Moose was recently adopted from a shelter in Douglas, WY. On October 27th, 2023 Moose took off from his home in south Cheyenne, WY. This story is not our ordinary recovery story. This was an extremely difficult case, but all of the hard work was worth it in the end. As you can see we received sightings, plenty of them. However Moose would not settle down at all. He was very inconsistent & sporadic with his movements. We were never able to establish a feeding station or trapping location, mainly due to the fact that all of the trailer parks had trash bags set to the curb for pickup. This was an easy food source for Moose. On November 1st, we got him cornered and attempted to catch him by hand. He had other plans and narrowly escaped my grasp. We continued to follow up on leads but most of the time when we arrived he had vanished. We started to nickname him Houdini! On November 3rd we got the call that we needed. A kind gentleman was following as not to lose eyesight of him but also not spook him off. I asked the owner to come along. We arrived & watched him go into a secure fenced area. I had the owner block the entry as best she could while I went to the back corner with his food and a snappy snare. I approached calmly and just sat down and started tossing food his direction. He laid down and we just sat for a few minutes before he decided to pursue the food. He inched closer and closer taking small rests in between. He finally was sticking his head right in the snappy snare loop but when I went to release he backed away quickly. His owner was standing at the other end of the building & tried to block his escape to no avail. He however did catch her scent… He ran through the gated entry & we just let him calm down for a couple of minutes. Owner got out of her vehicle again & sat down on the ground following calming & luring techniques I had explained to her. Moose looped around the vehicle and caught her scent again. We could physically see it click and his whole demeanor change. He wiggled his butt & laid down. He then rolled on his back for belly rubs & owner grabbed his collar quickly. He was caught & safe!
I want to highlight that most dogs in survival mode will not recognize their owner off the bat. Moose had only been with his owner for 2 weeks prior to taking off. It was her scent that was familiar to him, and ultimately what made him come out of survival mode. We are so happy & relieved that Moose is reunited with his family! Thank you to everyone in the community who followed our ask not to pursue him & just contact with sightings.
©Diamond In The Rough Pet Recovery 