Rocky Kanaka (Animal Advocate):
These exotic Italian dogs were abandoned in the mountains for months while rescuers tried to save them.
Linda:
Everything had to be done, there’s no time to waste.
Rocky Kanaka:
Dog Days Search and Rescue worked with rangers and volunteers to figure out how to safely capture these Cane Corsos.
Jenn:
They started putting up game cameras up there so we could get videos of them, so we could see what the dogs were doing.
Rocky Kanaka:
These dogs were completely feral and would run away whenever someone would try to approach them.
Linda & Jenn (Dog Days Animal Search and Rescue):
And they would watch when we would come, they would hear us putting food out. Somebody who would go up there and they would just lay there with their hand out.
They would actually lay on blankets. This way you’re less threatening and then you just put your hand out. So if you’re laying down, you’re not as threatening as sitting up for really scared dogs. You have to do that.
Linda & Jenn:
We actually went up just before that snowed, and we built them full kennels with tarps on pallets and everything to try and give them some place to stay warm. They never went in there.
Rocky Kanaka:
Jenn and Linda knew they had to act fast, so they reached out to more people in hopes that they could catch these dogs.
Linda & Jenn:
We had to call in Mike Noon, who is an amazing animal rescuer. His idea was to build what’s called a Missy Trap, which had to be big enough to contain all three dogs. Because they were dumped so close to the road, there wasn’t a place to do that.
So we had to take it out on the mountain <laugh>, and we built this giant enclosure up there. We had to cover it with two soccer nets. That’s how big it was. We would have to walk all the way up and feed ’em inside, and they would follow us in there. But if you dare even looked at ’em, they would jump away.
Rocky Kanaka:
After weeks go by and several attempts, they finally caught the dogs. Now they have to figure out how to safely get them down the mountain.
Linda & Jenn:
It was all hands on deck, so we had every team member. There was The Montrose Search and Rescue team. A few dozen people… There was a lot of people involved.
We wouldn’t have been able to get ’em down the mountain without the ropes team that came up there, and they had ’em on the wheeled gurneys, then had ropes attached to those to get down the mountain.
Rocky Kanaka:
The dogs were taken to a trainer who took them from feral to trusting humans again. She even ended up adopting them all into her pack!
Linda & Jenn:
Knowing how scared they were on the mountain and how much more relaxed they looked once they had some structure and had some interactions and weren’t fighting for their lives.
Um, in an overview, you realized what people are capable of and how you could come together with plans and more plans and more plans that at the beginning you didn’t even realize was possible. This was just huge deal. It was huge! <laugh>
Rocky Kanaka:
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