Thank you so much for all your advice during our ordeal with Hoover. It only lasted four days but felt like an eternity! It seemed like a “perfect storm” of things to go wrong. We only had Hoover for two weeks and being a young guy (about 8 months) who had spent much of his life on the streets, he is extremely shy and skittish around people. He was starting to warm up to us when we both had to leave on business for a few days. We left him with a dog/house sitter whom he seemed to like, but on Monday morning he broke out of our fenced yard when she let him out to play. She another friend of ours tried to track him down for two days, and did catch sight of him occasionally, but he wouldn’t let anyone get close.
I came home Wednesday morning and tried every plan I could think of to get him contained in our yard during his frequent trips to empty his food and water bowls. I was scared he would roam further away and find other sources of food and water and was determined to catch him before that happened. Thursday morning his trips back home seemed more frequent, and I had your advice on how to convince him to come home. As a first-time dog parent, I was nervous, but having an expert’s reassurance was key to me feeling like I could do this!
By Thursday night, Hoover was hanging out in the backyard and didn’t seem inclined to leave, so I spent most of the night (until 5AM !) tossing bits of kibble and Vienna sausages, baiting him ever closer to the open back door. I gave up at 5:30 in the morning and went to bed. When I got up at 10AM he was still right outside. I resumed feeding him one piece at a time, and within an hour, had lured him far enough into the house to shut the door safely behind him. We’re going to rebuild our rickety fence so he can play in the yard again. Apart from some ticks and an upset stomach (he surely found something disgusting to eat during his travels), he seemed none the worse for wear and weighed the same as his Vet checkup a week earlier.
Throughout this time I got sighting calls from neighbors after posting an email “blast” to our homeowner’s association. I was surprised nobody had done that before because I’d seen lost pet fliers numerous times. Thank you for your care and concern and expert advice and here’s hoping your website leads to many more happy returns.
Best, Dave