07/02/2024
Okay here it is, the long, promised post! I know so many have followed Aussie's story and I think it's important to let people know how it went down, to the extent that I can tell parts of her story. There are parts we will never know. Parts that only she will know. Most importantly though, is that she is here now, she is safe, she will be okay, and she will go home to her family.
Aussie and her family were vacationing in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) and camping in the Tent Village at Colter Bay Village. The tents are more like outfitter camp tents or yurts, with a solid floor and a big, permanent, canvas tent secured to them. It is not a structure people renting the tents set up. Aussie escaped on June 20th through a part of the tent that was not fully secured to the base. There are many, many, many details about this part of Aussie's adventure that I don't know, and I haven't asked about, because those details were not relevant to my part in helping find Aussie. None of us are experts on these details, simply because we were NOT there. Her family did all the things they could think of to look for her and to help find her. They had missing posters made that were put up everywhere in the area, they alerted park rangers, local authorities, local shelters, and everyone they could think of to ask for help in an unfamiliar community.
On June 26th Greyhound Amber Alert shared a post about Aussie going missing. I was then contacted by many people asking if I could help, but I was in SLC that day returning the following evening. I admit, when I heard Aussie had been out in the wilderness for 7 days with no sightings, I did not think there was much hope. However, that Friday around 6 PM I got a message from Macoduck Greys aka Ducky, a Greyhound Amber Alert admin letting me know there had been two Aussie sightings. One at the Colter Bay gas station and a second sighting at Leek’s Marina about a mile north of the gas station. I loaded up the truck, grabbed Kalu and Javier, some rotisserie chicken, and off we went to GTNP. From my house to Colter Bay Village is 2.5 hours so I didn’t get there until after 8:30 as the sun was going down. But I had a headlamp, two Galgos, and rotisserie chicken! I drove directly to Leek’s Marina, walked around, checked in with the folks at the pizza restaurant there, and then walked with the dogs all around the area as the sun was setting.
Once the sun set I grabbed a headlamp and did some more walking carrying my rotisserie chicken. No sightings. I spent the night in my truck alternating between trying to get a little sleep and driving between Leeks Marina and Colter Bay Village. There is little to no cell service in most of GTNP, but I discovered I could get on the public network if I parked out in front of the restaurant, which I needed to do in order to check if there had been any sightings and network with people trying to get the word out and coordinate while I was searching.
Lost dogs are usually most active at dawn, dusk, and during the night. I spent much of Friday night searching all the areas in Colter Bay Village where a dog might find food or get a drink. I drove through the stables, down by the lake, through the cabin village, through the tent village, and through the entire maze of regular camping spots. No Aussie. Lost dogs typically establish a safe area where they have shelter, water, and food. They will stay in that location unless they deem it unsafe. The previous sightings, so near where she went missing, made me feel she had established a safe space in and around the Colter Bay Village ranging the mile or so up towards Leek’s Marina, so I spent the entire night and following morning prior to new sightings searching with this in mind.
Later I learned that after the first sighting Friday, people with good intent went out looking for her, yelling her name, and searching through the forest. I believe this spooked her, she no longer felt safe, and started moving north. Similarly, people who sighted her next at Leek’s Marina tried to call and catch her, which I believe set her moving further northward. As of Saturday morning, because no other sightings had been reported I was still searching what I thought was her safe area. My search routine was drive from Leek’s Marina to Colter Bay Village, lurking outside the restaurant or at the stable to get on public wifi, check for updated sightings, try to spread the word to everyone I could in hopes of getting people to share widely so we could generate more sightings. Without sightings you are dead in the water when you’re looking for a lost dog, especially in thousands of miles of rugged wilderness.
Unfortunately, by the time sightings were being reported on random FB pages or via messages it was hours after she had been sighted and I was always behind her. I searched for 4 miles round trip in the forest between Leek’s Marina and Colter Bay. I walked the road between those two locations with Javier and Kalu. As the day progressed I finally got reports that she had been seen near the Bailey Creek Trail turn off north of Leek’s Marina and then again at the Arizona Creek Trail turn off, further north from Bailey. I drove the jeep roads on both of those to the trail heads but did not see her. I chased down bikers and tourists at every turn off to see if they had seen her and to ask them to report sightings to the park ranger or my cell directly if they made it to Colter Bay where they would get service. I drove the additional 12 miles to the entrance of Yellowstone National Park to ask the gate ranger if anyone had reported seeing a greyhound with a red coat. I drove back stopping at Flagg Ranch and checking there. I talked to many wonderful people. My route become a 17-mile loop from Colter Bay Village to Leek’s Marina, to Bailey Creek Trail and up, back down, up to Arizona Creek, up Arizona Creek Trail to the trailhead and back to Colter Village to poach internet and check for sightings being coordinated by the fabulous Ducky of Greyhound Amber Alert.
When dogs get exhausted they will start to stick to roads more as the going is easier. As the sightings came in over the course of the day I believe Aussie started to get spotted more as she tried to stay along the edge of the highway, but with all the cars rushing by it was probably very scary, so she started looking for smooth trails to travel that were less scary and so the dirt road off shoots from the main highway became very attractive. My gut kept telling me to come back to the Arizona Trailhead. It had many of the characteristics that a missing dog might like. There had been an empty horse trailer parked there all day and missing dogs will often be drawn towards the smell of horses and horse p**p, which they can eat. There was also an immediate water source just down a steep bank and through the willows, and it was quiet.
Since there had been no further sightings and I was exhausted from the sleepless night before I thought the best course of action would be to make one last loop and then try to head home around 9 when it got dark. I got up to the Arizona Creek trailhead maybe at ten past 8, the horse trailer was gone. I softly called for Aussie as if she were my own dog in a kind and pleasant way, not screaming her name like a madwoman. I walked Javier and Kalu up and down the trail so she could catch the scent of them, and then hung out by the truck for a bit. I so wish I had waited, but after being up and down and up and down all day, I was feeling pretty delusional by then. I loaded the boys up and we headed out, completed the south bound half of the loop and left Colter Bay Village around 9 PM for the 2.5-hour drive home.
In an incredible stroke of magic, a wonderful man by the name of Toktas decided to go for a sunset hike outside the usual haunts and picked Arizona Creek. He was at the trailed head where the horse trailer had been maybe 10 or 15 minutes after me, Aussie was there! He knew she was missing, and that people had been searching for her, but he could not get her to come to him. Good instinct led him to do everything right, he didn’t chase her or yell her name, he called gently, got down, and just waited quietly. She did not run off, but she would not come to him. Finally, when it was getting dark enough for him to feel unsafe, he reluctantly left the trailhead. He got to cell service and called the family to let them know he had seen her. They asked him if he could try to go back and get her, so very early Sunday morning he returned to Arizona Creek at 6 AM and she was hunkered down in the bushes like a baby fawn, too tired and cold to move. Jon was able to lift her into his car and start the drive to Jackson to meet me.
I got a call at 8 AM letting me know she had been caught. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and got on the road. Jon and I had to carry her from his car to mine. It was heart breaking, but also hopeful. Jon finding her and doing everything right is truly a miracle. You could not meet a kinder person.
Once in my car I did my litmus test for how-bad-off-are-you and offered Aussie some chicken. An animal that is hanging onto life will rarely eat. Aussie was willing to eat some chicken immediately, which was a good sign. She also willingly drank coconut water, another good sign and the start of rehydrating her and getting down some electrolytes. I gave her some liquid B-12 vitamins before we started the hour and a half drive home to see my vet Lisa. Lisa is a dedicated vet and was kind enough to come in on a Sunday so I could get Aussie checked out.
We ran bloods, did an x-ray because her abdomen felt wrong, like maybe she had eaten some fabric. Turns out it was just a lot of very dehydrated and compacted p**p. Lisa ran a full blood panel and administered SQ fluids with B Vitamins, a full bag yesterday while we were there, and then I administered a half bag here at the house this morning, followed by the second half and another round of blood tests at her follow up visit this evening. Aussie lost nearly 22 lbs. of body weight during her adventure dropping from around 70 lbs. to 48.2 lbs. She is exhausted, weary, sore, and was very dehydrated, but she will be fine. She is eating and drinking well, though we are being very careful with her food for these four days, so she doesn’t get refeeding syndrome.
Aussie’s family has been in touch daily, along with the director of Race Place Retire Greyhound Adoption where Aussie was adopted through. The current plan is for Aussie’s family to fly from Ohio to Salt Lake on the 4th of July, get a rental car and drive to Bluebird Lane where they will be reunited with Aussie before beginning their long drive home back to Ohio. For me, I don’t believe in having regrets in life, but I told my partner Keith on Saturday night that if we didn’t find Aussie I would carry that regret until my dying breath. For her to survive for one week in the backcountry of Wyoming, in one of the last truly wild places on earth, is remarkable. I have my theories on what helped her survive, but that is another post, and this one is already too long. I am so grateful to be a part of a local and larger community that care so much about sighthounds and animals in general.
The only reason Aussie was found is because so many people worked to make it happen. Without her family getting fliers out immediately and contacting local organizations, without the people who shared that she was missing, without the good thoughts and prayers, without the people working in and visiting GTNP park, without Jon finding her and going back, without Greyhound Amber Alert coordinating, networking, and rallying people from all over, without Race Place being willing to fund whatever search efforts might be needed and offering all kinds of support, she would have never been found. But she was. And she will be okay, and we can all be proud of our part in getting her home and know that we made a difference. To Aussie, to her family, to each other.
