A New Hampshire organization that helps find lost dogs is celebrating a pair of recent recoveries after finding two missing dogs. One of the dogs was missing for 32 days, the other for almost six months.
And it’s hardly their first. Granite State Dog Recovery estimates it’s helped reunite more than 11,000 missing dogs with their human families over the last 14 years.
The latest success story involves Harper, a golden retriever adopted by a family in New Hampshire. Just as her new family was bringing her home, Harper bolted from the car. She spent 32 days on the run.
Her family plastered the area with hundreds of missing posters and contacted Granite State Dog Recovery.
Weeks went by. Then, last week, Harper was spotted near a home in Nottingham. Granite State Dog Recovery volunteer Jenn McDonnell responded and was able to coax Harper out of the bushes using a rag doused with liquid smoke and a few Vienna sausages to create the smell of a campfire barbecue.
Harper was clearly hungry, and it worked.
“I slowly put my arm out and she was taking them from me,” McDonnell told Boston 25 News. “At one point, I put a Vienna sausage in my left hand, she took it, and I leashed her.”
Harper had lost weight, was covered in ticks appeared to have had an unfortunate run-in with a porcupine. She was bathed, fed, quills removed, and checked over by a vet before going home.
Only weeks before Harper, Granite State Dog Recovery helped recover a black lab named Sweet Pea who escaped her yard around Thanksgiving last year. Sweet Pea was missing for 173 days – almost six months. Granite State Dog Recovery tracked reported sightings across eastern New Hampshire – from Barrington to Rochester to Wakefield.
Weeks became months, but Sweet Pea survived the winter and was finally trapped on May 15. A microchip confirmed her identity.
“It took us that long to outsmart that dog,” Granite State Dog Recovery founder Holly Mokrzecki told Boston 25 news. “But we don’t give up.”
Mokrzecki says their longest success story involved finding a dog that was missing for more than 7 years.
“You should never give up hope of finding your dog,” she said. “Dogs are survivors.”
Granite State Dog Recovery says in most cases, a dog that escapes will return home on its own, so long it feels safe and not threatened. For those that do not return, a microchip can be invaluable should your dog be found in another neighborhood or town.
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