Doggone Adventures

Hey all, Konrad here. It is a Rainy morning in Detroit today, this next case brought me to the rural district of Warren, MI on a call about a loose husky named Kota. Correct me if I'm wrong, but since it was a Pitbull-Husky mix, he looks like a Belgian Malnois. I have petsat him before and the owner knew to call me because if spotted, he would have responded to my call. I jumped in my car and got to her residence as fast as I could. I will not be releasing any personal details about the owner here.

Luckily, from 6am to Now, he was brought into the Warren police Department by a good Samaritan. Kota was shortly reunited with his owner after we had drove up there to meet with them. The officers on Duty were kind and did their job appropriately. It was a happy return. The dog's owner had a morning full of tears, but getting back home now, she can be confident that her dog will remember this day and hopefully not try an escape again. The dog was reunited with his owner within a few hours after running large at about a 2-mile range radius. Kota is a Husky-Pitbull mix.

The Dog in question is not shown here, but these are the dogs currently being held at Warren PD to be rehomed. If you recognize these animals, let's get them home!

Now, this case brings back a memory I had of my current pooch named Rusty running loose in Macomb County. Rusty is a Dachshund-Retriever mix and he is "ruff-ly" three years old! I was going through a breakup at the time, and unfortunately, I was on my own for this rescue. One minute he was in the house, the next my Apple Airtag pinged him nearly two miles away shortly after my ex-girlfriend had slammed the door when her friends were on their way to pick her up. Could she have let him out? I'd rather not comment. At the time, they did not help me find him. I had to track him for two days.

This is Rusty. He is a good boy and expresses love to anyone that encounters him! Rusty has been my trusty sidekick since the Summer of 2023. He came to me from the Family of my dead best friend, Jacob Isho. God Rest His Soul. That's another story for another time. Fast forward to present day, Rusty was let out of my house without me knowing, and there were no signs of how he got out. The reason why I am sharing this story is to help other pet owners track their pets if they are lost. Apple airtags do the job, but not the best. 

I have all of my pets tagged and microchipped for identification. It was a hectic night seeing as my ex was leaving at the time, and a man she was seeing had threatened me in my own home as I was looking for my dog. They did not care to help me. As I said earlier, I was on my own. My iPhone pinged Rusty's location 2 miles away from me near L'anse Creuse School District. I set out to track him in a nearby neighborhood.

Following the trajectory of my airtag, I followed Rusty to a residence in Macomb County. Now, this is why I am sharing this story. If you choose to use an airtag to locate your lost pets, you should be aware that the technology only pings their location off of nearby Apple devices such as an iPhone, iPad, or Mac Book Computer. The airtag pinged Rusty's location inside somebody's home. Rusty was not in their home, but I thought he was. You could imagine how frustrated I was. I thought someone had stolen my dog! I was about to go John Wick on this person and claim my dog. I called Macomb County Sheriff's to come help me. The Officer who responded that night said, "I love dogs, but I can't kick that guy's door in if he's lying to save your dog."

The property owner gave me the rights to search around his home for my dog, and that is when my best friend's Brother came up to help me find Rusty. We found his tracks near the railroad in the gentleman's backyard. An officer confirmed that the airtag wasn't enough to go on because of how the technology worked. Rusty had to be nearby. He wasn't in the house.

I tracked Rusty up and down the railroad for hours, we kept finding his pawprints, and finally one last 'ping!' from the airtag signaled to my phone. This was when I looked to Joe, my best friend's brother, and said, "I gotta go!". I took off sprinting to the nearest pinged location that Rusty was at. I ran across the Subaru dealership on Hall Road and came to a field. That was when it started to downpour with rain from the clouds, and Rusty was nowhere in sight.

I took the shirt off my back and placed it on the ground for Rusty to scent if he was trying to make his way back home. We were nearly a block away from my house at this point, Rusty was seemingly trying to find his way back to my house. I left my shirt on the road around the corner from my house where his last location pinged for him to smell, so that he could find his way home.

The search was called off until the next day. Now, the next morning I had a strange feeling to go back to the school Rusty was first pinged at in case he found his way back there. He did not. So, I tracked back up the train tracks to Hall Road where the last known ping was. It had not pinged again since the last time. That told me that Rusty might not have crossed Hall Road and that he could still be in this field. I scoped out the area and noticed there were tall cement walls blocking the neighborhood behind from the main public road. There was no way Rusty would be able to pass that wall.

I took off sprinting into the field. That was when I heard a Hawk screeching down into the wilderness below. My eyes peeled, and I looked deeper into the thickets and tall grass. There he was. It was Rusty. Jumping through the grass, carving a path away from the Hawk that was obviously trying to hunt him. I called out to Rusty, "Rusty! Is that you? Rusty, come here boy!" I saw him jumping frantically trying to get away from this bird. He turned to me and ran as fast as he could. I ran towards him, and our paths connected. Rusty leaped into my arms and the bird backed away. It took off. Rusty's fur was wet and mangled, and he was barely himself. What I had once known before as a house dog, he almost became wild. This bird almost made my dog a snack. I saved him.

That being said, Apple's airtags are a phenomenal device, but they only ping locations based on devices that are nearby. If you lose a pet in an urban setting where many people are perceived to have an Apple product, it is good for this purpose. However, I suggest investing in a satellite GPS tracker for your pets. I personally use airtags for now, but I will be using a brand called PetSafe in the future. 

A Special Update to the Last Blog Post: Kody, renamed to Chaos, is now settling in just fine with his new owner! He is acting like a brand-new dog and is so loving and sweet. Pitbulls are not as bad as people would like to make them out to be. Here is a photo of him cuddling up under the covers! 

Thanks for reading!

-Konrad