What do you do when you lose a dog? You use other dogs to find her.
A nightmare scenario has, fortunately, turned into a story with a happy ending in Concord, N.C.
Jessica Brandewie recently starting using WAG! the dog walking app when she got her 5-month-old puppy, Mera. She wanted Mera to be able to go for walks even when she was away at work during the day.
“The walker was leaving our house, she was walking down the road right here, and trying to take a photo of Mera, per WAG’s protocol. She tripped on a trashcan and in that situation, fumbled with the leash and Mera got stumbled by the trashcan falling and sprinted away,”
Brandewie. to WBTV
“Just to hear that she was gone… I was just heartbroken,She’s so young, I don’t know if she can function on her own.”
Brandewie.
Brandewie says WAG! sent her lost puppy fliers and did send a few walkers to their neighborhood to help search for Mera. But she decided to hire scent-tracking dogs to hopefully track her down.
Through a scent off of Mera’s blanket from her kennel, the scent-tracking dogs are able to use that scent and trail it throughout the neighborhood.
The way the dogs have taken us, we’ve worked one dog in the neighborhood today trying to confirm some possible sightings,” says Michelle Wilson with Epic Animal Recovery. “They’ve picked up the same scent that they picked up prior when we were here a few days ago.
After a week missing, and with the weather only getting colder, Brandewei was only getting more worried about her puppy. Fortunately, Tuesday afternoon, the dogs picked up a new trace of Mera’s scent in the woods nearby.
“She was stuck in the bushes. She still had her leash on… I started crying. I was just so happy, we picked her out of the bush and I just wrapped my arms around her,” says Brandewie.
WBTV contacted WAG! about the incident.
We heard back from WAG about Mera’s situation, their team worked directly with Jessica, to set up and monitor a dedicated tip line while passing out those flyers you saw.
Wag! also plans to reimburse Jessica for the costs associated with those scent tracking dogs.
The walker has been suspended from the app.
WBTV