Source of Hope
Photo Credit: Federica Castucci
When your dog goes missing, there are two things you want as much as your dog - hope that you’ll find it and help finding it. Trust me, I speak from experience. The Retrievers, a volunteer-led nonprofit based in Minnesota specializes in both. They are in the business of reuniting dogs with their families and helping stray dogs find safety with a rescue or foster home. The Retrievers are an example of the good that can happen when people have a shared passion, are hopeful and willing to share their time and talents in service of something bigger than themselves.
The Retrievers got started in 2014. Devon Thomas Treadwell, one of the co-founders, explained that it came out of Retrieve a Golden of the Midwest (RAGOM), one of the largest rescues in Minnesota and neighboring states. Devon and some other RAGOM volunteers created a Lost Dog Rapid Response Team to find RAGOM dogs that went missing either from a foster home or after they were adopted. A dog is most at risk to run away when it is in a new situation and hasn’t yet bonded with its owner. The philosophy at RAGOM is, “Once a RAGOM dog, always a RAGOM dog.” Devon and the other volunteers didn’t think twice about helping families get their dogs back. They were so good at reuniting RAGOM dogs with their families that word got around, and they started getting calls from people outside of RAGOM to help find their dogs. At that point, they realized what they were doing was bigger than RAGOM, so they launched The Retrievers.
In 2022, The Retrievers handled 814 cases. Forty percent of those cases were dogs who ran within the first month of being in a new home, and of those cases, half of them were dogs that were in a new home for less than 24 hours. When a dog bolts in fear, it doesn’t know where it is going. It just knows it doesn’t want to be where it is. When a dog is in flight mode, you would be amazed at how much ground it can cover. Devon recalled seeing a German Shepherd run past her house in south Minneapolis. She got involved in the search, and the dog was eventually found in Coon Rapids, which is over 30 miles away.
The relationship that The Retrievers have with the person they’re helping is really important. The energy and hope that an owner has for finding their dog is what fuels The Retrievers’ work. Conversely, The Retrievers give hope to owners when they get discouraged about finding their dog. They have been doing this work long enough to know how to interpret the information they gather while searching. A discouraged owner once asked Devon if they would find her dog. Devon had no doubts the dog would return home safely because there were multiple sightings, and it had established a pattern of travel. The dog was caught and reunited with its family.
The Impossible Happens
But not all cases have a happy ending. Fifteen percent of the cases The Retrievers work on end up as cold cases. This means an owner ends their engagement with The Retrievers without finding their dog. This typically happens when there are no reported sightings of the dog after a period of time, and the owner can no longer commit the time and or volunteers to sustain the search. Devon said they always leave it up to the owner to decide when to stop working together to find a dog.
As difficult as it is when a dog is not found or meets a tragic end as a result of getting out, Devon knows the impossible happens. A dog with a short coat survives a polar vortex and is reunited with its family. Or a dog lost in the woods of Northern Minnesota while on vacation is reunited with its family. Devon says it is amazing at how dogs can survive on their own. And the best feeling is when a dog is reunited with its family.
Sometimes the stakes for catching a dog on the loose are very high. Devon received a phone call from a woman in rural Minnesota who needed help catching a Black Lab named Lady that was wandering a property going up for auction. Lady was the only surviving pet of the previous owners who died as a result of a murder suicide. The woman was their neighbor. If they failed to catch Lady, the local sheriff’s department would likely come in and shoot her in order to remove her. It was stressful, but Lady was caught and adopted by the neighbor.
Where is the Owner?
When Devon sees a dog by itself, her first thought is, “Where is the owner?” She wishes more people would ask that same question when they see a dog on its own. Too many dogs end up victims of rescue theft because someone doesn’t make a good faith effort to find an owner. It can be easy to think that a dog was dumped or that an owner is “bad,” but a lot of hearts are broken because of this.
The Retrievers were pioneers when they launched. They were one of only a handful of search organizations in the country. As the saying goes, “they built the plane as they flew it.” Today, they have a distinguished record of success, are highly respected and sought after. The Retrievers are also part of a large ecosystem of rescue and other search organizations in Minnesota that are dedicated to keeping dogs safe.
Social media has been the single biggest development in searching for lost dogs, because it allows for information about lost dogs to be distributed far and wide. It also allows for the sharing of best practices about searches and equipment. Devon believes artificial intelligence has the potential to be the next big development in searching for lost dogs.
A Calling
An acquaintance of Devon’s once referred to her work with The Retrievers as a hobby. She considers it a calling. The Retrievers are a mighty and selfless group who are a source of hope for dog owners and lovers working to bring dogs back home or to a shelter or rescue. In the almost ten years of their existence, they have brought thousands of dogs to safety. It is amazing the good that can happen when people have passion, commitment and hope.
Learn More
Visit The Retrievers to:
Photo Credit: Samson Katt
Learn how to engage with them to search for a missing dog or to catch a stray dog.
Volunteer - there are a variety of volunteer opportunities with The Retrievers, and they are always in need of them. The number of missing dog cases they can take on is driven by volunteer availability. They also experience an uptick in requests for help during the summer when fireworks are most common.
Make a donation. The Retrievers do not charge for their services. Donations help keep the work going.
Follow them on Facebook to learn about cases they are working on and share information about missing dogs.
FYI
If your dog gets loose, here are steps to take to bring it to safety:
If you can still see your dog, don’t chase it. If it is in a playful mood, try to engage it in a game of chase by running away from it and getting it to chase you. If it’s fearful, sit down, don’t make eye contact and offer it treats.
If you can no longer see the dog:
Put a notification on Facebook with a photo, approximately where the dog went missing and when.
Call the non-emergency police number to report your dog missing and see if there have been any reports of a dog on the loose in your area. Also, call your local animal control.
Get family, friends and or neighbors to help you canvas the eight-block area around your house on foot.
Microchipping your dog is a good investment.
