K9s Track 7 Miles to Find Shiloh

Shiloh's story from her family...

Shiloh goes MISSING...
Tuesday April 12th started out like any other day, running errands in the morning and taking one of my amazing dogs with me. On that day, Shiloh our 3 ½ year old Shiba Inu was the lucky dog that got to go. We loaded up and made our way to a friends out in downtown Kansas City. As I went to let Shiloh out of the car, she immediately saw a rabbit and took off after it. When I went around the house to get her, she was nowhere to be found. I called her name several times with no luck. I then began walking in the immediate block frantically looking for her. If you are not familiar with the Shiba Inu breed, they really are a dog with a mind of their own. Unable to find Shiloh, I went back to my vehicle and began driving around in the immediate area. After 30 minutes of searching I began calling my wife and brother to come out to where I was and help me search for Shiloh.

The search begins...
We received our first sighting of Shiloh around 11am from a group of workers who saw her running down the street heading east. We spent a little over 8 hours driving around street by street with no luck. Emotionally and physically exhausted, we reluctantly went home for the night, praying that our sweet girl was okay.
I don’t think my wife slept much, and I didn’t sleep at all. I got out of bed a 6am and headed back out to where Shiloh went missing from. While driving back out there, we received a second sighting phone call from a woman who saw Shiloh Tuesday night around 8:30pm in the same area as the previous sighting. I spent all day driving the streets again looking for Shiloh, asking every person I saw if they had seen her. I put out 130 lost dog flyers but still hadn’t received any calls about Shiloh.

The call to Karin...
It was that afternoon that my wife and I made the decision to call Karin and Lost Pet Professionals. With Karin’s guidance we began by creating and having made large missing signs. With the help of my wife and mother-in-law we put up a total of 83 more posters of Shiloh in key locations for maximum visibility. The day came and went and as we approached another night without our little princess I became more and more defeated. I felt like I would never see her again. I spoke to Karin on my way home, an emotional wreck because we hadn’t had any more sightings of her after all the work we had done. Karin’s recommendations were to wait at least 24-hours before we explore other options. Thursday came and went without a single call or sighting of Shiloh. I spent another 10-hours out looking for her but at this point she could have been anywhere.

Bring in the Karin & the K9s...
At this point the plan with Karin was for her to come down Friday morning with her team of tracking dogs to find Shiloh. So, with my wife and brother we set out to meet Karin to start our search. We began our search at the point of escape. Using scent articles, Karin and her dogs got a scent immediately. Within 10 minutes of starting, I received a phone call from a gentleman who stated he saw Shiloh Wednesday evening nearly 2 miles and 27 city blocks east. With that information, we loaded up our cars and went to the area that she was last seen almost 48 hours prior. Immediately, the dogs picked up Shiloh’s scent and began taking us on our adventure for the day. We walked and we walked following the trail through the city. Throughout the entire time switching out different dogs to confirm the track. We had walked for nearly 4 hours and right at 7 miles before we took our first real break. Little did any of us know that we were less than 100 yards away from where Shiloh was roaming. After resting for a few minutes, we went into a cemetery, a location that looked like a likely spot she may be. After making a quick pass through the cemetery, we began to walk the outside of the cemetery. While we were doing this you could tell the tracking dogs were struggling here. It was easy to tell when they were on Shiloh’s scent and almost as easy to see their frustration when they lost it. This was happening in and around the cemetery more than it had happened anywhere else. It seemed like her trail just stopped here.
By now, we were all exhausted, no one really knew how much longer the dogs or us for that matter could keep walking. Just then two workers from the cemetery drove up to us. They said they just saw Shiloh running east in the cemetery. My brother and I took off through the cemetery, climbing up a 6 foot wall and beginning our frantic search. My wife, Karin and Jamie, one of Karin’s assistants followed in two vehicles we had with us.

Finding Shiloh...
When I saw Shiloh in the cemetery I couldn’t really believe my eyes. As expected she wouldn’t come to any of us, so the chase was on. I wasn’t going to let her get away from me a second time. She left the cemetery and began running south down the road. I went one more block east in case she came that way and my brother kept following her south. We ran for nearly a mile, Karin in her vehicle following behind Shiloh, yelled out of her car to my brother to tackle her and take the bite. He did just that, able to get a hold of her she bit him several times on the hands while they secured her in Karin’s vehicle.
It was hard to believe that it was over, that we were actually able to find Shiloh and take her home where she would be safe.

A happy ending...Thanks to the dog team
I can’t say enough about Karin and her team of dogs. Shiloh was nowhere near where she went missing from and had it not been for the amazing dog team there is no doubt in my mind we would have never found her. Shiloh crossed over two major interstate highways, was 16 blocks north and 40 blocks east of where she went missing. She was very scared and dirty but overall in good health. We are so thankful we made the call to Karin and highly recommend her if you are missing your four legged furry family member.
Ryan Hammontree Lee's Summit, Missouri