In August 2019, Bill Warnock was driving a familiar route in his North Reading hometown when his 3-year-old terrier mix, Bailey, suddenly — and seemingly without provocation — jumped out the car window.
Shocked, Warnock immediately pulled over, got out of the car, called Bailey’s name — and watched her bolt down the street.
“You think your pet will pay attention to you in times of emergency, but that’s not dog behavior,” said Warnock, who retired after 35 years as the North Reading fire chief in 2018. “It’s no longer your pet. It’s an animal trying to survive.”
Over the next week, Warnock searched day and night for Bailey with help from his wife and three sons, former fire and police colleagues, a network of friends, and concerned strangers. Yet without the expertise of volunteers from Missing Dogs Massachusetts, a nonprofit that provides free assistance in reuniting lost dogs with their families, he is convinced their reunion wouldn’t have taken place.
Warnock admitted resisting the seemingly counterintuitive advice of not calling out or approaching his dog until he witnessed the results of doing so a second time. After spotting Bailey the day after she went missing, Warnock and his son, Reid, got within 50 feet of her — and then watched as she “ran away like a freight train” after Reid called her name.
Their relief was palpable when, five days later, Bailey triggered a motion sensor outside a kennel trap set up by Warnock, Missing Dogs’ volunteer Melissa Dutra, and board member Robyn Sardellitti near the bank where she initially got lost. Real-time footage showed her lying on her favorite red fleece blanket decorated with dog bones and fire hydrants, which they had laid out as a lure along with clothing items bearing the scent of family members.
This time when Warnock arrived with their other dog, a boxer mix named Sawyer, he said Bailey came over “like she had never been missing.”
“If it wasn’t for Missing Dogs Massachusetts, I don’t know what would have happened. Our entire family was devastated by this,” said Warnock, who now shares his hard-earned knowledge with similarly distressed owners as a volunteer with the organization. “I am very grateful. Now I try to be as available to help others as much as I can. I’ve been through it, and it stinks.”
Beth Corr, one of five women who cofounded the organization in 2015, said 125 volunteers work cooperatively with animal control officers, shelters, rescues, and the media. The organization also has nearly 1,300 Twitter followers and 60,000 followers on Facebook, with a reach of 861,000 users.
“We’re from all different walks of life,” said Corr, a member of the group’s board of directors and owner of Wag Tail Farm, a dog care business in Newton where she lives with Seamus, a 2-year-old Sheltie, and Poppy, a 17-year-old Pomeranian. “Our commonality is we all want to provide a happy ending for a family.”
Michael DeFina, communications and media relations officer at the Animal Rescue League of Boston, said Missing Dogs Massachusetts is among the organizations with which it shares all lost dog reports.
“That collaboration is really key because with their number of volunteers, they literally span the entire Commonwealth. And not only do they have a wide network, they know what to do, which is critical when it comes to animal welfare,” he said. “We rely on them heavily, and they’ve helped us in so many different situations. They do amazing work.”
According to Corr, recovering a lost dog is an art rather than a science, with no two cases exactly alike. Despite the unpredictability of animals in survival mode, certain behavior patterns increase the probability of recovering a dog safely — although the time frame has varied from hours to years.
To prevent dogs from going missing in the first place, the organization strongly recommends using a martingale collar and awards grants so shelters and rescue agencies can provide them to their adoptees. Also referred to as a limited- or no-slip collars, a martingale is designed to constrict when a dog pulls on its leash, but never so tightly as to cause harm when properly fitted.
Should your pooch be caught by animal control or a good Samaritan, Missing Dog Massachusetts recommends all dogs have an engraved ID tag attached to the harness or collar with the owner’s name, address, and phone number. Dogs also should have a microchip, a rice-sized device inserted under the skin that is registered with a service and can be quickly scanned to provide owner information.
But before pets are caught, the process of recovering a lost dog can be an emotionally, physically, and financially draining undertaking involving social media posts, digital and printed flyers, motion-activated cameras, feeding stations, humane and kennel traps, and untold hours. In 2020, according to Corr, Missing Dogs Massachusetts received 1,181 lost dog reports, plus a large number of found dog reports that aren’t tracked.
While July is traditionally the busiest month due to fireworks, Corr attributes a “massive” increase in calls last April to the spate of pet adoptions by people working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than half of last year’s reports involved dogs owned less than 12 months; 20 canines got lost within the first hour with their new owner.
Reasons dogs go missing include escaping from a yard (even fenced) while unsupervised; slipping out a door; wriggling out of a collar; or running from a slammed door, backfiring car, or owner who stumbles or falls during an otherwise routine walk. Whatever the reason, according to Corr, pet owners receive judgment-free assistance from Missing Dogs Massachusetts, which is funded by donations.
“There’s a steep learning curve to owning a dog, and if an adopted dog is nervous or shy, anything can happen,” Corr said. “We’re not here to criticize owners. We’re here to support them and get their dog back.”
Sue Sullivan can attest to the volunteers’ kindness, as well as their expertise. Penney, a 23-pound rescue dog from Puerto Rico, had lived at Sullivan’s West Plymouth home less than 24 hours before she bolted out a door on Nov. 21, 2020. The 2-year-old bulldog-terrier mix didn’t go far, however, and volunteers from Missing Dogs Massachusetts used chicken to lure Penney into a trap in Sullivan’s backyard the following evening.
Penney’s second escapade two days later was a different story. During a short walk around the neighborhood on Nov. 24, 2020, the new retractable leash broke and Penney took off once again. Sullivan redialed the Missing Dogs Massachusetts volunteer, who helped distribute flyers and set traps equipped with night cameras in the neighborhoods in which sightings occurred. But Penney wasn’t to be tricked again, and pursuits by well-meaning searchers only drove her farther away.
Finally on Dec. 6, a woman reported that Penney was playing with her dogs at her home in South Plymouth — a distance of 14 miles away. When it snowed that evening, the homeowner caught Penney on her porch at 2 a.m. and brought her inside. Sullivan said she nearly collapsed with relief.
“They say it takes a village, and it does for sure,” said Sullivan, noting she has “twice as many gray hairs and wrinkles” while Penney now wears a martingale collar with GPS. “I’m so impressed [with Missing Dogs Massachusetts] and how efficient and well run it is. You don’t know there’s a need until your pet goes missing, and now I can’t say enough good things about it.”
Piia DiMeco of Wilmington agreed that the volunteers “absolutely know what they’re talking about.” In December 2020, she worked with Missing Dogs Massachusetts to help find Zoe, her former foster dog who disappeared when movers unwittingly opened the door while packing the new owner’s belongings for transport from Salem to Maine. Weeks passed without a sighting, until a snowshoer in Salem Woods reported paw prints and marks from a dragged leash in the snow.
Throughout the search, cameras were set up in multiple areas of the woods to look for Zoe. When she was spotted near her old house, a trap was set and she was finally secured after 40 days on the run. She had lost weight and her leash and martingale collar, but amazingly, she was not injured.
A half-hour before Zoe was recovered, according to DiMeco, a volunteer from Missing Dogs Massachusetts was making arrangements to pick up chicken wings from a local restaurant and remove the meat from the bones so the trap would have her favorite scent. “That says a lot about the commitment of these volunteers, who are constantly available and never give up,” DiMeco said.
That’s all the more reason, Corr said, for dog owners never to feel alone.
“You don’t want to see anyone go through this stress, and unfortunately, there isn’t always a happy ending,” she said. “But when you see a lost dog reunited with a family, there is not a better feeling in all the world. That is the reward.”
For tips on keeping dogs safe and other information, call 844-423-3686 or visit www.missingdogsmass.com or www.facebook.com/missingdogsmass.
Cindy Cantrell can be reached at cindycantrell20@gmail.com.