Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Chance
Chance perks up after getting his toy and blankets from home.
Dogs who go missing after being involved in car accidents always get the attention of Carmel Travis. A realtor in Pullman by profession, her “thing” is getting lost dogs back to their owners. She was trained by a national organization in capturing the dogs after they run from the trauma of the accident.
“I help when I find out there’s a need,” Travis said.
March 1, Travis had another successful reunion after spending about 20 hours in three days to catch Chance, a border collie who escaped out a window after the vehicle he was riding in was in a roll-over accident on Highway 26 about 10 miles outside Colfax Feb. 25. While Travis did not know Chance or his owners, she was tagged in a Facebook post and offered suggestions to facilitate his return. When she realized her suggestions would not be followed in time, she took matters into her own hands.
“Fluorescent posters are key,” Travis stressed. She noted that a lot of people think social media is the best way to find lost pets, but Travis said that is secondary. People driving by that see a dog running loose in a field are not going to pull over and search social media.
“Not everyone is on social media,” she added.
The first foundational steps are fluorescent posters, flyers and a feeding station. The fluorescent posters are bright neon-colored poster board with “LOST DOG” written across the top. A flyer with the dog’s picture and some info are also taped to the poster. On the bottom, Travis wrote “Call, Don’t Chase” with her phone number.
“Dogs who survive accidents are often in survival mode and run when people call or chase them, even their family,” Travis stated in a post after the capture. Chasing the dogs often leads to them running into traffic and given that Chance was running loose along Highway 26, she knew he had a heightened probability of being hit.
Her hope and fear both came close on Chance’s third night out. Travis received a report from a friend there was a roll-over accident a couple miles from where Chance’s accident had been. This one caused by the driver swerving to miss two dogs—Chance and a neighborhood dog he had made pals with. Soon after getting the report, an Ackerman Heating service man called Travis to tell her he had seen Chance one mile west of the accident. Travis said he had seen the fluorescent sign and turned around after seeing Chance to return to the sign to get her phone number. By the time Travis arrived, Chance had already gone over the hills into the dark.
The other foundational piece of the retrieval effort is the feeding station. After getting Chance’s bed, blanket, toy and one of his mom’s recently-worn shirts, Travis situated it all in a kennel in the Appel barn near the accident with food and water. While Chance never found the station, it is one of the first steps taken in cases like this.
The day after the second roll-over, Travis received a call from two men working for the state highway department. They had seen the signs and had news for her.
“I held my breath thinking they were going to say they had found Chance deceased on the highway,” Travis recounted.
Instead, they were watching Chance next to a shop and agreed to wait there for her.
Travis took her dog Ginger to use as a “magnet dog” since the night before Chance had been running around with another dog already. Travis had rescued Ginger after she had lived in a field for four years near Liberty Lake.
The other key for the capture was food. In her post, Travis explained how she lured Chance in.
“I leashed her (Ginger) to the farmer’s sprayer in the barnyard, crouched down low, talked to her, gave her treats, wrinkled a food bag making yummy, yummy sounds, all while mostly ignoring Chance except for tossing him food.”
Travis told the Gazette that when it comes to that point of catching the dog, a person needs to crouch down, not make eye contact, toss treats to the side and wrinkle the food wrapper to signal treats.
“They think they’re going to get something,” Travis said.
At one point, Travis was afraid of Chance running off again, so she decided to back off and give him more space. She went and stood with the state highway workers who were standing guard so Chance did not run into the road and waited for Chance to decide he wanted to be friends with Ginger. Then Travis returned, offering more food until she was able to pet him. She was finally able to grab a handful of skin at the top of his neck and held tight until she could get a slip leash on him.
“It’s pretty exciting to be able to have them back alive,” Travis said.
She loaded Chance into her car. When she gave him his toy, blanket and mom’s shirt from home, he perked up. She then took him back to his family in Pullman.
“Everyone likes a happy ending,” she said.
Travis has been involved in numerous cases of lost dogs after car accidents. She usually gets them back within several days to a week, and usually alive.
She recommended anyone needing to find a dog in a similar case not to rely on social media, but to start with the same foundation: fluorescent posters, flyers and feeding station.
“It’s simple, really,” she said.
In addition to the 20 hours Travis spent, two friends of hers contributed three and five hours to the rescue,―one friend who was visiting from Seattle getting roped into the effort. Travis logged more than 275 miles driving to get Chance back safe.
Jana Mathia is a reporter at the Whitman County Gazette.
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