Support Kat Cavanaugh & Dog Gone Pet Recovery

Hi All! I'm Robyn Eichler-Karnes... I'm passionate about dogs and heavily involved in dog rescue. I am hosting a fundraiser for my 60th birthday to contribute to an amazing community service and its founder... Dog Gone Pet Recovery and Kat Cavanaugh, who is also passionate about saving pets.

Over this past 4th of July weekend, I participated with a team of people in the recovery of a lost 7-month-old puppy who I brought into Placing Paws Rescue for rehoming.

Otto, now Enzo, was one of four timid littermates we placed into foster homes awaiting adoption after his medical treatment and neuter.

Fast forward 2 weeks, and Otto was adopted by a local family in Lake Villa, Illinois. After only 5 days in his new home, Otto, now Enzo, got away from his new family and took off into a neighboring wooded area after being frightened in the garage following a vet appointment.

Enzo was lost the morning of July 3rd, so the pressure was on to recover him quickly before the fireworks began... and the thunderstorms rolled in that night. Both his adopter and I independently reached out to Kat Cavanaugh of Dog Gone Pet Recovery, a new local business that has shown great success using high-tech equipment for the recovery of pets. You may have seen some of her dramatic videos of dogs she recovered last winter using her high-tech drone with thermal imaging.

After hanging many lost dog signs, Enzo's new mom started receiving sightings of him in the neighborhood. Kat promptly provided feeding stations and cellular trail cameras with motion sensors that provided real-time notifications, images, and even live videos as needed.

Sadly, Enzo eluded us for days, enduring hot 90° temperatures, rain, thunderstorms, and the dreaded firework displays and endless sky rockets throughout the night. But Kat did not give up.

Though Enzo's mom continued to receive sightings from the community, we were unable to spot him on the trail cams. As fast as Kat placed the trail cams where he was seen by neighbors, Enzo seemed to move away from the active residential area to quieter, more wooded spaces... which had its own set of challenges and risks. He could not be seen on the drone camera, and conditions weren't great for thermal imaging. It was no longer the fear of Enzo being hit by a car but also the threat of coyotes overwhelming him.

After 3 long days of trying to locate Enzo, his mom received multiple sightings from people some distance away, across a busy highway, and was able to confirm that it was, in fact, Enzo by his scruffy appearance but also his distinctive harness. Kat quickly set up additional feeding stations with live trail cams. After the last sighting on day 4, a team gathered to make a plan. We needed to get Enzo that night... because he was settling in near a construction area, and we knew that next morning, Monday, was going to be filled with many loud construction noises and would frighten him further into the woods.

We decided to try a past successful tactic that involved yummy grilled meat, hoping the delicious smells would draw him out of the woods... after all, he had to be hungry!

After a relatively short period of time, Kat had Enzo eating a little snack on a nearby trail cam... this was our first sighting on camera, and it was clearly our elusive puppy Enzo! Within minutes, Kat had the live trap set with a high-tech trail cam above, the grilled meat inside, and all the special scents spread around the trap to draw him in for a delicious meal. We all vanished in minutes so we wouldn't scare him as he came our way!

After many hours of crazy scenarios, including raccoons, local characters, and the very kind Lindenhurst police, we had just a couple of hours of rest while sitting in the parked cars across the street from the trap waiting for notifications from the motion sensors on the cameras. We knew he was staying in the area, and at 3:30 Monday morning, we received a notification! There it was... an image of Enzo smelling the meat in the trap! Kat went live on her trail cam, and we could watch him sniffing and walking around the trap! After some seconds that seemed to take forever, we watched Enzo cautiously enter the trap; us begging him the whole time for him to go inside. A short delay and concern the trap door would not release... then we heard the metal scrape, saw the door begin to drop, and we took off for the humane trap to be sure he was confined and unharmed after his big adventure! Finally, after 89 hours... nearly 4 full days... Enzo was safe!

We got Enzo home where he was happy to get out of the trap, snuggle with Mom and Dad, and greet Kat and me. Then he promptly ate the grilled meat waiting for him and played with his favorite toys... like it was no big deal!

The next day, Mom took Enzo to the vet for a full exam. He had some ticks removed and had lost 1-1/2 pounds, but all considered was in great shape! We followed up with a long cleansing bath and burr removal. We gifted Enzo with a new toy and Enzo's mom with a couple of leashes to keep him safe. Now he restarts his happily ever after.