missing pets: no place like home

Mitzi Brogdon: A Tapestry of Rescue and Recovery

• mitch bernard and Mitzi Brogdon • Season 1 • Episode 7

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Get ready to tune into an episode that will tug your heartstrings and inspire the animal lover in you. Today, we're joined by Mitzi Brogdon, the spirited director of the nonprofit Street Dog Rescue and Recovery. Mitzi opens up about her unique trapping methods to rescue a semiferal pup, the emotional journey of rehabilitating the little one, and how a warm den during an ice storm made the difference.

Next, we unravel the remarkable tale of Darcy, the missing English bulldog, and Mitzi's encounter with him deep within the woods. Listen as she recounts the heart-stopping moment Darcy recognized her, a memory that left an indelible mark on her life. If that wasn't enough, she also tells the unexpected story of Joe, a wolfhound/doodle mix, and his surprising connection with Darcy. Fancy finding out how Joe became a part of my family, despite Mitzi's husband's no-fosters rule?

Finally, we shift gears to discuss the responsibility pet owners hold. Mitzi and I explore the potential of nonprofit recovery work and highlight the powerful transformation physical therapy can bring to dogs with injuries. We also get real about the challenges of rescue work—from tracking rescued dogs to the heartbreaking acceptance of euthanasia as a solution to pet overpopulation. This episode is a testament to the highs and lows of animal rescue and the extraordinary bonds that form along the way.

"No Place Like Home" is a podcast about missing pets. I feature content from owners, finders, volunteers, and professionals.

I always appreciate a rating and review on your podcast app and a follow on Facebook, where you can find the show at nplhmitch. Find episodes, transcripts, and additional information at noplacelikehome.show.

If you have questions or feedback, you can contact me at nplhmitch@gmail.com.

Remember to always think missing, not stray or dumped.

This podcast was created, hosted, recorded, and produced by me, Mitch Bernard. The opinions expressed on this show are those of the people expressing them and do not necessarily represent the views of any other entity.

mitch:

Welcome to No Place Like Home, the podcast about missing pets. I'm your host, Mitch Bernard. I want to start today's show with a little bit of commentary about the previous episode, which featured an animal communicator and medium, psychic, counselor, coach. She wears lots of hats. Her name is Alicia Sweezer.

mitch:

I had some interesting feedback from that episode, including that, basically implying that this is just all a big hoax. I'm skeptical of anything not scientific. I guess I know that all of this stuff depends a lot on what you believe, your faith, your worldview, etc. My opinion is that she and other people who do the kinds of work that she does can be part of a successful recovery. Does that mean I'm necessarily going to recommend an animal communicator? Probably not. I don't know how much it can help, but if an owner comes to me or another professional or volunteer missing- pet recovery responder, I would like for them to know what to expect. I would like for them to know what the owner has received from working with this person. I would like for them to have some understanding of that process and be prepared to discuss with the owner in a nonjudgmental way, whatever they have tried. If the owner is coming to you as a responder and saying that they want to incorporate the information, they believe this information, fine. My position would be, as a responder, if you are prepared to not let your efforts with that information detract from or diminish your efforts with the plan that we're coming up with, great, do whatever you want. If it begins to interfere with or reduce the amount of time, energy, effort, resources that you have to devote to our plan, I'm probably not going to be able to work with you, only because it's— not because it's an animal communicator but because it's interfering with the plan.

mitch:

Any time I'm working with an owner, I want to have a plan moving forward for how we're going to recover that pet. It starts with how we're going to make sure people know that the pet is missed and missing and with making sure that we are doing what we can to locate the pet through cameras and sightings and feeding stations, etc. Each case is going to have its own plan, tailor- made for that situation. It changes as we get new information, but there is a plan throughout the process. Part of what I require, and what I think any responder requires, is that the owner work with that plan and cooperate with that plan and do their part to complete the plan, achieve what we've set out to do.

mitch:

My only objection to an owner communicating [with] or contacting an animal communicator would be if they are going to favor that data over hours, if they're going to discount what we're telling them based on what the animal communicator is telling them or spending their time following up on the communicator's leads more than or at the expense of following up on what we have for them to do. That's it. It doesn't have anything to do with judging the validity or invalidity of what Alicia and other people do. It is about making sure that the owner is committed to one plan. The same goes for distractions from people on Facebook giving well- intentioned but perhaps counterproductive or at least unhelpful advice, which happens a lot. The reason for that is an owner has a limited amount of time, energy, financial resources, physical resources, people willing to help, time to recover the pet in a healthy and safe way. It's a zero- sum game. If the owner spends a lot of time doing things that are not productive like, in my opinion, putting out litter boxes or some of the other folk methods of bringing a pet home that we in my network and other professionals I know don't think contribute to the plan, then that's energy and resources and time that that owner is not putting in to our plan. If, for some reason, there's some downtime and the owner doesn't have anything to do (which I can't really imagine how that would happen but) if that happens, great, you spend your time doing whatever you want, as long as it's not going to interfere with what we're doing.

mitch:

That's really what I wanted to say about that. My other, I guess, the other pieces that I would like for people to be respectful on social media and in public well, on my pages at least, about these guests. If you are cynical or skeptical of something that someone says, find a way to voice it respectfully or message it to me privately and I can address it that way. I don't want to discourage anyone from coming on and sharing their information, and I can always follow it up with whatever commentary I need. That's what I wanted to say about that. On to today's show. I am excited to have spoken with Mitzi Brogdon this week, who is director of the nonprofit Street Dog Rescue and Recovery, a couple of days ago, and we had a great interview, very interesting, great stories, and she's live on a stakeout waiting to capture a dog. Lots of interesting things going on there. I hope that you will stay tuned.

Mitzi:

[I've got] all the time in the world, because the Akita is not in any hurry.

mitch:

Wow yeah, those are not easy and that's a big dog. You're using a missy trap, or?

Mitzi:

No, I'm using a Tru-Catch big trap. If it doesn't work, I'm going to have to bring in a missy. My missy is currently in a rural location. It's been conditioning a dog to catch for about a month now.

mitch:

W ow.

Mitzi:

Oh yeah. I have to pull her to get her a wheel.

mitch:

Are [you tripping] your missies manually? Is someone have to be monitoring and pull or do you have a plate? o—

Mitzi:

No, it's on the auto—it's on the ray tripper, the laser trigger.

mitch:

That's awesome. I haven't used one, just seen them on video on YouTube mostly.

Mitzi:

I love it, I love it. It's very exciting to get a dog with the missy.

mitch:

Yeah, sure. It's exciting to get any animal, well, any animal that you wanted.

Mitzi:

It's gone through a couple of renovations as far as the electronics. Typically with a missy trap, you put the food in the very back, and then one day we got a wild hair to put it behind the door, the food, because if they're behind the door they're already at a disadvantage. [mitch] Yes, that's so true. [Mitzi] We felt like blondes who just realized something for the first

mitch:

That's brilliant, though. [unintelligible] so good job!

Mitzi:

Yeah, we just maneuver it to where the back of the door is facing a panel directly and the laser goes between the two. When they go behind the door to get the food, they're at a complete disadvantage.

mitch:

There's no way.

Mitzi:

There's no beating the door.

mitch:

I hope you tell everyone you know about that trick, because that's just smart.

Mitzi:

We've done photos. Oh good, yeah, but no, we did. We felt like whoa. Why wouldn't we think of that? Like three years ago.

mitch:

Yeah, that's really cool, whoa, Anyway, well, I started recording as we were chatting, so I will edit out to some kind of decent starting point. But sometimes a little patter at the beginning is interesting to people, so I will record a separate introduction. Let me make sure that I have your info correct, though I have Mitzi Brogdon Is that still the correct Yep, and your director of the nonprofit Street Dog Rescue and Recovery? Yes, cool, and that's you're in Oklahoma, is that right? Yes, can you tell me a little bit about how you got started doing this kind of work?

Mitzi:

Well, I start that story the same way. Every time there was a dog by my work and I was a dog mom, I thought, "this dog is going to recognize me and all my wonderful dog momanness is going to come right to me?

Mitzi:

Absolutely, it did not. Long story short, she was semiferal. Food was not a motivator because everybody in the large metropolis of south Oklahoma City, which is large, was feeding her. Toys were her jam and it took from the time I started out doing it by myself till I got rescuers involved. It took four months to catch her. [mitch] Wow, she was a little From the time you [Mitzi] needed it when I started on my own trying to catch her Wow With with I laugh now. Milk bones and dry dog food oh, bless your heart.

mitch:

I know, I know, I know, but yeah, nobody, we don't know.

Mitzi:

We don't know. But in that interim period, I finally got a good photo of her and followed the trend of posting on a missing, lost and found page. Yeah, and that's how some rescuers got hooked up with me. Nice, I told him. I said I've been trying to catch this dog for months. I asked for help. I want you to show me what to do If you have questions answering, but I'll do anything. Whatever you tell me to do, I'll do. That's so awesome. I did, and I'm the one that actually invented the trap that caught her.

Mitzi:

Nice With all their help I invented the trap. We got her to move into an igloo doghouse.

mitch:

Okay, it was wintertime.

Mitzi:

Yeah, and we had a trail cam on it, and this was back when you still had to do the SD card. Yes, on the trail cam.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

And I thought to myself one day why wouldn't it be nice if a drawstring bag could just come up and surround? Yeah, I can picture that, yeah. So I went to the sporting goods store, which we happen to be right next to. I found a minnow net, I got rope and I got tent stakes. Oh my gosh. So what we did was I ran the minnow, the rope, through all but one side of the net. Okay, in effect, it was like reins on a horse. Okay, and I stake the net down under the front of the doghouse so she couldn't squirt out under the net, and ran the rope about 50, about half a football field behind the dogloo. Wow, tied them off to a stake so we wouldn't know where they were.

Mitzi:

And then I laid the net flat and I pulled some of the straw out of the doghouse and laid it all over the net. Sure enough, she walked right over. It had no problem with it. Yeah, and so it was a blind pull. We did not have live surveillance. The first time we did it, she wasn't in there. The second time we went January the 4th of 20, hold on 2018. There was an ice storm. Where would you be?

mitch:

Yeah, in the warmest little den I could find.

Mitzi:

And I knew she wouldn't be able to hear us or smell us because of the wind and the ice.

mitch:

Yes, and the fact that those things are opaque, yeah, yeah.

Mitzi:

So we snuck up, pulled the rope, walked her way up to it. Didn't think she was in there, but did the flashlight and around motion and there she was and that was the end of that.

mitch:

[still Mitzi] So I rehabbed her it took about three months.

Mitzi:

I threw her into my pack so she would learn how to dog. Yeah, had her spayed, adopted her out. She's still with that woman now and after that, there was already another dog already right then, and there's always been another dog. There's never not been another dog.

mitch:

Yeah, so this net, the opening was, was it like the reverse of a drop net, where you kind of scooped up yes, yes, yes, that's so cool.

Mitzi:

The hole was at the top. She wasn't going to be able to get out the top Right, so yeah, yeah, I love that.

mitch:

I love that You're so like innovative, that's so great.

Mitzi:

Well, I'll tell you what I come by that, honestly, my dad is very resourceful, yeah, and I like to say I'm, I can MacGyver, MacGyver something up you know, with some chewing gum and right.

mitch:

Oh my god, that's so great.

Mitzi:

I'll use whatever's around, whatever's handy. If it works, I'll use it. Yeah, to be willing to get outside the box. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, that's, that's how we caught her. I, we. We don't have it on video, but we did do a replay.

mitch:

Uh huh.

Mitzi:

Before we broke it down.

mitch:

And I do have that on video. So that's awesome, that's so great and you know, wow, yeah, so many thoughts. So you're in an urban. Was this all kind of in an urban, suburban, agricultural?

Mitzi:

Yeah, Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City is actually 621 square miles, which is a lot, wow yeah, and a lot of it is rural, but still the city. So this was in a suburb of Oklahoma City very busy In fact. The road she was on was on a cut- through between two very busy roads. Oh no, what got me to catch it? What I tried for a couple of months got nowhere, gave up, changed my route to and from work so that I would not have to see when she got ran over.

mitch:

Yeah, and the guilt the guilt of doing. That is what ate at me.

Mitzi:

Yeah, and that's when I reached out for help, and the rest is history.

mitch:

So yeah, yeah, that's. You know that this kind of work is so mentally and physically exhausting, even when it's easy, like even when it's a animal at your home and it's you know, I mean that's great, that's so awesome. And did three dogs come out of that work?

Mitzi:

Yep, it did. It was originally called Street Dog Rescue. There was about six to eight of us we what do you call it? Co-opt a name, like everybody's throwing this out and that out and yeah, we came up with that and it got to where a couple of ladies this just wasn't their vision, so they went off and did their own thing. And yeah, my idea was kind of to be a co-op, in that I get dogs back for owners or if another rescue has lost a dog I won't catch and trap for them. So not necessarily just for me or my rescue, but for other rescues and for dog owners, right. So that's kind of my idea. But every dog there has to be a plan for the dog. I'm not going to catch and trap a dog and take it to the shelter. I'm not trying to vilify shelters in any way, but [mitch] they're all different and you've got to know yours.

Mitzi:

And I do, and I'm not trapping and catching a dog and taking it to the shelter, and so every dog has to have a plan. I get probably five to ten emails a day. That's not counting any texts and phone calls. There's a dog, I found a dog, we found a dog. Where's the dog going to go once I've caught it? Right, you're not taking it. No, I don't have a facility. Yeah, so there has to be a plan for the dog. The responsibility and the emotion can't all be on me or anybody that I trap with.

Mitzi:

Yeah, you know, that's not fair.

mitch:

So, but I know it's really hard to not put that on yourself Like that must have taken some that takes a lot of a lot of trial and error. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a lot of trial and error.

Mitzi:

So now my resources are better, where, if a dog doesn't have a plan but it does really really need to be caught, yeah, I have enough resources in contact now where I can make it happen. I'm not saying it's easy. Yeah, I can make it happen, but you know it's taking time to get to that point.

mitch:

Of course, yeah, so and so how the people who initially helped you had to have had some kind of had to learn what they knew some place they is. It just like the kind of knowledge that's just passed down from friend to friend and generation?

Mitzi:

to generation. A lot of trial and error. You know, one day I stopped and helped a dog and this is what worked Right. Sure, yeah, yeah. The only formalized, any kind of formalized training I got was once I got into this. Kat Thiessen offered a scholarship. Yeah, to rescue for the missing animal response network. Oh nice, yeah, yeah. Several of us did it. My one of my very best friends I trapped with. She and I did it together and we we, you know we got a lot more ideas off of that.

mitch:

Yeah, so yeah, those classes are nice and the network, you know that you get through. That is very helpful.

Mitzi:

Yeah, people don't know this world exists no. I it's so, so much I could say I don't know what to say. Yeah, people don't know this world exists. I don't know. Yeah, it's just it is. It's like an alternate universe in a way.

mitch:

Yeah, it is. It's very much unknown by the, the public, who don't do this specific kind of, even to me, even rescue friends of mine do not know about this kind of work as like a thing that people know and do and practice and you know?

Mitzi:

Yeah, because most all of these people are the type that think I'm going to see if the dog wants to go for a ride. You know you want to go for a ride, yeah, and those dogs jump in and they think I just caught a dog. Yeah Well, I wouldn't say you caught a dog, but yeah, you rescued one. Yeah.

Mitzi:

But, a lot of people think that boy goes way beyond that. So much, yeah, I've had so many dogs that have owners and they're scared to death and just won't come to them. Yeah, so you know it's. It's an alternate universe, is what I like to say. It is.

mitch:

Yeah, it's. It really requires ignoring your instincts. And the other thing I find, as happened with you in that initial case, is that people try everything they can think of and everything that you know. The Facebook people tell them to try before they enlist, before they go find out that there are professionals or decide that it's time to enlist the help, and that can be a real detriment if an animal is on the move, if an animal is injured, doesn't you know, can't fend for itself, whatever. So, yeah, I really hope that we can get the word out about and raise awareness of the fact that there are people with specific skills and knowledge and experience in these areas.

Mitzi:

I remember googling how to catch a hard to get dog. I remember googling that.

mitch:

I was at a total loss.

Mitzi:

Yeah, wow Total loss, yeah, and it didn't really yield any results, so yeah.

mitch:

Yeah, yeah, so you, you were telling me about a case that you had not too long ago. Was it this past Christmas?

Mitzi:

It was two Christmases ago. This this December, it will be three years.

mitch:

Okay, but can you tell me about that case, or any case would be great, but I just remember that one, that's my favorite.

Mitzi:

That's my favorite one. Cool Because that's there's two. There's three dogs that have changed my life. The first one was the one I told you about already. The second one was this one. That's when I knew I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. That's when I knew this was my path. Whether you believe in a God or not, I was being shown this. This is this dog. So it was. I didn't even know about the case. People about 20 minutes from me had been seeing flyers. This owner had been just wallpapering the east side of Oklahoma City with flyers about his missing English bulldog, darcy. Mr.

Mitzi:

Darcy oh my gosh, yeah. And somebody said, Mitzi, you ought to go try and find that dog. And so I said, well, all right, I called the guy Keith and the.

Mitzi:

What had happened was he had moved up to Oklahoma City from San Antonio no, from somewhere in Texas, and he'd only been here two days. He was staying with his brother and his brother did not have a fence Okay, and he was. He was forcing Keith to leave Darcy in the laundry room. He didn't want the dog in the house and he was only staying there while he waited on his house to close. Yeah, and out of. I believe, out of spite. That's my belief. Yeah, he let Darcy out.

Mitzi:

The brother On day two and he ran because he didn't know any. He didn't know where it was, didn't know where his dad was.

Mitzi:

No, he had been raised from a puppy by this man. So and um, so I started helping him. There was a dog found about a mile from where Darcy had been spotted. But this dog was the carbon-freaking copy of Darcy. Yeah, but it wasn't him, wow, and so I thought that must be who Keith has been seeing this dog, right? Mm-hmm, let's be honest, an English bulldog. Yeah, and I thought I'm not going to run far, well, not going to make it very long, yeah, yep, oh yeah. So it had snowed, it was wintertime and there was a stretch of I-40 at mile marker 161. I'll never forget it. I look at it every time I drive by. Darcy had been seen on the side of the interstate Anytime. There was roadkill like a deer, yeah. And I had told Keith if you see him again, do not yell his name. Yeah, do not run to him, yeah, don't. Well, he saw him, he did, he tripped and failed.

Mitzi:

Darcy took off. So he said I should have listened to you. I should have listened to you, and you know.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

So I met him there Not long after that.

Mitzi:

The snow melted in Oklahoma. You know, we have snow and then the next day at summer again, yeah, it all melts. So I met him and a friend of his in the woods at this mile marker, okay, and that I love, keith, I hope, if Keith hears this, sorry, but they wouldn't shut up, they were just yacking the two of them and there was a marijuana farm being put in and so they had graded the land out to plant, Okay, and there was a huge fence around where they were going to plant. Yeah, and I laugh now because I went and asked them if they had any cameras. They're probably going. Why are you asking that? Because I mean, I think it probably sounded. It sounded probably really shady, yeah, like you know breaking.

mitch:

We want to know where your cameras are, yeah, so I asked them to come, get your weed Right Cameras.

Mitzi:

So they said they didn't have any cameras and I showed them the flyer, told them what we were doing and they said I could walk around. So I sent Keith and his Yaki friend To go talk to the workers and I went by myself off into the woods. If you knew me before rescue you would laugh. I always had my nails done, my toes done. And I put my toe up so I don't have to walk around.

Mitzi:

Just look at the camera. I just put my toe up the window. My Kate's spade purses, yeah. And I went to the woods and all of a sudden, I'm Pocohontas. I'm looking for footprints. Yeah, don't even know why. I knew to do that, but I did yeah and I looked down and they were Everywhere.

mitch:

Oh my God, and those are pretty distinctive pop prints bulldogs, because their toes play so much most of the time and I had acquainted myself with what coyote prints look like.

Mitzi:

They're very narrow.

mitch:

Yeah, that's good.

Mitzi:

And so I mean I looked down and it was just like it's almost like they had been luminal and been sprayed on and they just all. I could see them all All of a sudden, and I'm like, oh my God, oh my God, you know, and they had pushed in, grading the land out, they had pushed trash and junk and limbs into these piles.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

And Darcy is white. Well, don't you know? All the trash was white, of course. There was a toilet, just everything white, yeah, and that comes to pass, comes back into play here in a minute. So I walked everywhere I walked, I went through a barbed wire fence because all of a sudden, now I go through barbed wire fences, I find his prints on all these little paths. So I didn't find them. But I came back the next day with one of my trapping partners. Her name's Claudia.

mitch:

Higna.

Mitzi:

She's German. I never really known anybody who's German, and all I can tell you is they're German.

mitch:

Yeah, a lot of people Very precise, oh yeah.

Mitzi:

She wants you to look at her. There you go, the teller. It looks good there. So she came back with me the next day and we came in from a different direction. We asked a property owner could we come in? That we think there's a lost dog behind your property. And so she led us briars everywhere, I mean we're stuck.

Mitzi:

But we found the prints again and we're coming through the other side of that same barbed wire fence and I look through the barbed wire fence where all that trash had been piled up and there he is laying there and I knew not to talk. I grabbed her arm and squeezed it and I pointed and he lifted his head and I had that photo. I took a photo right then he lifted his head and at first she said no, that's trash. And that's when he lifted his head then and I snapped a photo and I'm like I mean, how far away.

mitch:

How far away from him at that point, 30 feet, nice Wow.

Mitzi:

Yeah, so we come through the fence, he doesn't move. She's going to go towards him with a snappy snare, which is a tool we use. Yeah, but she did not take the snare and, as she's headed away from me, I'm trying to hand it to her and she doesn't see it and I'm trying not to talk. So she did not have the snappy snare. It would have ended if she had had it. Yeah.

Mitzi:

It would have ended then yeah, she tries to throw the leash over his head because she didn't have the snappy, yeah, and he took. That's when he stood up and turned around and started to run, and that's when my heart just fell into my stomach because he was a skeleton. His face didn't look like he had lost weight, but his body looked like he didn't have much longer to go.

mitch:

Wow.

Mitzi:

And we tried to find him. We found him one other time but we had to give up because it got dark and we got lost in the woods with no flashlight, because we weren't prepared. Yeah, so Keith had set up one of those retriever channels you can buy to put in the backyard as a means of trying to catch Darcy. He had set it up right by the side of the inner right inside the woods from the inner and this is at his brother's house or at his own house?

Mitzi:

Yeah, and this is about two miles from where brother lived.

mitch:

Darcy made it two miles. Oh, exciting, right, okay, wow.

Mitzi:

So he had set that kennel up and that comes into play in a minute. So he had bought a trap and he had put it out in not the right spot. So I went and got it and I went and sat at exactly where Darcy had been sitting.

Mitzi:

I put a blanket from their house in there and some food and we left. We didn't know what else to do, so we left. Yeah, and the next day was Christmas and I called Claudia that morning it was probably 730 and I said all right, so let's do our Christmas, you do your Christmas with your family. I think I can go out around too. She said I don't think we should wait, I think we need to go now.

Mitzi:

I said all right. So I got there first because I lived closer. I hiked into the woods again me formerly of Kate's Fade person. I turned the corner and he's sitting there and I just I think I said oh bleep, and I'm like, is he in the trap or is he next to it? Yeah, yeah, he was in it just sitting there looking at me. I was there, I was there and I was like, oh, I'm so skinny, so skinny yeah.

mitch:

And I ran to the trap again something.

Mitzi:

I would have never done Run. Yeah, I called, I didn't even call Keith.

mitch:

I called my mom oh, I'm so happy, yeah, and she's like what I said, don't see the trap. She's like is he, is he alive? And I said yes, I said I got to call Keith.

Mitzi:

Yeah, so I. I. I FaceTime Keith and I don't even have the camera at me. I turned it and had it looking at Darcy.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

He just come unglued.

mitch:

I would too.

Mitzi:

Yeah, I'm on my way. I'm on my way. Yeah, right, then Claudia and her wife walk up, get him out of the trap. We carry him and this is almost. This is probably three quarters of a mile into the woods. Yeah, we carry him out of the woods to that kennel, yeah, and we get in there and shut the door behind us. Yeah, because then we get stood him down Right, and that's why my hands were free.

Mitzi:

Usually they're not free after a rescue oh yeah, so my hands were free and I was able to record. Yeah, I recorded Keith running up and it took Darcy probably five minutes to remember him. They don't remember you by your voice. They don't remember you by your face. It was after he smelled him for five minutes.

mitch:

Yeah, you can see the minute the light switch comes on, I mean those are the videos we have to share so that people understand Like they're not going to recognize you.

Mitzi:

It might be your dog. Yep, yeah. It might be your dog and it might have been your dog for five years, 10 years.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

But the fight or flight mode switch and it's off. It is off.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

It's off.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

And so it took him five minutes to remember him. But, I don't even know how an English Bulldog made it in the woods there's no explanation for it.

mitch:

No, two miles, yeah, yeah.

Mitzi:

Yeah, and Darcy knows who I am. He doesn't. He acts different with me than he said he does with anybody. Yeah, and they're friends. They're friends now. Yeah, I've went and dogs sat Darcy for him before.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

As time goes by, we don't talk near as often as much as I'd like, but he, that dog, changed my life. It changed my life. It's what took this from being just a hobby to what I do. It's what got me in my nonprofit certification. Yeah, it just changed my life. Yeah, wow, yep.

mitch:

It's a great story.

Mitzi:

And then the third dog that changed my life is a wolf-hound doodle mix. Wow, I named him Joe, yeah, because that's what he looked like. Yeah, I had caught a dog. I had went to this place and got a doodle mix before I got called out because there was another doodle mix. Long story short, I ended up getting three dogs that came from the same property A year and a half apart, spaced out across that year and a half, not knowing until the third dog they'd all come from the same person. Wow, yeah, you can't even make this stuff up. But I got to the house they said the people had moved. This is at the point where I don't yet know this dog has anything to do with the first one. Six months before, yeah, they said they'd moved. They left everything. It's like they picked up and vanished into thin air. They left the kids, toys, clothes.

mitch:

Whoa.

Mitzi:

Yeah, and they're so nice they left the front window open. Oh my god, joe could go in and out of the house and Madda does not the word. You know how these doodles get. Yeah, with the ever grown and we got there and he stuck his head out the window and that's the moment Joe changed my life, Because I cheated on my husband with Joe. I'll tell you that in a minute. I don't know what to tell you. Some dogs all dogs have a soul. Yeah, but some dogs it's like there's a person in there.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

And it's not a dog.

mitch:

Yeah you, just that attachment is different.

Mitzi:

And Joe is a person. He stuck his head out. He didn't want to come out for my Vienna sausage so I went to him. Couldn't quite reach it, he come out. Yeah, Couldn't quite reach the next one. Five minutes later the smelly 100 pound dog is my new best friend and yeah, so had him groom the next morning.

mitch:

Took five hours, oh my god.

Mitzi:

Not surprising. Geez, yeah, scanning for a chip and I don't know. In the back of my mind something was already working. So I called the chip in and before the words even came out of the girl's mouth, I knew she was going to say it was chipped by the same clinic as the doodle I'd gotten six months before. Wow, because I was in the same vicinity, I could see where I'd gotten the first one. Wow. So it wasn't registered, but it was at the same clinic and that's who lived at that house. I looked and saw it was the same person. She was a vet tech. She was a vet tech. The first doodle I'd rescued had a broken jaw that somebody had tried to fix with a zip tie. Oh my god, the vet said, although it's a zip tie they used and it didn't hold. They did halfway know what they were doing.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

Well, who would know what they were doing?

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

The vet tech.

mitch:

Right.

Mitzi:

So anyway I got Joe, and my husband is a truck driver and he had a strict no fosters rule Because we have six dogs, wow. And when Brian was on the road, joe was at my house. Yeah, when Brian would come home for a few days, joe would go to my best friend's house. This probably went on for three or four months.

mitch:

So I decided.

Mitzi:

If I ever write a book, it's going to be a cheat on my husband with a doodle mix.

mitch:

Yeah, and yeah.

Mitzi:

So I was not in a position to keep Joe, so I did the next best thing I adopted him out to my sister and her husband and their three kids. There you go, and everybody in the family loves Joe. There's no dog like him in the world. I promise you.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

I don't even like doodles. Yeah, they're just too much. Yeah, but Joe is not. Joe is a person in there and he's probably about 130 pounds now. He's huge. Wow.

Mitzi:

Every time I go out there, though, I get a little thrill of delight because he thinks he's going home with me, even though he loves them. So he changed my life, not because it was a spectacular rescue, but it's hard to explain Joe. Yeah, somebody should write a children's book about Joe. He's one in a million. You should, he's one in a million, I promise you he is he actually still needs a hip surgery.

Mitzi:

He needs an FHO, which is ephemeral head ostectomy. Ok, ball in his hip socket is cracked from being hit by a car and we've just never had the funds in the rescue to have it done. Yeah, so he still needs to have it done. Yeah, but he's happy, he's very happy. Good, and I laugh because apparently his name was Grizzly before and I'm like his name is Joe.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

Look at his face, it's Joe, joe, so yeah, so anyway, but no, he's just. And then about nine months later I was called back to that same house to catch a German wire haired pointer. That dog had been there the whole time but it had ran off and I didn't know it was there. So the national rescue for German short hair and wire haired pointers called yeah yeah, and they gave me the address and I was very busy at the time, and about 10 minutes later I'm like wait a minute, what was the address?

Mitzi:

You know, I'm like son of a bitch. That's the same house, oh my god. So when the dog wanted, he wanted you could tell so bad, he wanted to come with me. But he was just scared. Yeah, so I set up. I went into the house, shut every door, yeah, did a trail of food from the window that they used all the way to the laundry room. There's no way to beat me. I put a trail camera on it. That was live.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

And when he got all the way back there to start eating the food, I came up from the front and blocked the window, shut and leashed him up. He acted like we knew each other already.

mitch:

Oh my god, and that was the last dog.

Mitzi:

I got out of the house. All three dogs came from the same person and so she had me ended. All three dogs.

mitch:

Your theory is that she took these dogs home from the clinic, or, like, found them and decided to treat them herself and then evacuated without them, just like left, Probably due to owe and money to people something like that. Is there any chance that she was like a missing person or something Like she was? No.

Mitzi:

No, oh, here comes my Akita. Ok, she can't get out of the trap if she gets caught, so I'm not worried about it.

mitch:

Yeah, but exciting but no.

Mitzi:

No, they owed money is what we were told. They were staying in Grandma and Grandpa's homes One of them Grandma and Grandpa's homes, right. And they told us the people there said go in there and get everything you want. They're not coming back for anything.

mitch:

They owe money to people.

Mitzi:

So, we raided the place of blankets for rescue.

mitch:

Nice yeah. Blankets and towels.

Mitzi:

That's. All we're thinking about is blankets for dogs. So I don't know. I think she bred. I think she probably had a litter Bread or litter is usually. You only end up with males when people do that. And they take off when they get rid of all the females. So I don't know, but her loss is our gain, because we got Joe out of the view so.

mitch:

Yeah, wow, yeah. So and do you have just the rescue? So your recovery work, is that under the purview of the nonprofit now, or do?

Mitzi:

you still do that as an independent. Ok, well, I take that back. I don't ever charge anybody. Yeah, they all do want to donate. It's not required.

mitch:

That's nice though.

Mitzi:

Things are changing, though in some sense there are even more than has this on their page, certain things I probably could charge to support myself.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

But I haven't decided on that yet because I keep thinking. At the end of the day, all I think of is they're missing their family member. They want their family member back. I know I can get the family member back. I don't feel right charging anybody for it. I figure karma will pay me back for doing the right thing I'm sure that it's true.

Mitzi:

A lot of them have donated or bought equipment for me. That's really nice, yeah, but I don't know. I'm not to where. I want to charge anybody for anything. Yet If it was me and my dog, I don't know. Now I want to say I'm not a pet detective, I'm not going to. You need to know about where your dog has run off. To Right he does feeding station.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

I'm not a centurion here, yeah, yeah, but I can tell you where to look and that likely they're going to stay nearby and things like that. You know Right, but they do have to put in some effort on finding the dog. Yeah, they may not be able to catch it, but they need to put in some effort.

mitch:

Right, and do you typically take over the field work once you get to the point of setting the traps, or do they still go out and they reset?

Mitzi:

and all that. No, I take over at that point. Yeah, because the instinct is always going to take over on an owner.

mitch:

Yeah, and you know you won't do the wrong thing and I know I will yeah.

Mitzi:

So yeah, that's when I take over and whatnot. But I can give direction, definitely, on where to look. But I'm not going to be out there every day looking. You bear some responsibility as your family member.

mitch:

Yeah, so you can't expend that kind of energy for every case, or you would never have the kind of numbers that you do.

Mitzi:

Yeah, and as I said, we also do catch dogs for other rescues. Yeah, there's a boxer rescue here in Oklahoma called Redbird Boxer Rescue and there was a box for three hours from Oklahoma City, almost in Arkansas, in a place called Tallahena, which, incidentally, is where Bigfoot lives. I don't know if anybody knows this, I didn't. Bigfoot lives in Tallahena. We're making news. There's a big, exactly there's a Bigfoot Museum. That's where he lives. I had no idea. I love it.

Mitzi:

And so we went out there to catch this boxer, which was emaciated in the extreme and took us all day. I was not leaving without that boxer.

Mitzi:

Wow, I was not driving three hours, yeah, and coming home without the boxer. Because I knew me and my friend Aaron could catch it. That's why we even drove. I said we're the only ones going to be able to catch this dog, and I knew it. And the reason I'm telling you this story is because we followed him all over the place for a full day, and when I say that, that means he was walking, yeah, and he had a broken back, oh.

Mitzi:

Broken, hit by car, somebody just took it, it looked like somebody took it, snapped it in two, but he walks. He has feeling in all his legs. The doctor, the vet said he is a miracle.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

A miracle, he's put on probably 15, 20 pounds since we caught him.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

And I mean doesn't even look like the same dog. They did go for a consult just to see should they do anything. Yeah, but what I suspected to be the case is they feel like if they mess with it, they could go the other way, and that'd be it and my understanding of, at least with dogs and with cats.

mitch:

they're spinal systems a bit different from humans, so it would have to be.

mitch:

It isn't that they can regenerate the nerves or anything, but the way the cord is encased or something We've seen. Like I did physical therapy, transport for this beagle that was found. That was like found in a ditch and it was paralyzed in its back end and the physical therapists were telling me over time, as you do these exercises, if you take certain precautions, you don't just let them drag their hind end around, you keep them wheelchair or braced as much as you can, they can heal. They can actually heal and they can regain the ability to walk and continents and all that kind of stuff.

Mitzi:

But that's pretty amazing that he was out on the road. I mean, you should have seen my face when they called the next day and said his back is broken. I'm like, so what now? Wow, I'm like, no, no, it's not, Because we followed them all over the place and in fact, my friend Erin, my trapping partner Erin she's a little elfin-like woman and she's who goes under houses and into tin horns and she had followed him through this field of cows and she kept hiding behind big shrubs of tumbleweeds.

Mitzi:

And he's walking all over the place and meanwhile these cows are coming up to her looking at her. Like what? The who? Are you but the x-ray? If you see this guy's x-ray, it is wild. It is wild, so just crazy. But that's fantastic, yeah. And now they're asking us to come catch another dog out there.

mitch:

Yeah, three hours away, you've got to start training some people up.

Mitzi:

Listen, people say they want to do this. Yeah, no, you're right. And then I'll say we're going to go trap a dog, but the dog only comes out to eat it two in the morning.

mitch:

Oh yeah.

Mitzi:

I can't do that.

mitch:

I'll wait for another case I love steakouts.

Mitzi:

I'll wait all night. I don't care. Yeah, I kind of go.

mitch:

baseball players are superstitious Like you know the words, they wonder, with the saw. I'm one of those.

Mitzi:

My superstition is this you know I want to close my eyes for about 15 minutes because I'm really tired. I've been here all night and that's usually when the dog appears, because that is what happened with the first dog I ever got in a messy trap. I told the owner I'm going to close my eyes, grab my arm if she shows up, because it was getting to the end of her time frame where she showed up. And she did. The dog showed up, so I'm a little superstitious now.

mitch:

Yeah, I couldn't understand that. And so does your shelter or your rescue have a facility where you house dogs until OK, so it's really just one.

Mitzi:

That is the goal. That is the goal I'm actually looking at trying to put together a business plan and get an investor to purchase a boarding and doggy daycare facility. That's very smart. The one I'm looking at the back is already set up. Oh, the key is going towards the trap. Hold on, please just go in and listen. I haven't had breakfast, dog.

mitch:

Just go in and where are you Describe where you are right now?

Mitzi:

I'm in Oklahoma City.

mitch:

But I mean like in someone's yard.

Mitzi:

Oh, in a neighborhood, yeah, in a neighborhood. Ok, hold on. Wow, hold on a minute. Hey, walk her over to the trap with the food. This lady's got a rapport going with this dog and another dog and it turns out I caught another dog for her two years ago that I didn't even remember until I got here.

mitch:

I thought I remember you.

Mitzi:

No, this is an Akita and the Akita rescue reached out about it. They're kind of a different dog, Akitas.

mitch:

They are yeah.

Mitzi:

I've been told they will forget their owner within a half hour of being separated from them.

mitch:

Wow.

Mitzi:

Like that bond is like not there anymore. They're very independent.

mitch:

That sounds kind of like a livestock guarding dog. Characteristic. The human animal bond is different from or can be different from what it is with other kinds of pet dogs.

Mitzi:

Sometimes you can get a dog to go into a trap, because if it's with another dog there's food, jealousy and they're like oh no, they're not getting that we like to use a magnet dog sometimes. So yeah, this one has. I've witnessed her and this dog she's running with having some closer moments.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

They've been mating in the middle of the street here.

mitch:

And we and yeah, we in Oklahoma City don't need any more dogs. Yeah.

Mitzi:

We are putting down Oklahoma City Animal Welfare, which is a large shelter. Put $54 down last Saturday $54. Wow, wow. Before that, the week before that, they put down $46. The shelter here is no longer a place for a lost dog to go.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

It is a duffel ground. We don't spay a neuter here. Oh my god, yeah, there's no mandatory spay neuter. If there was, there's no way to uphold it, because we only have three low cost clinics. Wow, and 621 square miles the vet's here charging $300 to fix your dog.

mitch:

Wow.

Mitzi:

And yeah, then there's also the redneck mentality, right? No, we're not going to cut my balls off. Well, they're not yours.

mitch:

Yeah, although maybe you could do with archers too.

Mitzi:

Sounds like you might be able to. Our dogs, our domestic pets, are under the same umbrella here as the farm and ag industry animals.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

And that's the problem.

mitch:

Yeah, yeah, the lobbyist Is that that was the case in Pennsylvania too. I'm too new to, which is where I just moved from. I'm too new to Vermont to know yet what the laws are here.

Mitzi:

But yeah, it really can't be her. This girl is petting that a keto in the head.

mitch:

Oh my god, Does she have a slip lead?

Mitzi:

No, but I have a snappy snare. But I can tell you right now it would RIP snappy snare if I use it, because you should be able to bite right through it.

mitch:

Yeah, yeah, they're a big power problem.

Mitzi:

I've lost many a snappy snare. We've talked about having a burial ground for our snappy snares. Truck partners. Rip and stick them in the ground. You know your lies a good snappy snare.

mitch:

Yeah, indeed. So when you do these trips and interrupting if you need to with a keto situation, but when you do these trips out to wherever, do you always take a partner with you, or is it usually just OK? That's smart. Yeah, that's nice.

Mitzi:

Yeah, we work well together. We all think it's something she didn't, or she'll think it's something I didn't, or a lot of times in fact. I told Aaron with this broken back boxer yeah, sounds like a movie broken back boxer, brokeback Mountain, broken back boxer I told her. I said because it was getting late, and I said I don't think we should leave. I said I think we're supposed to leave with this dog. She said that's what we're going to go with. We'll go with your instinct on it. So we work really well together.

mitch:

So that's awesome, that was really great, and so you've been doing this since 2016. I think you said oh, 2018.

Mitzi:

Five years. Five years feels like 50.

mitch:

It's very hard work. Do you have a number of dogs, cases you've worked or anything like that? How many dogs have you?

Mitzi:

brought in. I'm the worst at that because the dogs are my priority. I don't even think I don't have enough help, it's just not organized well enough. I need more volunteer, I need a better network, but I'm going to say at minimum 300, 400.

mitch:

Yeah, that is amazing. That's more than one a week basically. Yeah, that would be right yeah, wow. And do you have like a job other than this? You must have a job other than this. I did my did.

Mitzi:

I was a very bad employee because my phone was constantly blowing up with rescue. I got furloughed. When COVID happened, I started working from home, yeah. And so it got to the point where my husband went back driving a truck. He's a long haul driver.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

And that's pretty good money and it affords me the ability to do this full time.

mitch:

If I was working a job.

Mitzi:

I'd work less than this. Yeah yeah, this is full time, 24 seven it's, but I just don't have the heart to. If I know I can get the dog, I don't have the heart to not try.

mitch:

Yeah, so it sounds like you will stick with a case over. Well, you don't just go out and advise the owner and your dog, please don't go into the trap wrong dog. Oh God, I don't want the wrong dog to go in.

Mitzi:

I do. This dog does need to be caught this other dog Cause he's oh, they're wrong. Okay, yeah, but the Akita has rescued this other dog is a pit and unfortunately nobody wants him.

mitch:

That's not a good thing, no, especially not in.

Mitzi:

Oklahoma City.

mitch:

I saw a post in our local Facebook group this week. Someone had, you know, a litter of seven or eight pit mixes, whatever, and I just it was all I could do not to chime in and say you know, let me know when you're going to get the mom and dad, you know, spayed and neutered and you know, oh, I always chime in.

Mitzi:

What is it if you need spay neuter, when you need spay neuter assistance?

mitch:

Yeah. I mean, it's like of all the dogs that you're going to breed, those are the ones that I mean, at least in. You know it varies from region to region, but around here and where I was in Pennsylvania, it's just pits. Are the the population?

Mitzi:

Okay, but I have an idea. I have an idea, though. Bear with me Perms for pitties. Pitta make pittadoodles. Oh perms, oh God, we perms for pitties. Now we're going to give all the pit bulls perms.

mitch:

So they got curly hair.

Mitzi:

They have seal hair, and then there are pittadoodles, and everybody's going to want one.

mitch:

That's true, that's true.

Mitzi:

Give it a little. No, I'm being facetious because it's freaking ridiculous. I mean, here in Oklahoma City there's some rescues. If you're offered a doodle, you're like I, you know, I don't. No, I'm good, yeah, yeah.

mitch:

I'm good.

Mitzi:

And I had an Aussie doodle in rescue once. Yeah, I don't want to say I hated the dog, I don't.

mitch:

It's not the dog's fault. But yeah, no, I know what you mean.

Mitzi:

The worst dog, yeah. So yeah, just the worst, just the over overbreeding.

mitch:

And yeah, that's a topic for another episode sometime.

Mitzi:

Oh, that's a whole other thing.

mitch:

Yeah.

Mitzi:

Yeah, right there.

mitch:

It's maddening, All the breeding, spaying, neutering, all that stuff. It's just we're not going to adopt our way out of overpopulation, no we're not going to adopt our way out.

Mitzi:

At this point, unfortunately, the only thing that's really going to put a dent is euthanization. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean I like it, but it is what it is. It's not fair to have dogs sit in the shelter absolutely not for six months.

mitch:

Warehouse. I mean there are places that keep them for years, which fine, like if that's your jam and you can. That's not alive, though that's not rescue, no, I don't. I mean, I guess it depends on the facility. But yeah, I agree, I think that it's hard on a case by case basis, because that's, I mean, those are just the decisions you have to make. But when I see rescues just like pouring tens of thousands of dollars, in bedbills and boarding and whatever Boarding yeah, For an animal that has nowhere to go yeah, it maybe is not going to be adopted or whatever Like if there's no way to humanely and compassionately make that choice, but it's heartbreaking.

Mitzi:

I don't like the trend in rescue. If you are somebody that doesn't want a dog to live like that and you want to euthanize, we blackball each other and rescue for certain things.

mitch:

Very much.

Mitzi:

Yeah, but I think we forget what we're doing this for. Yeah, we're not doing this for how it makes us look or how it makes us feel, feel. Yeah, we're not doing it to make friends. Yeah, we're doing it so that that dog is living a good life, and we know it's living a good life.

mitch:

Yeah, you know, if it's not doing this, you're not doing it. The greater animal community, like that's the hard part is that we bond with animals on an individual basis and we treat them as they should be, as individuals. But the problem is a collective community problem of you know, and the whole like no kill. We're no kill here. So where do you think those animals go? If no one in this area, then you're just pushing the burden elsewhere geographically, which means that that shelter or that state has an overabundance of need for euthanasia or whatever Like there's just no place for all the animals to go. And if they won't, if people won't spay and neuter, it just keeps getting worse. Because multiplication, you know it's.

Mitzi:

I'm taking you on the go here. Oh cool, yeah, I know I saw. Let's sit down and see if we can get her to eat some of this wet food.

mitch:

Oh, I have a question when is blood? And dogs? I don't know, but she's got blood on her lip.

Mitzi:

Right.

mitch:

I don't know.

Mitzi:

Yeah, this is.

mitch:

You saw what I can do with that boy. That boy don't care about me, yeah.

Mitzi:

Is this her fur everywhere? Yes, that's her holding around OK.

mitch:

I don't.

Mitzi:

All over there. All right, let's get in the shade. All right, we're going to have to try and get this dog by hand here.

mitch:

Well, I would love to know how it goes.

Mitzi:

So can you?

mitch:

post it. It has been a pleasure talking with you. Thank you so much for your time and great luck with this dog.

Mitzi:

Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure as well.

mitch:

Thanks. Talk to you later. All right Bye. I'm so grateful for Mitzi for spending her time with me and I'm grateful for you, listener, for joining me today. No Place Like Home is a podcast about missing pets. I feature content from owners, finders, volunteers and professionals. I always appreciate a rating and review on your podcast app and a follow on Facebook, where you can find the show at NPLHmitch. That's N is in, no P is in place, l is in, like H is in home. Mitch MITCH. Find episodes, transcripts and additional information at noplacelikehomebuzzsproutcom. If you have questions or feedback, you can contact me at NPLHmitch at gmailcom. Remember to always think missing, not stray or dumped. This podcast was created, hosted, recorded and produced by me, mitch Bernard. The opinions expressed on this show are those of the people expressing them and do not necessarily represent the views of any other entity. Thanks for listening.

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