Jasmine, a very nervous 9 year old girl, bolted from her dog sitters when the door was opened on Friday 8th August, in Ashton-under-Lyne OL6. She had been there one night and owners were abroad. There were a few sightings of her where she ran up to a mile away then circled back in the direction of where she had escaped from. Her last sighting that day was at the golf club.
We asked for the dog sitter to leave the house door open as it was likely she would return. She had stayed there a few times and the family’s other dog was there. Jasmine lived a good distance away so it was unlikely she would try for home.
There was no news the following morning so we printed and laminated a few hundred posters ready to go up in the area. A few sightings were reported of her being seen on the golf course again and then Mossley rd. Again, we asked the dog sitter to leave the house door open but she didn’t show. A feed station was placed at her last sighting on the golf course. We suspected that she was using that as her safe place (we have had several lost dogs seen on golf courses over the years).
On Sunday, she was seen as far as Broadcarr lane. We were worried she was leaving the golf course, especially as it was a lovely day and there were many people playing golf. More feed stations with remote cameras were placed at strategic points around the golf course and one at an entrance to the golf course from Mossley Rd (one which picked her up this morning feeding). The last sighting on Sunday was at Hartshead Pike and it seemed she was going further and further away.
This morning, Monday 11th August, at 1.39 am, Jasmine appeared on the camera feeding, at the entrance to the golf course. Then, at 2.17 am, she appeared on the camera at the dog sitter’s house! But the front door was shut! We phoned the dog sitter and he opened the door and Jasmine calmly walked in and lay down on the sofa. Thankfully she didn’t wander away straight away when she found the door shut, which lost dogs do. Lots of rest for her now. She’s got sore pads on her paws from all the running on the hot concrete but otherwise she is fine, just exhausted.
We would like to say thank you to Jasmine’s owner for trusting in us and trusting our proven methods with catching lost dogs. No drones, no searching, leaving Jasmine to remain calm and build her confidence up to go back to where she escaped from. If she hadn’t have gone back, she fed at our feed station so the next step would have been to humanely trap her there. She saved us having to do all the (even more) hard work though, carrying and building the supertrap up (it comes in panels as it’s huge)!
