From Private Investigator Angie Rutherford:
Grayson went missing on March 26, 2017 approximately 9:30 am when his owner stopped at Starbucks for coffee. There had been no sightings of the year-old Golden Retriever since the day he bolted. On the morning of March 30, 2017, we began our search for Grayson with K9 Oliver in front of the Starbucks. Oliver picked up his scent going across 6 lanes of traffic to the South turning West and then proceeding due South on State St. It appeared the young dog ran down the middle of the street continuing South across 16th St NW. We brought in K9 Dani as a second confirmation for direction of travel and the little Jack Russell picked up on Grayson’s scent following the path to the South as had Oliver.
At this point, it was decided to bring out K9 Carson. Carson was started at 16th St NW. Carson picked up Grayson’s scent and proceeded South on State St. NW. After going approximately 350 yards, it was obvious that Carson knew something wasn’t right. He alerted on the edge of the road that the scent was no longer there. Becoming concerned that someone may have picked up Grayson we decided to perform some perimeter scans. We continued South, then West and back to the North about a block away and Carson was adamant that Grayson had not continued this direction. Our youngster, K9 Dakota was brought in and given scent in the area where Grayson and his owner had begun their walk on the day of escape. As we approached the 16th and State St. intersection Dakota made the decision to turn South and continued as Carson had. Near 14th and State St, Dakota also alerted that the scent went no further in this direction.
Time to bring in lead dog, K9 Nico. The decision was made to take Nico two and a half blocks West of the Point of Escape. This was approximately a quarter mile from where we had known scent. Nico is an air scent dog and the goal was to set a perimeter or have Nico tell us where he had scent last. When Nico was given scent he immediately headed West towards Starbucks and to the trail the three other dogs had found. Nico had detected the scent trail for Grayson from a quarter mile away. We returned to the vehicles to re-group and it was decided to bring K9 Oliver, the foot step tracker, back in.
Oliver again picked up scent on State St. where he had left off earlier and headed South. He took us to a house where construction work was being performed. We asked permission to go into the rear yard and then proceeded to the fence. Little did we know we were practically standing on top of where Grayson was hiding. Oliver was very hesitant to leave the area but he reluctantly ollowed my lead to move on. We gave a flyer to the people working on the house.
Within 2-3 minutes of leaving that house, the woman came running out and said she thought they saw Grayson. We all went running back and to all our amazement when we approached the fence, where we had just been standing, we saw Grayson poke his head out of a culvert that was surrounded by debris. The tears started pouring as we all realized the young Golden was trying to belly crawl out to us as his leash was still attached. Oliver was in on the action as if to say, “See, I tried to tell you he was here even though you couldn’t see him.” Welcome home Grayson!!!
From Grayson's Family:
“I will never be able to truly express how grateful I am for Lost Pet Professionals, Angie and the dogs for bringing Grayson home to us. Grayson had been missing for four days, with no sightings. Our hearts were broken and our hopes of ever seeing him again were dwindling away as each day passed, until we stumbled across Lost Pet Professionals.
I did not know much about scent tracking, so I was slightly skeptical at first, but from the moment our engagement began, Angie and her expertise put my doubts at ease. I knew without a doubt it would be our best chances of ever seeing Grayson again. The morning Angie and her dogs arrived and we took Oliver to the point of escape (Starbucks) and he traced Grayson’s steps across the street and to the area he was last seen, I started to realize how impressive these animals were. Angie cycled through four different dogs throughout the entire day, allowing her to validate the scent trails the previous dogs had found. Near the end of the day Angie decided to bring Oliver back out to see how far he could take us. Oliver lead the group into a backyard right next to the culvert Grayson was nestled in.
However, we couldn’t see or hear him anywhere so we moved on from that spot. Thankfully there was a family doing construction nearby so we gave them a flyer and asked them if they saw anything to please let us know. We began to walk back up the street and it felt as like the day was coming to an end. Our hopes were gone as we all thought in our minds the only logical conclusion is that Grayson had been stolen. Suddenly the lady who was working on the construction came running out from the back yard. She was screaming for us to come back, Her husband had seen a golden/brown head out of the corner of his eye pop up from this culvert. As we reentered the back yard we saw Grayson peak his head out from hiding and instantly Mr. Myers crawled into this hole to pull him free.
The rush of feelings and pure joy that flooded the area is unexplainable. When we knew Grayson was okay it was like my nightmare turned into a dream come true and we owe that all to the hard work of Angie and her team. Thank you again Lost Pet Professionals, Angie, and the dogs for bringing Grayson home.
Thank you again for all your help.”
Michael Toler
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