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In this video you can see the ray tripper on the far right near the bottom of the frame. It's like a laser pointer and is pointed at a target that's mounted just across from it. It's connected to a car battery, which is also connected to a heavy duty magnet that is holding the door open. When she breaks the beam of light it cuts the power, thus releasing the door.

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 g

Sometimes you just need a little encouragement from a mini horse... Hopefully we will make the trap "live " tomorrow evening. Tonight's weather is keeping us from doing it tonight.

Black Bird is safe after a 10-day adventure! She somehow got away from her foster mom and headed for the woods (they all do!). She was dragging her leash, but somewhere along the line she chewed it off. The foster mom and the rescue jumped into action and printed and hung signs in the area. As signs went up, sightings came in, but people tried to capture her, causing her to continue to move. Finally, she settled in an area roughly 2 miles from where she escaped. When the rescue found out, the foster immediately headed over to put up signs, and, more importantly, go door-to-door with fliers. She knocked in the doors and explained how important it was that no one try to capture her, or even acknowledge her. Simply call and let us know. This turned out to be key! We set the trap and camera, and nothing. It seemed she moved over 1 street, so we moved to that street. Still nothing. Then we found out that a house was feeding her just 2 driveways down from the previous street. We set the trap and camera, and then it rained. She never showed up. This morning, 2 sightings came in, so I headed out to put up another camera. My plan was to stop by the trap and camera and make a slight adjustment to the camera angle. Well, the camera started going off! When I looked, all I saw was a bird on top of the trap. But, when I arrived at the house, she was in the trap!! Phew!! Thank you to everyone who contacted the rescue with sightings, and everyone who allowed us to put up a camera and trap! And thank you to the rescue volunteers who helped refresh the food and bungee/set the trap as needed. And a big thank you, and a high-5, to the foster who determined to get the word out not to engage with the dog, and knocked on doors so that everyone responded properly! The house where she was trapped was literally on Kings Hwy (Rt. 3) -- a very, very dangerous place for any animal!

Marley escaped her new home on Dec. 18 by darting out of the door when the 5 year old human opened the door to head out for school. They contacted us on the 19th. Because she continued to come back to the house, we suggested making a chum trail of rotisserie chicken from the yard and into the house, explaining where to end the trail and what the humans should and should not be doing. Well, she came in the house, but was so quick that she got out before they could shut the door. Someone from the rescue that they got her from came down with a trap, but it was too small for her (you have to take their length when the stretch into consideration. "She will fit in it" is not good enough!), and it shut early and scared her. So, on Christmas Eve, Laura and I took the Missy to them. This was in King George, which we generally don't go to because it's such a distance that we can't be "back up" for dealing with the trap and we can't respond in a timely manner if something gets trapped. But, since the chum trail didn't work, and the box trap didn't work, they needed the Missy. And the dog came from a rescue that we've dealt with many times. So.... We set the Missy, showed them how everything on it worked (they helped set it, too! --This family was a dream to work with! They followed our instructions to a T!). At first, we thought that Marley stopped coming for a couple of days, but when we pulled our videos we saw that she was coming but was taking a wide berth around the trap. The family's cameras showed that she was also going to their backyard to get to the woods, so we decided to take our 72" box trap out and set it in the backyard. She'd approach the box trap, and eat the food that was outside of it, but wouldn't go in. And she was making progress at the Missy -- eating what was outside, then starting to go in bit by bit. On Dec. 30, Marley finally went all of the way into the Missy! So, on Dec. 31, New Year's Eve, the traps were set to be active. And then th

This one took a village! Mylo is safe after a 16 day adventure! With no sightings except for his first day missing, we were starting to wonder what had happened. Then, we got a sighting! Mylo had appeared at a house for the last 2 days, eating food that was being left out for wild rabbits. The children had a Blink camera to watch the rabbits eat, and they saw Mylo! Terri headed over with a camera and set up a feeding station. A few hours later, Mylo showed up! It was still early in the evening, and the snow had not started, so Melissa headed over with a trap. But Mylo's tummy was full for the time being, and then the snow started. The home owner bungeed the trap open (so that we would not have to drive in the bad weather) for the night. Mylo returned in the middle of the night and ate, so we were confident that he'd be back the next night. So, Terri went back yesterday and replenished the food in the trap and set it. About 4 1/2 hours later, Mylo showed up! After circling the trap several times, he finally went in and was trapped. But, the second round of snow was going on, and with it being dark, the roads were icy. And the road that the house was on had not yet been plowed (and neither had mine). So, we contacted Spotsylvania Animal Control and they were able to respond and pick him up and take him to the shelter, where it was warm and dry. The home owner stood by making sure that he stayed calm in the trap, and covered the top of the trap to keep the snow off of him. Thank you, Megan!! And thank you to Spotsy Animal Control! And way to go Terri! Thank you for braving the weather for this guy!