Reunited - Alley the Golden Retriever is home!

A huge network of people from Simsbury and afar, Sunfire Golden Retrievers owners and family, friends and family of the Bonds and the Wollerts pulled together to bring Alley home after she bolted from home June 28.

A friend alerted me to Alley's being on the run and I reached out to the Wollerts to share my knowledge of missing pet behavior and recovery.  The team took off like a 4th of July rocket!  Posters, flyers, media sharing and word of mouth spread far and wide.  Then the calls of sightings from Simsbury neighbors began to come in.  Alley was out there and we had to get her back!

Alley had been in her new home less than 2 weeks and was unfamiliar with the area.  She was seen within a one mile radius of her new home several times.  Simsbury Animal Control Officer Mark Rudewicz helped us set a trap for Alley in an area she was sighted in.  Alley stayed around Hop Meadow Golf Course and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Barb posted to Facebook

"She was found because of the flyers. Facebook pages got people involved and connected, and the Sunfire group was able to stay in tune. But we needed people to call in with sightings, so she wasnt long gone before we were in the right spot. Not just flyers posted here and there, but we drove and walked through every legitimate call.

Saturday was perfect, because as we drove and walked, having received an 830am sighting, we handed out flyers to everyone we saw in the neighborhoods.

A flyer that Mike W. handed out to someone working in his yard at 930am resulted with the afternoon hot tip around 3pm. Mike B, and the pups just down the road, and Grace and husband Mike W. right there also, hanging another poster. Ammo and I had stayed at the base camp where she had been seen at 830am in a backyard. This was across the marshy woods area where Mike was just about ready to walk No Name (Alley's pup) in a field. We could hear each other, but it was thick and difficult, and we never would have found her in there.

Arriving at the home with the hot tip, the two Mikes and No Name went through the brush to the fancy house on the adjacent Private Road, and Grace drove their car around. The two Mike's went separate ways around the house and driveway, calling, whistling, looking.

At one area, No Name kept sniffing, alerting, and looking into the woods. Finally Mike saw Alley, standing in the woods a few feet away, he dropped to his knees, and called her and she came and jumped on him, and it was a pileup of love with Mike, No Name, and Grace, and Alley. By then Tim and Karen and Baxter had just returned by Ammo and I, and other searchers came right at the point where Grace called: "We have her!"--barb"

Posters and flyers get lost pets home.  Once people are aware of a missing pet, the calls come in.  Without the posters, flyers, Facebook, and dedicated people, Alley would probably still be out there on her great adventure!

If you would like more info about lost pet recovery, I invite you to join the Facebook Resource group Farmington Valley Lost Pet Recovery and Resources  group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/CTLOTDogSearchMgmt/ where I have listed valuable resources for pet owners that include:  Lost Pet Professionals, Missing Pet Partnership, Buddha Dog Rescue and Recovery and more.

To post a missing pet, join Farmington Valley Lost and Found Pets Recovery and Resources, LLC  group https://www.facebook.com/groups/lostdogfvct/

This group of people were fantastic to work with.  It was the best moment when I got to meet Alley!

Karen J. Moulton

Completed Missing Animal Recovery Technician Course – 10 week program on missing animal recovery best practices and techniques by Missing Pet Partnership and K9 Pet Trackers

Particpated in Missing Animal Recovery (MAR K9) Boot Camp – a 3-day dog training event designed to meet the training needs of beginner, intermediate, and advanced MAR attendees.

Former search and rescue dog handler in CT

Owner of

Secret Lake Dog Training, LLC

Farmington Valley Lost Pet Recovery, LLC