave us view of the trap, but was tilted at such an angle that the motion sensors would not be triggered. So, we all slept with our phones and checked on it every hour throughout the night. At about 1:00 a.m. the cat showed up -- outside of the storm drain! He was either attracted by the smell of the food, or was doing his routine of going down into the storm drain, but the trap was blocking his ability. Little turkey! He wasn't stuck! He was just frequently going in and out! He'd go in one, and come out another on the other side of the street! He did the same thing the next evening, around 7:30. The owners went out and did a "stakeout", hoping to see him and to be able to lure him to them. Just after 11:00 p.m. they decided to pack it up for the night and go home. They pulled the trap and camera from the drain. We had put a camera and food in the backyard of the next house (it was at the end of as street, so easily accessible from this location), but he never went to it. As they were driving away, they saw him down the street. One of the ladies carefully made her way down to him and offered him treats. He took the bait and she was able to scoop him up! He's now home, safe and sound.
One thing with these indoor/outdoor cats is that they explore -- sometimes for a few hours, sometimes days, sometimes weeks, but they almost always come home on their own. But, we humans want them to come home on OUR schedule, not theirs. Cats don't care what you want -- they will do what they are going to do! It's like when you live your toddler with a babysitter so that you can go out and relax and have a good time -- the toddler will initially cry and cry and cry, trying to convince you to stay with them. But you go anyway. Well, when a cat leaves, it's the human owner who cries and cries, but the cat says "nope, I'm having a good time and I will come home when I want to". If you want to know where your indoor/outdoor cat is, you have to either keep them inside or put a gps collar (NOT AN AIR TAG!!!) on them.

04/06/2025

Woo Hoo!! After 10 very long days, Auggie is home!! Auggie's owners were out of town, and their good friends were petsitting their 4 dogs. Everyone knows everyone, so they did the normal routine of letting all 4 dogs out in the unfenced backyard to go potty. When it was time to come back in, 3 came back without any problem. But something spooked Auggie and she took off running through the woods. Unfortunately, the teenager chased after her, pushing her further. Everyone went out searching, but to no avail. The next morning, signs went up and posts were made on Nextdoor and the Neighbors app. Sightings came in, but Auggie kept moving. We were contacted a few days later. The hardest part was to get people to quit searching! We had to explain to oh, so many people, about how a scared dog's brain will "flip" so that they don't recognize their people, their names, nothing. As sightings came in, we put out cameras and feeding stations. But, the dog was no where near settled. A neighbor who's job involves flying drones offered to help, but he could not find her (even though he was searching within minutes of there having been sightings. And that's 1 thing about drones -- most of the time, if there are sightings, you don't need a drone search. Drones can push the dog into hiding. He was also flying much lower than drone operators who specialize in lost pet rescue recommend). We also ran in to many people in the neighborhood, who meant well, but were out searching -- just trying to lay eyes on her. We had to explain that it does more harm than good. When a dog is in fear/flight mode, they are going to avoid humans. If they hear/smell you coming (and their senses of hearing and smelling are much, much better than ours!) they will run away. So, we had a lot of obstacles! Cameras, food, and scent articles were out for a week, and we never saw her on camera. We had several discussions with the owner about scent, and how it works. So, she took an old bedsheet and put it on her bed to sleep on. She also had other family members lay on it, as well as the other 3 dogs. And then she cut it into large strips and strategically placed the strips in a trail down the street and around the corner for a block or so. Since this was a very small dog, she placed 2 strips at most locations -- one low enough that it was at the pup's nose level, and one higher so that the wind would cause the scent to blow a bit further. Fast forward to last night, and the dog was seen at a house that is just 1 street over from where the dog lives. That homeowner also took down all of the scent markers that were on his fence (he didn't know what they were). He put them in a bag and left them on the driveway, just outside of the garage. Well, this morning, his camera caught Auggie sniffing the bag! It must have been that the collection of scent was enough that it caused her brain to flip into recognition because it was just a little while later that Auggie showed up on her own front porch! Her owner had been vigilant about walking (with at least 1 dog) up and down the street to leave scent, and the scent markers on her street were still up. Phew! Welcome home Auggie!!

03/30/2025

Charlie went missing on Thursday when his mom went to pick him up from the clinic after being neutered. She put his carrier down, next to the car, while she opened the car door, and Charlie suddenly got a burst of energy and busted through the carrier door! They saw the direction that he headed, but he was determined to keep going. The clinic tried contacting me, but my phone was on silent (sometimes I just need a couple of hours of peace!). By the time I saw the missed call and text they had already contacted Sabrina Bates for help. Where she lives, as well as where she works, there are many feral cats, so she bought a couple of traps and learned how to do TNR to take care of her problem. (Yay!! I wish more people would be this responsible and do it themselves instead of hoping others will do it for them!). Sabrina came and put out a trap. The next morning, the trap was checked and she'd caught a cat, but not Charlie. But, the cat went in to the clinic and got neutered anyway. I got in touch with Sabrina to find out if she wanted to continue with the rescue of Charlie, or did she want me to step in (I live less than 10 minutes from the clinic -- she's over 30 minutes away). She asked that I take over. So, I went to put out a camera and feeding station where I usually do in that area -- the woods that connect to the cemetery. Only this time, there were bulldozers and big equipment making a lot of noise as the cemetery was expanding. Yikes! I doubted that Charlie would have hung around there. But I put a camera out, hoping. (2 foxes and a raccoon were all that showed up that night). But, if he wasn't there in the woods, where would he be? There's a zillion cars in the area (tow yards, used car sales, car repairs). Great hiding places! Or did he go to the neighborhood across the street? I decided that I would need Flynn's help with this case. So, Flynn and I met with the owners this morning, and after getting attention from his new friends, Flynn was ready to work. He picked up on Charlie's path of escape, and then stopped for a bit at a gate/fence of one of the businesses. So, we went back to the car and drove a street over to see if he could pick up scent there. Nothing. So, if Charlie went in the fenced area, he didn't leave via the other side of the property. So, we came back and started in a different spot, where he picked up scent again. He was VERY interested in a used car lot. But, we stopped the track because if Charlie was there, we didn't want to push him out. So, we continued with a perimeter check. We crossed to the neighborhood, and again, Flynn picked up scent from the street down along a wooden fence and then to a different section of woods. Okay. This is where we need a camera. Just a week or two prior, I'd been in the exact location due to a sighting of a dog who was lost in the area, and the Service Dept. at Shirley Slack Auto had seen the dog and was more than happy to allow us to put out a camera and feeding station. So, I checked with them again, and, again, they were more than happy to allow us to set up in order to get a lost pet home. I ran home and got another camera (I wanted to move the first one closer to the clinic) and set it along with a big can of mackerel. Then, I headed to the original section of woods to pull the camera to move it to the clinic property. Well, my phone was giving me camera notifications. I assumed it was pictures of me setting up the feeding station. But, when I looked, it was Charlie!! Less than 1 hour from the time Flynn said "here"! So, I ran home and got a trap and set it. I figured Charlie wouldn't be back for several hours -- he'd eaten about 1/3 of the big can of Mackerel! But it was a1 hour and 40 minutes later that he showed up! And he went right into the trap! Woo Hoo! Flynn for the win!! Less than 3 hours after the track! Trust me, it usually doesn't happen this quickly! Welcome home, Charlie!!

03/26/2025

We got her! We got her!!! We've been trying to trap her since February 9 or 10! I've attached videos from several different angles....also a photo of her 4 puppies (who were born, we figure, sometime between Christmas and New Years.) We tried to use them as "bait" but she was too afraid of the traps. It's taken this long to get her comfortable going in the Missy trap! She's now at the Spotsylvania Animal Shelter where she will be treated for fleas and ticks (she's got quite a few ticks on her!), vaccinated, tested for heartworm, and spayed!
Big shout out to Laura, who took the lead on this one and kept the feeding stations fresh every evening! And Terri for helping with the set up, stakeouts, and trapping as well as take down of the traps tonight. And me (Melissa) doing a little bit of everything already mentioned. And the wonderful neighbors and property owner who allowed us on their property for so long!

03/25/2025

We're still after the momma hound. She's proving to be quite the challenge! She absolutely, positively will not step foot in a box trap. So, we put the Missy up. Nope. Not doing that either. So, we took the Missy down and have been putting it up piece by piece for the last few weeks. That, plus we found that she LOVES raw pigs feet! She's been hesitant with every change, but has been going in. Once we added the door, she refused to go in the first night. But, she went in the next night and has been ever since. We went "live" on Saturday night -- Laura, Terri and I were on stakeout, parked at a property across the street and down just a tad from the trap. She showed up and went in, but we had the ray tripper (laser light) too high (we knew it was high on the one side, but would be fine if she reached for the pig's foot from the right side. But, she didn't. She stuck to the left side and stretched. Dang it! Laura and I had argued about it -- she wanted to lower it, but I was afraid of the raccoons coming in and setting it off, and that could cause Momma hound to realize that it's a trap. Ugh!). Well, many nights, she get's the foot and then comes back within 12-16 minutes to eat the food. But some nights she's not back for hours (sometimes as late as 6:00 a.m.!). 15 minutes passed when we heard a loud crash and then saw a ball of fire -- a car had gone off of the road and hit a tree! The engine immediately caught fire. It was just across the street, about 550 feet, from the trap. So much for her coming back! (The young driver seemed to be quite "impaired" -- luckily, a couple of cars with young people were driving by and stopped to make sure he was out of the car and away from the fire -- they were true heroes!).
We didn't try to trap the next night because we didn't know if Momma was going to come back at her usual time. She didn't -- she showed up around 3:00 a.m. But, last night, she was back to her usual. So, hopefully, we will be able to get her tonight. We're into our 9th week with her -- we couldn't trap for several weeks because she was nursing and we didn't know where the puppies were. Then, we found the puppies and tried to use them as "bait" but she sat back and barked for them to come to her. We tried for 2 nights. So, they went to the SPCA in order to find homes. That's when we started from scratch with the Missy. Paws crossed that we can get her tonight! And yes, Laura and Terri lowered the ray tripper so that it shouldn't be too high for Momma to trip, even if she stretches!

03/17/2025

Woo Hoo!! Cabo is home after 12 days! We were a bit slow to get involved in this one -- the owner had responded to a comment on her post and it turned out to be a scam (🤬🤬🤬). When that happens, owners are slow to trust ANYONE. But, they finally reached out and we jumped in. We had effective signs printed and the family did a great job of getting them up. There were a couple of sightings, but, of course, he ran from everyone. Then, we got word that he had crossed Rt. 1 (did he "cross" it? Or go under it? We'll never know.) and had been hanging out in car lot, but got chased. The owner was able to lay eyes on him, but he was in flight mode. We set a couple of traps and cameras, but he never showed up. A couple of days later, another sighting in the same general area, so another camera was placed. Again, he never showed up. The weekend came, and we really didn't expect to have any sightings (it's weird -- but we get far more sightings during the week than we do on weekends. We have our theory about that....). Then, this morning my phone rang. I was hoping that it was the owner calling me with another sighting, but, instead, it was the owner calling to tell me that he was home! She was leaving for work and saw a small brown thing move. She turned to look and it was Cabo! When her daughter came out of the house Cabo hesitated for a moment and then flew up the stairs and into the daughter's arms! Yay!

03/16/2025

This is the face of a 7-year-old man who's daddy just showed up at the party where he was hanging out with the girls (dang it!)....2 nights ago Diablo took advantage of an open gate and went on an adventure. Along the way, he found a girlfriend (or a friend-girl....Hopefully "nothing happened"). The problem is that the "friend-girl" was the hound that we've been trying to capture for 2 months! And we are soooo close -- we were going to put the door on the Missy trap yesterday (we've had to build it panel-by-panel in order to get her used to it), but today's weather forecast caused us to postpone it a couple of days. And then this knucklehead shows up! So, he's checking out our feeding stations, and even ventures into the box trap (which is bungeed open -- the hound won't go in it but we're afraid to pull it because she notices every little change). I called the Spotsylvania Animal Shelter and a dog fitting his description had been reported missing in the area, so I contacted the owner. Laura met him where we have the traps and cameras, but he was no longer around. He knows most of the people in the area, so he went and talked to a few neighbors. Someone had seen him in the woods behind their house with a hound. *sigh*. 6 hours later, our cameras notify us of motion at the Missy trap. We look, and it's a brown and black hound (with Diablo in the background), not "our" hound! What the....???? So, I call the owner and Laura heads back down there (she lives 20 minutes closer than I do, so I acted as the communications dept on this one. Lol), and I sent a photo to a neighbor who has been helping us. She said that a neighbor had lost one of his hounds that morning and was out looking for her. Diablo's dad got there and saw ALL 3 DOGS in the cow field! The brown and black hound came running to him. He put her on a leash and started walking towards Laura, who was jogging towards him in order to retrieve the hound. She slowed to a walk as she got closer. What she didn't realize was that Diablo was also heading towards his dad, but stopped and turned when he saw her (and note that Diablo is a very friendly dog who "will go to anyone who will rub his belly" -- he's not a skittish dog. But, we see it all of the time where their brains "flip" and they don't recognize their families or their names. It could be that Diablo was just following the hound and didn't realize that there were humans there until he got closer). The hound's owner showed up and put her in the truck, then both men got in the truck to drive into the cow field to retrieve Diablo. But, by that time, Diablo (and the other hound) were gone. So, we had to wait again. We were certain that our hound would show up at her usual time at night to eat. We just didn't know if he would be with her, and if he was, would trapping him in the box trap scare her off? It was a risk we had to take. Laura set the box trap. Everyone went home. Laura went back at her usual time to put the food in the Missy trap for the hound. She showed up at her usual time (although towards the late end of the time window), but no Diablo. Thankfully, the raccoons were not nearly as active as they usually are because they usually go into the box trap. But, not last night. Then, at about 2:45 this morning a photo came through our phones. It was Diablo! We watched as he went into the box trap. Laura (who had gone to bed with her closes on) threw on her shoes and headed out the door. Then, the trap to the door shut and Diablo was trapped! I waited a few minutes before calling the owner (I wanted Laura to get there first, since he didn't know how to open the trap and we wanted as little disturbance as possible in case our hound was nearby). He was so happy for the middle-of-the-night call! Laura got there just 2 or 3 minutes before he did. Diablo thought that Laura was another girl to add to his party (he rolled over in the trap for a belly rub), but when his dad got there, it was like "the party's over!" 🤣🤣 But, after a minute or so of the "Aw, man!" pout, Diablo decided that he was happy to see his dad. Another one (actually 2 because of the other hound!) safe! Paws crossed that we get the other hound this week! (by the way, Diablo's nose is red because: 1) He has a pink nose, and 2) he was using it to push on the door of the trap in order to get out [which didn't work]).

03/08/2025

This cat proved to be quite the challenge to trap. 6 weeks ago, we trapped a stray dog at a property off of Tidewater Trail. They have a small colony of cats (it started as 2 cats), and none were fixed. Since they helped us so much in capturing the dog, we offered our assistance in doing TNR for the cats. She was thrilled! She knew about the county's TNR program, but didn't know that there was a charge. But, even at $25 per cat, it adds up when there are a dozen or so cats! So, we started trapping. The homeowner would trap a cat and call me, so I'd pick it up and take it to the Virginia Kincheloe Spay / Neuter Clinic. This cat is one that has had at least 2 litters, but none of the kittens ever survived (because of the foxes? Did they wander to the nearby townhouses where people took them? We'll never know). We kept trapping cats, but this one would not go into a cat trap. I set the drop trap, and waited for her. She showed up with her boyfriend. He sat outside the trap, on guard duty, while she ate. When I started to pull the string in order to drop the trap, he alerted her and she was able to escape. Dang it! So, I waited until the next day and brought over a 4 foot dog trap. I bungeed it open so that it would not capture anyone (I didn't want to trap anyone who we'd already fixed, and have it scare her off). We have a remote control that could be used on the trap, but it's noisy and slower than I would like. I've had several people tell me that they've used Drone Clips on cat traps, so I decided to order one and see if it would work on the dog trap. My concern was that the door would be too heavy. Well, it worked! I don't know that it could have handled a 60" trap, but it worked perfectly on the 48"! So, after 5 weeks, I caught her and she was spayed today! Yay! No more unwanted kittens!!

03/06/2025

UPDATE: Carla is doing GREAT! Her bloodwork looked good except for her liver enzymes, and that was probably from having eaten nothing or very little for several days. They will reverse themselves after eating tiny, frequent meals for a bit. Once she was home she crashed in her crate for several hours (can you imagine sleeping with 1 eye open for 6 days? Most dogs sleep HARD once they get home). When she woke up, she was following her owner around the apartment (previously, she was too timid to do this), and even found a sock of hers and took it into her crate! I think she has learned the hard way that she's with someone who loves her and will take care of her and not hurt her. Happy, happy ending!

Carla (a bulldog/beagle mix) is safe after 6 very scary days! She was adopted only 2 weeks prior her escape. Very skittish in nature, her owner was taking her to her apartment complex's dog park when a bike went by, scaring Carla, and she was able to pull out of her collar and she took off! The rescue contacted us, and we called the owner. She put out feeding stations right away, and designed signs. The next day, she printed and hung signs. Sightings started coming in, but Carla was still on the move. More signs were put up, further from home. Then sightings came in from the same area for 2 days. That's when the owner contacted animal control to borrow a trap. A raccoon was caught the first night. *sigh*. I encouraged the owner to purchase a couple of inexpensive cellular trail cameras, and she did. She was going to put them out today when she received a "real time" sighting, so she headed out the door, rotisserie chicken, collar, and leash in hand. After an hour and a half, she still had not laid eyes on Carla. Then, 6 days to the hour that Carla went missing, she received a call that she was in someone's yard, leaning against the fence and it looked like she was sleeping. The owner headed right over and was able to walk right up to her and pick her up. We don't know if she was sleeping, is completely exhausted, or is in medical distress, so she's going straight to the emergency vet (fortunately, they live in Henrico, so they have reliable emergency vets!). I'll keep you posted as to how she is!

03/05/2025

Ok, folks -- we're supposed to get lots of wind today. PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOUR FENCES AND GATES ARE SECURE!! I don't want to get bombarded with messages about missing pets when you can take 2 minutes to check things and avoid putting your pet's life at risk. Thank you!

02/17/2025

Thank you, thank you, thank you ODHS volunteers Lilian and Jennifer for the donations! Sprayers (that we use for liquid smoke -- they have to be replaced every so often because they get gunked up over time), laminator sheets (for signs, both for lost pets and for our traps), color printer ink!!!! (Yippee!! I was just about to order some!), twistie things that we use on the traps, especially cat traps, as reinforcement to keep the animal from escaping. We really appreciate you!

02/14/2025

Thank you, Katie Porter (ODHS volunteer), for all of the donations from our Amazon Wishlist!! We greatly appreciate it! Also, thank you to whomever donated a Chewy gift card when they made a purchase on Chewy!

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