Texas Pet Detectives Association

Tango found Leo back in January on a cold day in Highland Village. I was so worried about him when I looked at the satellite map of the neighborhood because they are smack in the middle of a wooded area near Lake Lewisville that is teeming with predators. Even his family was convinced that he would surely have been killed or died in the 10 days he'd been missing . They really just wanted to recover his body if possible . But once I pulled into the driveway I could see that there were plenty of hiding places for Leo to stay safe. I don't think we had been working 30 seconds when Tango stopped, pointed like a bird dog, and stared intently into the bushes near the open foundation of the lake house from which Leo had escaped. I followed her gaze and saw two golden eyes blinking back at me. Apparently Leo is quite the fighter and even his family didn't dare try to pick him up. So he had to be lured step by step into the house. Welcome home Leo!

If I ever get around to writing my book, guess the chapter title for this rescue would be "Who Pooped?" We had been searching the neighborhood for about an hour last week, trying to find Cookie, an indoor only flame point, who is said to be as friendly as he is beautiful. I was bringing search dog Buck back to the car to get a drink of water before continuing when I noticed that the neighbors across the street, two big Burly dudes, were crouching around in their garage, looking under the car that was parked there. I was working up to asking if I could search the garage by asking if their ring doorbell had maybe picked up some video of Cookie as he scampered away two nights previous when suddenly my client, who was standing behind me, said "hey is that a cat under your car?" One of the guys answered "oh I don't know... we're trying to figure out who's been pooping in the garage." Sure enough the culprit was our target Cookie, who found himself a safe place to hang out until David could find him. Most cats who are hiding do not need to go to the bathroom for several days, but this isn't the first time that the missing cat's droppings have been the thing to help us find them.

Woohoo! Yuki is home! Tango did an incredible job of air-scenting Yuki from nearly 100 feet away. If you watch the video you can see where we were standing when Tango picked up his scent. Getting to the spot where the cat was a whole other project. And I have to admit it was not the prettiest recovery. But we got Yuki home safe and sound.