Bella, a very nervous Romanian rescue dog, managed to escape through the front door on Sunday 13 April, in Wythenshaw. She bolted along the main road and there were numerous sightings of her. She made her way to the junction of the M56. We advised owner not to search (as we always advise) and to open her house door as most lost dogs return home.
On Monday, someone saw her and managed to get hold of her in the woods. Unfortunately Bella managed to escape.
Posters were put up and a feed station but Bella was not seen then for a couple of days.
On Thursday evening, she was seen coming out of some woods which were adjacent to the M56 further towards home. We advised owner to go and run her car engine next to where she had been seen with a door open but Bella didn’t show. The following morning we advised her to sit on the patch of grass nearby with food but she again didn’t show. We knew she was still there as we had footage from cctv.
We set up a humane trap that same day and late at night Bella came to the trap, ate a small amount of food trailing into the trap but showed no interest in going in it even though she spent a few hours coming back and forth to it.
We put in even more appetising food the following day (Saturday) and waited. Bella turned up at the trap late at night but still showed no interest in going in it (she had never been trapped before which, if she had, would explain why she wouldn’t enter it). The magpies and cats had eaten the trail of bits of food that we had leading into the trap so I made a decision to send owner there and to refresh the trail. We don’t like doing this when the dog is hanging around but I also asked her to take her other dog with her. (This had been tried in the previous days with owner walking around with her other dog and sitting at sightings). My aim was to hopefully get Bella to scent and hear owner’s other dog at the trap, as well as owner. It was a decision that paid off!
Owner did the food, adding some more fresh meat in the trap, and, as she was driving away, got a call from someone who had seen a poster and saw Bella. Owner drove to the sighting which was just round the corner from the trap and saw Bella. She stopped the car and opened the door. Owner’s other dog was in the car so she started talking softly to him, saying “there’s skinny Minnie” (a nickname owner has for Bella). Bella’s ears pricked up and she came to the car and jumped in. Safe at last.
Bella was in a very dangerous area being right near the motorway but thankfully she was left alone and therefore stayed off it. Welcome home Bella.
