Professional tracking dog joins search for missing Hamden retriever Local family has been looking for ‘Missy’ since August

Missy, a 2-year-old black lab; has been missing in the area of West Ridge State Park since August. Contributed Missy, a 2-year-old black lab; has been missing in the area of West Ridge State Park since August. Contributed Photo: Journal Register Co. Photo: Journal Register Co. Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Professional tracking dog joins search for missing Hamden retriever 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

HAMDEN >> The search for a young female Labrador retriever missing for almost seven weeks intensified this month as the dog’s family engaged the help of a professional animal tracker.

Missy, a 2-year-old black lab; escaped from the Merryfield Veterinary Hospital in Hamden on Aug. 13. The dog slipped out of her collar and ran away from a technician who had taken her outside the Shepherd Avenue clinic to collect a urine sample, the clinic’s owner, Cosar Adnan of Bethany, confirmed,

“The community and people in area helping as much as they can. Very responsive staff and local people that day, following day... It is our hopes and desires she is found. We wish Missy would be united and found by now.”

Through the hot days of August and the increasingly long nights of September, and now October, Missy’s owner, Mary Alice McSherry 61, of Cheshire, has tirelessly pushed to find her family’s dog.

McSherry immediately posted Missy’s loss on social media — grabbing the attention of local members of Connecticut’s Dog Gone Recovery network. McSherry said the volunteer group helped her design the eye-catching Lost Dog posters McSherry has placed on countless telephone poles on miles of roads through New Haven, Hamden, Woodbridge and Bethany. She especially targeted the borders of the Hamden section of West Rock Ridge State Park — where Missy has twice been spotted, once by a cyclist soon after she went missing, and the second time by a hiker in mid September.

DGR volunteer Kristen Johnson, of Hamden, said the unknown cyclist reported encountering a large black Labrador along the trail leading from Mountain Road to Wintergreen Lake in Hamden soon after Missy ran away from the animal hospital. Then, on Sept. 15, a hiker told the group he saw a lone Labrador resting on the same stretch of trail — before she got up and darted into the foliage.

Why would a tired and hungry dog, so loved and so close to rescue, bolt back into the woods?

“She’s shifted into survival mode,” said Dog Gone Recovery team leader Carol Ferrucci, of Meriden. “She’s focused solely on staying alive, staying safe. At this point, anyone calling her, coming at her through the woods, is perceived as a predator, even her owner. The only way to get her back now is to trap her.”

That learned observation combined with the vividness of the September sighting, encouraged McSherry to put a sniffer dog on her errant pup’s trail.

“I was reluctant to take the job, to give the family false hope,” said Jamie Genereux, a trailing dog specialist who runs Packleader PetTrackers, a Rhode Island-based missing pet search team.

“I told them it’s been too much time since the dog went missing. Lucky for us there was enough scent there to send us in the right direction,” he said.

When Genereux says “us,” he means he and his 5-year-old American Field Trial Standard Labrador, Dexter.

“He’s solid muscle,” observed Genereux. “There’s 75 pounds of power in that dog.”

Power and agility, backed by Genereux’s 20 years experience training and trailing scent dogs — and a hint from the hiker, Pat Destitoo, 63, of Hamden, who had made the Sept. 15 sighting.

“My wife Ann and I have two dogs. This family’s story touches our hearts.,” Destito said, “We’ve been keeping an eye out for Missy ever since we saw the posters. Since we live near the park, we started hiking every chance we could. That particular evening we spotted a black lab lying on a patch of green grass, 30 yards from where we stood. She was there … then she got up and bolted back into the woods.”

Energized by the sighting, the couple called and befriended McSherry. They joined DGR’s tireless searches along the trails, helping Johnson, Adams and Ferrucci monitor the wilderness cameras they’d mounted, taking turns checking the dog and water bowls they’d set out for signs of activity, even keeping tabs on an earlier trap so hopefully baited with Missy’s blanket and dog biscuits. All that hopeful energy with no dog to show for their efforts – just blurred camera images of the occasional coyote and even a porcupine snacking on Missy’s kibble.

Then on Sept. 29, Pat Destito guided Genereux to the exact place he’d seen a lab resting on the trail. He explained what happened after the tracker gave Dexter her favorite soccer ball. “His dog pressed his nose to the ball and took off through woods. It was impressive.”

“We heard something in the woods just ahead of us,” said Genereux, who had followed his dog for 3½ hours through heavy brush. “Dexter found several of her scent trails from two different sites, but there’s no way of knowing how old they are.”

Even so, encouraged by Dexter’s intensity and excitement, McSherry decided Genereux should give the trail dog another chance. That second, Oct. 1 tracking session yielded similar results. “We know the direction she went,” said Generux, “now it’s a matter of discovering how far.”

How far through the park’s 1,722 acres of sprawling wilderness, including creeks, ponds, and lakes; rocky slopes and thorny forest, populated by plentiful small game but also coyotes, is a guess Genereux and Ferrucci consider the coyotes too smart to risk tangling with a dog as large as Missy.

With each tracking session costing $100 an hour, plus traveling expenses, McSherry took Genereux’s advice to concentrate on placing cameras, motion detectors and feeding stations in the areas Dexter honed in on.

Genereux heartily echoed Ferrucci’s earlier observation: “A dog in this situation is living like a coyote or fox. If something’s coming: run. We need to confine her in the safe space she’s made for herself, to track her to the best place to set the trap.”

Toward that goal, Genereux continues to text and advise Destito, conferring with him as they interpret the electronic information they capture. “All we need is a clear image,” said Destito, who happens to be a self-employed software data manager. “One clear image - then the tracker will return and show us the best way to camouflage and bait a suitable trap.”

McSherry and Destito are not giving up.

“Missy’s a lab,” Destito said, “a dog bred to deal with wildlife. I trust what Dexter sensed. And I trust the interactions I’ve had with other people on the trail, hundreds of hiker(s) and cyclists who, almost to a person say they’re also looking for Missy, that she’s in their prayers.”

“My gut also tells me not to blindly believe she’s alive, but my heart says she is, that she has a strong will to survive,” he said.

McSherry’s determination is as strong, because, after seven weeks of social media footwork and countless dawn and dusk walks, there she was again, standing at the edge of the Red Trail, gazing into the woods. “I never thought it’d come to this,” she said. “I thought I’d have her back by now. I just want her home.”

To learn more Dog Gone Recovery, contact: Carol Ferrucci at CFerrucci@aim.com . Find Digger and his canine colleagues at work at http://www.packleaderpettrackers.com/