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.