Sheltie makes own shelter after fireworks scare

Couple’s dog spent most of January in woods before being recaptured

You’d think finding your lost dog would be the ultimate joy, particularly after almost four weeks, but for Andrea and Dave Porter, that was only half the battle.

When fireworks scared their 20-month-old sheltie, Mia, away from their cabin near Goobies on New Year’s Eve, the dog went into survival mode.

“Food, shelter and safety are their absolute only concerns,” Andrea said Monday, Feb. 6, from their St. John’s home, where Mia was finally reunited with her owners and two other shelties. “They don’t know their name. They don’t have a name anymore, they don’t have owners anymore, you’re just considered a human and a human is suspicious.”

The Porters credit local groomer Kristen Ryan with explaining what it means for a dog to revert to primal instinct, and for help getting the dog back.

“I just can’t understand it. As a pet owner, and as her owner, and as her mom … we worked so closely together over the past year to get over her fear issues and give her coping skills,” Andrea said. “For her not to come to me — I don’t understand it.”

BOLTED FROM CABIN

Their tale is a familiar one.

It was New Year’s Eve at the cabin just off the old railbed, where they and other family members set off a few fireworks at the nearby pond. The dogs were shut in a room on the other side of the cabin, so they assumed they were safe. But somehow they had gotten out of the room.

When the Porters’ grandson opened the door to go in, Mia escaped.

“She bolted as fast as she could go,” said Andrea.

Dave ran after the dog, but lost sight of her at the top of the driveway.

On New Year’s Day, a man in Goobies spotted Mia on someone’s lawn, but she darted back onto the trail.

The Porters stayed at the cabin for an entire week, hoping the dog would show up. Then the snow came, which meant the railbed would only be accessible by snowmobile, so they moved to a motel on the highway.

On Day 8, they got word Mia was by the highway. When they got there, the RCMP was there trying to prevent her from crossing the road.

Andrea sat in the marsh nearby with one of her other dogs and a can of Vienna sausages, but Mia would not come.

There were sightings every day for the next five days, then nothing.

For nine days, there was neither hide nor hair of Mia.

CAMERA SURVEILLANCE

By this time, the couple had acquired and set out several trail cameras with motion sensors, including three that automatically transmitted photos to their phone when activated.

“We’d put them on moose carcasses we would find in case she would eat those, just to get a glimpse of where she was to,” Andrea said.

On Sunday, Jan. 22, there hadn’t been a sighting for nine days. The Porters decided they’d have to head back to town and back to work.

The dog had been gone for three weeks.

“I don’t think it was an hour after that, we got a call that she was right in front of our friend’s on the transmission line,” Andrea said.

“She hadn’t moved at all.”

RIGHT AT HOME

The couple went into the area where the dog had been spotted. It was behind a raised transmission tower, with a ridge on the other side. Nearby was a gulley and a thicket of trees.

“There were prints everywhere,” Andrea said. “She had used the bathroom in multiple places. She had a little moose carcass there for herself. I was like, ‘Sure she’s living here. She’s living here.’”

They set out a cage with a door that would automatically shut if she went in, put some food in it, set up a camera and walked away.

Over the day, they saw photos of her coming and going from the trap. The food kept disappearing. Something was wrong.

Andrea and a friend went back to replenish the food one more time,

“Sure enough, there was a bit of rust on the lever that was preventing the trigger to let the door close,” Andrea said.

“So I filled it up again

… and then that evening, around 2 o’clock in the morning, we get a picture of her coming out, and then we got another picture of her 10 feet away from the trap, and I was, like, ‘OK, this is it, she’s going in, it’s going to work.’ And then we didn’t get anything.”

They waited another 30 minutes and decided to go check it out.

“And here she was, sat in the trap, looking at us.”

IMPORTANT TO KNOW

Andrea says she wasn’t sure how she felt at that moment.

“I expected to be so much more emotional than I was, but I don’t know what it was, that I was just so relieved it was over or she was safe? I don’t know.”

But the pair are elated to have their three dogs home and together again.

Experts say survival mode is something all pet owners should be aware of.

When it kicks in — upon some sort of short-term or even prolonged trauma — even the most pampered pet will lose all sense of being part of a human family.

Although heart-wrenching at the time, the important thing is to be patient and not try to shout at or chase the animal.

According to the website petsearcherscanada.com, “Once a pet in survival mode is captured, they will generally quickly return to their earlier personalities with very little noticeable change.”

As for setting off their own fireworks?

“Never again,” said Andrea.