Toby Update

Toby is settling in nicely, and has remembered all the household routines.

After his long car trip and an initial clean-up, he took a trip to Arlington on Friday to visit Marcey of Grooming by Marcey. She gave him a "puppy cut" to remove all the close mats, and a bath to soothe the dry skin and the scrapes from his month long trek. Thank you, Marcey, for repeatedly donating your services to A Forever Home for our foster dogs.

On the way home, we stopped and got him a doggie sweatshirt to keep him warm.


Toby and Jessie, who spent many hours looking for him in Leesburg (Schmoe beagle is on the other end of the couch)



Toby snoozing on the doggie bed strategically placed between the space heater and the dog food


As he gets more rested, he has been playing with the squeaky toys and chew toys, and has even spent a few minutes romping through the house with Jessie.

He is home to stay as I will be adopting him - hopefully he will be content with occasional bits of Chic-fil-A.

Thanks to everyone for bringing this little guy to safety.

Roz

Update on Toby

Toby and I finally made it home at midnight after leaving the vet in Purcelliville at 4pm - a trip google maps says is 41.1 miles and should take an hour.

Other than lack of restroom facilities it was not an unpleasant trip. Toby slept most of the trip in his crate on a dog bed doubled up to fit the crate. The traffic didn't even bother me because I would look over at Toby, sound asleep - sometimes just stretched out, sometimes on his back with his belly exposed and completely relaxed. He would wake up every now and again and enjoy some of his favorite Bil-Jac liver treats. We used the 4-wheel-drive the entire way and never got above third-gear.

Thankfully we had power when arrived home and he laid next to me on the couch while I started cutting off burrs and mats. He had a bath just to remove the outer layer of filth and stink and cutting out more burrs.

Once he was wet you could clearly see how emaciated he is. His tail is still heavily covered with burrs too deeply entangled to trim, some under his chin and on his paws and a big wad of burrs under his armpit that he won't yet let me cut that has rubbed him raw. I will be scheduling him for a proper grooming a soon as possible.

He looks pretty good and you can hold and pet him. He has been eating frequently, slept next to the heater last night, and has been checking the toy inventory and played briefly with a squeak toy this morning.

He is not back to his same level of interest and activity but seems to remember everything and our routines, but is probably still exhausted.

Roz

TOBY HAS BEEN FOUND!!!

On Tuesday January 25th Toby was found by a family on Evergreen Mill Road. He was seen chasing their chickens. He caught a chicken and killed it, but the family, seeing he was so skinny, chased him down fearing he would not survive. They called animal control but tried to not mention the chicken for fear they would put him down. Animal control, however, were also looking for him and was just as excited to have Toby safe. He was taken to Blue Ridge Veterinary Associates in Purcellville where he was treated dehydration, dewormed, given a check-up and grooming as he was filthy and covered with burrs. He lost one-third of is body weight but will be just fine and should be able to come home today - Wednesday.

I cannot express the gratitude to all the people who worked so hard to find Toby, track Toby, establish and monitor feeding station, get the word out and keep Leesburg aware and watching. It was this awareness, supported by all the contacts you made with people on a daily basis that led to his safe return and such careful handling upon his recovery. Thank you on behalf of Toby, A Forever Home Rescue and from the bottom of my heart.

Roz

Reality Check

I have been feeling very discouraged with no sightings on the couple of nice days when I expected both Toby to be out of his hiding place looking for food and people out to see him. And then the cold, snowy, and icy weather make me feel worse knowing he is out in it somewhere. I hope he has somewhere warm and I noticed that none of the other animals I usually see when out looking for Toby were out either - foxes, cats, crows, hawks, and squirrels.

Here is a story from Sam of Pure Gold Pet Trackers who has plenty of experience and success at searching for and finding lost pets.

I just wanted to share with you all a story of a dog we have been working on for over a year. She was a skittery little 14 inch tall sheltie. The breeder placed her in a pet home after she did her showing and had her 2 litters. The breeder did a followup call to get some DNA for a study, almost a year later, and was told that the dog had run away 9 months before. The new owners thought there was something wrong with the dog for it to run away from them. They had already adopted another dog and stopped looking for Aspen.

The breeder called me and asked if there was anything we could do after so much time. It was a small town that she was lost in so I made up posters just like I did with Toby and told her to put them up at every intersection in town starting with the ones near where she was last seen 9 months before. She started getting calls right away from that same area. Lots of calls saying, "Oh that's the 'wild sheltie' that hangs out near the golf course." and " We see her all of the time on 164 when we're going to the casino." and "That dog has been killing my chickens!"

So we didn't have to track her because we knew exactly where she was. The challenge was to figure out where her den was and where would be the best place to trap her. (just like Toby)

There were two abandoned houses near the house with the chickens and I told her to set up a feeding station at each to see where she would eat. Unfortunately, she disagreed with me that the best place would be the big house with the multiple outbuildings and the large parking lot next door where we could park at a distance and observe the trap. Instead she set the feeding station behind a the small house where the only place we could park was 30 feet away in the driveway. Its hard to be discreet at that distance with a dog that is highly suspicious of strange vehicles, people, smells, etc. We set up a camera and had pictures of her eating inside the trap two days before so we set up the trap. We waited for 10 hours and she never showed up all night.

So I told her we should move the feeding station up to the other house. She said it was too close to a guy that feeds feral cats and wild animals who said that he could catch anything and would get the dog for her. Then after several attempts he commented that we will never catch that dog alive because she is completely feral. However, he continued looking for her when he was out filling his cat feeding stations. Turns out, he was feeding ferals at the abandoned house where I had wanted to move our station but he neglected to mentioned it to us. Anyway, two days ago he was on his morning rounds and happened to see her snoozing in the corner of one of the outbuildings that I had suspected all along. He called the breeder and she drove up as fast as she could but didn't think she would still be there an hour and a half later. But, she was there and they managed to corner her in the storage container where she was sleeping.

By the time the dog got into the car the 'domestic/wild' switch had clicked back and she was acting like she had never been loose at all. When she was taken out at home to potty, she jumped up on the breeder/owner for attention. Inside the house she was playing with the other dogs, acting completely normal right down to remembering which crate was hers and responding to the sound of the cookie jar by running into her crate and sitting just like all of the other dogs. (it had been 2 1/2 years since she had been in that home).

The key to getting this little dog back to safety was persistence, posters, and patience. Without the observation of the volunteer and his willingness to stay and observe without rushing in until Katrina arrived to help, this dog would have escaped again and would still be out in the cold. As volunteers you need to talk to everyone, ask when, where, what was he doing, and how did he look when you find someone who has seen him. This information is used to track his movements and habits which will eventually give us the best location to trap him.

Until we have more sightings and can get him to eat in one place on a regular schedule there is no point in doing anything other than what you have been doing. Because he has stayed in the same general place for weeks, like the sheltie, there is no reason to believe that he will leave the area (without assistance). We just need to keep our eyes open and document any and all information that we get about Toby.

Because there was only one person onsite helping the sheltie owner with her search it took much longer than it should have. Hopefully, it won't take us almost 2 years to catch this little guy.

Saturday 22 Jan Update

While I have not been able to update the blog I thank everyone for your continued support in monitoring the feeding stations. This morning I removed the frozen canned food from the Baish Dr feeding station and added the lace curtain as Sam recommended. Based on Sam's recommendation we added another feeding station next to the old stone house on the other side of Sycolin Rd. This was a place identified as a spot where Toby stopped to rest while he was being tracked. I placed a plastic box like the one on Baish Dr with one of Victor's bowls with hot dogs and liver treats. I also put down some hot dogs in a plastic bowl on the back porch of the wood house to convince him to go in where the sleeping bags and other clothing items are as he would have excellent shelter there.

Schmoe beagle and I walked the fields and while checking the silo building where Schmoe and I spent a few minutes poking around before climbing to the back to check the base of the silo. It wasn't until I stepped on something that was on top of a rabbit that it ran from the building. So we could have walked right past Toby many times and not known it.

Saturday was get the word out day!!

And get the word out we did - but could not have without the assistance and support of Kim, Sharon and her friends, Sue and her helper (Sue who I finally found - or she found me), Karen, and Amy. Forgive me if I've left anyone off.

We covered the area delivering flyers (over 800) to all the homes to alert people that Toby is still missing AND still in the area. We expanded our effort to the town houses and single family homes across Sycolin as Toby-size footprints were seen in the snow traveling through the culvert under Sycolin near the RT 7/15 bypass. This is a route he was tracked taking on 31 Dec by Sam and Salsa, so he knows the route.

We consolidated, moved, and improved his feeding station to better track who all is feeding there and facilitating using the trap to recover him. We are still in need of local volunteers to monitor the feeding station daily so if you would like to help Toby please email me at lmroszkowski@gmail.com

Friday Night into Saturday Morning

On Friday morning, Sue spoke to a woman who reported seeing Toby in the field behind the townhouses and on Thursday night. Ironically, Sue and I had been in the same location within 15 minutes of each other and didn't see each other. No wonder we keep missing poor Toby.

Based on this report, we had Sam out all night Friday night, with some volunteer support, monitoring a special trap that Sam designed and which she always assembles on site. Unfortunately, there were no sightings overnight, so we need to give Toby a little more guidance. To help condition him to rely on the food we provide, we will be discontinuing the use of the second feeding station, the lower feeding station, and relocating the upper station to the ridge above the street shown in the picture below.

The trap that Sam monitored all night was located at the other end of Baish Dr from the location of the upper station. Here's a picture of it, and since it's so dark, another picture of the same trap, set up in another location at another time for another animal, is also shown. It's less threatening to a lot of animals than a cage-style trap. Hopefully to Toby, anyway.

We will be placing a plastic container next to the stake with the signs to hold the food and keep it dry. We will continue to monitor the feeding station as we've been doing and once we can establish, through sighting and photos, that Toby is eating at the new location, we will try to trap again. We are also working at trying to get another tracking dog as Salsa has started her chemo.

Wednesday Monitoring of the Feeding Stations

I had signed up for the morning feeding station monitoring, but was running late. Kim, who is a dog walker in the neighborhood, readily stepped in and checked upper station, and put out Beggn' Strips but didn't see any tracks n snow.

I got there between 0830 and 0900 drove through the SFH, thinking that Toby would be easier to see against the snow. I investigated some unaccompanied paw prints, but they were spaced too far apart to be Toby. Food was gone from both feeding stations; the upper one had some small paw prints but mostly crows feet - the lower station was all crow. I put down hot dogs and looked for paw prints heading to running water I found some leading down to the center of the area but think they were fox. I walked behind all the townhouse backyards looking for prints going in and out of hiding places like under deck and steps and along the ridgeline.

I did not go down to the Rt7/Sycolin underpass, but I know Toby went through there on his initial route. I did see some hopeful paw prints in back of the townhouse along the area on the sightings but across the street from those that back to the field.

While it was very windy, which partially covered some fox/rabbit/dog?? tracks, it was warm enough that snow was melting and running out drainpipes, which he could have drunk without going down to the culverts.

Peggy stopped by on the spur of the moment around 2:30 this afternoon. All of the food/treats were gone from both stations. There were some small pawprints around the upper feeding station, but the lower feeding station seemed to have only bird's feet marks all around the station.

One of the neighbors who lives near the Baish Street station told me he saw small pawprints down near the rocks at the intersection of Route 7 and Sycolin Road. (Note: Toby was tracked having made his way through there by Sam and Salsa on 31 Jan.) I walked down there and saw a couple of sets of pawprints which appeared to be made by a dog or cat walking alone. I did see one set of bootprints too, and now mine are covering the area.

Since I was ill-prepared today, I ran over to Red, Hot & Blue and got some pork barbeque. I placed the pile of barbeque on the flat cement next to the red fire hydrant near the rocks at Sycolin and Route 7. I will check again for little Toby tomorrow afternoon after lunch.

Victor also I went by this afternoon and replaced the food at the upper station and drove up and the neighborhoods, but saw nothing.

Monday Update - Another Sighting!

After a another morning of checking the feeding stations and walking/driving/walking the area with no sightings I was pretty sad driving home when I got a call from Karen saying someone had called her Sunday night to report SEEING TOBY AGAIN. Karen was late getting the call because her phone was charging. She called them back and confirmed that yes indeed it was our little Toby - they tried to catch him but he got away.

I went back out this evening and met Karen, Lisa and Debra all there all looking for Toby, along with three little boys from the neighborhood. Since yesterday evening's sighting had been about 8pm, I went over to Red, Hot & Blue around 7ish to get some steaming hot BBQ to draw him out. We strategically placed it all around the townhouses where he was seen both times. I walked around until 10pm carrying the rest of the BBQ (getting hungrier and hungrier myself!) Once I got home with the rest of the BBQ, a bag of Beggin Strips and some liver treats leftover, I quickly leashed up the Beagles to get them out straight away. Before even thinking about doing their business they were both in the driveway jumping up against the doors of the truck with such energy the the truck was rocking back-and-forth as they tried to get at the food. And that is way one shouldn't feed the bears.

Wednesday Afternoon

Lisa spent some time searching from about 4pm-ish until dark, and again found the hot dog pieces missing from the Hope/Baish and drainage culvert feeding stations.  (This could be a good sign)  She replaced them with mini hot dogs.

Again Sue reported: "Four of us went out again Wednesday between 4 and 6. Looked all throughout fields at the very end of Hope Pkwy, along pathways, through tall brush, looked in all man-made objects and under trees and bushes, and in and around the fenced area with the red construction vehicles that you can see from the end of Hope ... but no sign of Toby. We left food along the wood fence at the end of Hope at 6:20 pm Wednesday (along each fence post: chicken, noodles, fish sticks). Please send status if it's been eaten tomorrow morning."

Sue I will be out again in the morning and check at the end of the fence.

Wednesday Morning Efforts

I got out to the feeding stations at first light and removed the frozen cat food and dried out hot dog pieces from the Hope/Baish feeding station and just the cat food and a few dried out pieces of hot dog from the culvert (things seem to keep a little better down there. I place hot dog and Beggin' Strip pieces and both sites and kept the dog biscuits from Victor at the upper (Hope/Baish) site.

I handed out flyers and spoke to parents and kids at some bus stops and I came across them. Most were surprised to hear he was STILL missing but said they had seen/still had the flyer. I gave them updated ones with this site and asked them to keep looking. I drove the SFHs and we walked the treeline along Rt7 from the fields by the condos down to Sycolin Rd and through the adjoining Condo and townhouses.

When we returned to my truck, which was parked near the feeding stations ALL the food (hot dog, Beggin' Strip, and biscuits) were gone from the upper (Hope/Baish) sta and the Beggin Strips from the lower (drainage culvert) sta. Since I only had hot dogs I replaced them at both.

On the way home I stopped at the shelter to check and today they told me only owners are allowed to view lost/stray dogs so unless someone else also has a lost dog (I certainly hope not - one is too many) we can no longer help Michele with this task. Hopefully it was Toby who was eating at the feeding station and we will find him soon making shelter visits unnecessary.

Thanks to everyone who keeping a eye out for little Toby and keeping passing the word that he still needs help finding his way home.

Tuesday Evening Update

Sue searched during daylight. Went around the lake, left of Hope Pkwy and up through the hills at the end. We looked in the back of homes on each side, and down basement stairwells. Went back across Hope Pkwy to the field just up from Sycolin, and then drove through the houses on each side of the lake. Saw the hot dog bits but no Toby.

Victor came out checked the feeding stations walked and drove the neighborhood, and checked again before he left and found the hot dogs gone from the Hope/Baish feeding station. This could be good news....
He put down some dog biscuits. I'll be back in the morning to check.

Thanks to everyone who keeps looking for him.

Still Looking & Hoping

It is 1:30 pm and I just got home from looking for Toby. I checked the feeding station at 6am and drove around and walked around with my beagle and didn't see him either. I put flyers on all the condo doors too, so every home within that area bounded by the 4 major roads has received their own copy of the flier. I think he just must be too scared to come out, as he was supposedly still wearing a collar with his A Forever Home Rescue phone number but no calls.

This morning there were no hits at the feeding stations. The maintenance crews were tending the shrubs, and cleaned up the kibble from Baish Dr. I picked up the can and replaced in with hot dog pieces. The can of food down the hill still seemed pretty fresh so I took it out of the can and placed in on the kibble and added pieces from 1/2 a hot dog. If they are still there for the evening they should ok until the morning. I left a plastic bag from the newspaper which has some of the door flyers to carry with you as you walk around and talk to people.

Our intent is to get him feeding regularly so we can use a trap (if needed). I thought as it got toward noon and the sun was out and the neighborhood quite I might spot him but no joy.

All of our signs were removed from Sycolin Rd and Battlefield Blvd between noon yesterday and this morning but they still remain along Hope Pwk.

Here's a little about Toby from his time as an AFH foster:

(click for a larger view)

Sighting on Jan 1st

On New Year's Day, which thankfully was warmer than normal, we posted additional flyers throughout the neighborhood describing little Toby's plight. That night I received a call reporting a sighting of him on Baish Dr.

Based on this, we established two feeding stations to entice Toby to return to a certain place each meal time keeping him in a smaller, safer area and to aid in his capture.

 Here is an aerial view of the sighting location and the feeding station that has been set up:

Track of Toby's Scent

On Dec 31st, Sam and Salsa of Pure Gold Pet Trackers tracked Toby's route as displayed here. They determined Toby prefers paved surfaces to grass, and short, trampled grass to tall grass. When faced with an obstacle or opportunity to change direction, he chooses to go left. He made a large (and dangerous) 5.5 mile loop and returned to his neighborhood area.

As I am new to this you will need to click on the picture to see the entire track.