I figured everyone had heard and seen enough of Bernie & Brownie!! I also didn’t want to bore everyone with all the details. But, after many have questioned how they were lost and how they were found, I’ve decided to tell the story. There is a lot we will never know. Some details will always be a mystery. But, we had SO SO many wonderful people give us their empathy, prayers, time, tips and efforts and I can never say thank you enough! I feel it is my duty to pass along our details in case it helps someone else looking for their pets one day!!
How We Lost Them:
Our dogs are extensively trained!! They know their commands and while they aren’t perfect, they are compliant most of the time. They both were wearing their fully charged E-collars and I had their controllers around my neck. I was loading my van with family Christmas gifts and the dogs were in our yard going potty. They were on “break” so they could go potty.
My son decided to use our stair railing as a zip line. He then screamed because he gashed open his arm and it was bleeding. So I ran in to assist him and never yelled “Place” to our dogs. (This tells them to return to the porch and stay until I tell them otherwise, which again they always comply to).
By the time I got my son bandaged and returned outside they were gone! I immediately began screaming their names and “Here!” as well as using the “Tone” on their collars.
Based on our security cameras, as soon as I went inside without giving a command they quickly left the front yard toward the side of our property where our woods are. We live in a very rural, heavily wooded area and it is bow season for deer still. Therefore, my belief is they had a strong scent from either active deer moving or recently gutted deer nearby and followed that.
The kids and I got into our van immediately and drove around for about a half hour, followed by my husband then looking in our side by side for hours! We NEVER stopped looking from the moment they were lost. Someone, either us or someone on our behalf, was looking continuously for three days!
The Search:
When the dogs weren’t found that first day and didn’t come home by night, we became panicked and enlisted the help of neighbors, friends, and family. I believe EVERYTHING helped!! And I can’t stress that enough!!!!
Even the “I haven’t seen them but I’ll look” comments were helpful because when you are searching MILES and MILES of WOODS, putting clues together, simply knowing where they ARE NOT and where they have NEVER BEEN SEEN is just as helpful as “we think we saw them”. Every bit of info helped us narrow down where to go next.
Here is my best attempt at all of the details of what we did:
- PHYSICALLY SEARCHING: Myself, my husband and my family/friends spent days with literal boots on the ground. We searched day and night!!! The nighttime was important because it was quiet. We spent those hours at night yelling their name and whistling. My husband’s whistling is what I think eventually played a large role in finding them. We did try to stay in the general same area when whistling so as not to confuse them! (For example, if you are driving in blocks or circles searching, choose one side to whistle from, otherwise they won’t know which way to go and may go in circles themselves)
- WARDEN: My stepmom called every warden, humane society and law enforcement office in 3 counties!! She called them once a day and gave her phone number so they could notify us of any tips or info. Knowing there hadn’t been reports of them being hit, kept us going!!!
- FLIERS: My family members printed fliers and spoke with possibly every human in Minerva!! And I have to say MINERVA is made up of the BEST humans♥️ Many joined in the active search!
- OLD-FASHIONED WORD OF MOUTH: Again we live in a rural area with quite a few Amish families as well as people who just don’t use social media. So we just stopped people on the side of the road and we knocked on doors. Of course there is always a risk when you approach someone’s property or home, so make sure you do this WITHOUT children and respectfully and cautiously!!
- SCENT: We put our RECENTLY WORN clothes in certain spots and checked those spots frequently in hopes they’d pick up our scent.
- DRONE: We used a thermal drone for days!! Keegan from Aviox Drone was wonderful!!!! He was diligent and he gave us so much of his time on Christmas Eve and we can never thank him enough!! The drone itself did NOT find the dogs but again, we CONFIDENTLY knew where they were NOT. And that ultimately led us to diligently search the area where they ended up being.
- SOCIAL MEDIA: The help via social media was amazing!! Truly amazing!! At times it was also overwhelming and difficult to keep up with. I had family/friends who helped me monitor/follow up on that incoming info. **It was a tip via social media from a friend of a friend of a friend that led us to believe they were in the general 1 mile radius of where they were ultimately found!! SIDE NOTE: 99% of the tips we got, ended up being wrong. So while it did at times send us on a “wild goose chase”, I’d rather have tips than no tips. However, I would recommend NOT sending all of your help to track down a lead. Use some but not all to track down new leads/areas.
- DOG FOR SALE SEARCHES: by 48 hours of no sightings, we were panicking that someone had them and was trying to make money off of them. Again, out of state or out of area family members stepped up and searched websites/social media sales in multiple states. Their recommendations are: Google, FB marketplace, FB buy and sell pages, Craigslist, and Reddit. I don’t pretend to be an expert but the more people looking, the better!!
- REWARD: Desperate people do desperate things. If someone had our dogs and needed money, then I was prepared to give them that so we could have our pets home!
- PHONE CALLS: Once I offered a $ reward and put my phone number out on social media, I got many calls from strangers. All of our callers were GOOD people trying to be helpful, offering tips, and/or asking where they should look. However, just in case, I made sure every caller knew 3 things: 1. We were diligently searching any and every dog for sale site. 2. The dogs WERE microchipped and registered. 3. We would in fact pay a reward without asking questions. I wanted to get the word out that if in fact someone took them, their safest and fastest way to get money was to simply return our pets!
How We Found Them:
Christmas morning is when we were reunited! God answered our prayers on the morning we celebrated his Son! He gave us a Christmas miracle!
But as for the details… Alot of things happened at once:
- Christmas Eve while I was getting the kids ready to go to church, I got a tip via FB messenger that Bernie & Brownie were possibly seen about 5 miles from our home. (This was a direct result of social media’s impact)
- Since the area given in the tip had NOT been thoroughly covered by the thermal drone, we thought it was a legitimate sighting and therefore, my family immediately went there and began searching and calling. My husband then spent over 3 hours in the middle of the night, Christmas Eve, whistling and searching.
- Christmas morning, after presents, my husband returned to that area and spoke with a woman walking her dog. She had NOT seen them but mentioned a house around the corner where dogs seemed to be barking in a way they never do!
- The owners of the house where the barking was happening, had also gone outside to respond and found Bernie and Brownie. Bernie had stepped in a coyote snair trap and Brownie was beside him. They got him out, fed them and posted pictures on social media.
- My FB messenger was immediately flooded and I was able to connect with the family who found them.
- Timm was already very close by, as explained above, and was on his way to the home when I called him!
The Aftermath
We followed up with the vet the following day. Bernie did NOT have a broken bone, just bruising and swelling of his front paw. They did have a lot of ticks on them, a lot dead due to their prevention medicine, but also a lot alive. They are taking medication for Lyme disease. But, all in all they are doing well. They slept ALOT the first five days of being home and enjoyed all of the snuggles and love!!
The Lessons Learned:
- I should have yelled for the dogs as I was running in to help my son. A lot can happen in seconds/minutes with dogs. Freedom or “break” to a dog is literal freedom!! The whole world is their playground!! Dogs do not see boundaries of their yard unless you have commanded them to. Our yard is large! We have a lot of acreage, including woods. In my opinion, we were a tad too lenient in our boundary training prior to this happening. This was a choice, not a careless mistake. I will not get into the details of why we were lenient, as I will always protect my family’s privacy but I will say our dogs typically stay close to our children. We wanted the dogs to have the freedom to stay with our children on our ENTIRE acreage. This is why we used voice command and E-collar vs physical boundary/underground fence. I want you to know, we never chose to just let our dogs run free. They were trained to listen to their commands and I did NOT give a command. I take full responsibility for that mistake. However, if a fence/underground fence works for your situation, please get one!
- EVERYTHING helps when searching for a lost pet! Everything! Social media helped, flyers helped, the drone helped, diligent searching day AND night helped! IT ALL HELPED!!
- THE SOONER THE BETTER!! I wish we had enlisted help sooner. I did not want to “cry wolf” and we believed they would come at night. That was a mistake! Get help as soon as possible! Time is not on your side in an instance like this!
- PEOPLE ARE STILL GOOD!!! And kind, and giving, and caring!!! I will never forget the kindness that radiated all around us this Christmas!! God, acting through His children, were responsible for bringing Bernie & Brownie home and our family will never forget it!
I pray this information helps someone else. If I can ever answer questions or help in anyway, please don’t hesitate to reach out!!
In the meantime and as always, SAFE TRAVELS!
Morgan Rae
