by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Angie Smith of Sauk Rapids is still hoping, no matter what, that Maggie comes home.
She’s been missing since Nov. 15 and all attempts to find her have been, so far, in vain.
Maggie is an 11-year-old chocolate lab retriever dog. She is one of three beloved dogs the Kevin and Angie Smith family own, all of them hunting dogs. There is also Abby, an 11-year-old yellow lab and Beau, a 2-year-old English springer spaniel.
On the afternoon of Nov. 15, both Abby and Maggie escaped under the Smiths’ garage door and ran off.
The Smiths have a fenced-in yard, connected to the garage so the dogs can go into the garage for shelter and warmth whenever they like. On the day they went missing, Angie got into the car in the garage and left, closing the garage door after her. But what Angie didn’t know, what she surmised later, is one of the dogs probably got in the way of the closing garage door, which stalled because of its safety mechanism, giving enough room for Maggie and Abby to dash off.
Later, when Angie returned home, she noticed the dogs were gone, and her heart sank. Her husband, at the time, was hunting with the third dog, Beau, in South Dakota.
Angie immediately got back into the car and drove around, desperately hoping to find both dogs. No luck. Back home she called the St. Cloud-based Tri-County Humane Society and Animal Control, based in Sauk Rapids. As it began to get darker and darker, four hours later, Angie was hugely relieved to see Abby returning home. She was sure Maggie would trot up any minute. It was not to be.
Later, Kevin and Beau returned from their hunting trip. Kevin was devastated to learn of Maggie’s disappearance.
The next day, she put “missing dog” notices in three local papers: the St. Cloud Times, the Sauk Rapids-Rice Herald and the Sauk Rapids-Rice Newsleader. With help from friends, the Smiths also posted at least 50 flyers in their rural neighborhood north of Sauk Rapids-Rice High School and asked neighbors door to door if they’d seen a chocolate lab. They heard there were some sightings of a dog matching Maggie’s description – a chocolate lab with red collar – in that area.
And then the agonizing waiting game began, day after day, night after night.
Three weeks later, Angie’s son, Spencer, called home from his college.
“Mom, do you think we’re ever going to see her again?”
At that, Angie’s heart began to break all over again.
“I can only imagine how parents must feel when they are missing a child,” Angie said. “It must be thousands of times worse than this.”
Eventually, Angie heard of a woman named Karen who lost a dog 12 years ago and who was so devastated she started an organization on using dogs to find dogs. Angie made some Internet and phone connections. She found out Karen had a colleague in Arkansas willing to come to Sauk Rapids in an effort to find Maggie. She brought with her five tracking dogs, plus her pet poodle.
Using the scent of Maggie swabbed up from a chair, the dogs during a weekend tracked Maggie’s scent along Mayhew Lake Road all the way up to 65th Street, but somewhere along there the scent was lost.
All involved were deeply disappointed.
Later, the Smiths received news that Maggie had been seen in the Rockwood Estates Mobile Home Park just south of Rice. The Smiths posted flyers in the Park, noting a $500 reward. They had rushed to Rockwood, but if the dog had been there it was gone by the time they arrived. There were at least two other sightings of a chocolate lab with a red collar in Rockwood, as recently as early January. The resident, who’d seen the flyer, called the Smiths. Again, there was no sight of the dog when they arrived.
Meantime, the Smiths continue to wait and to hope.
“I’m still hoping,” Angie said during a Jan. 5 interview with the Sauk Rapids-Rice Newsleader. “I’m not giving up hope.”
If anybody sees a chocolate lab roaming around, the best thing to do, Angie said, is to say in a coaxing, gentle voice, “Maggie, Maggie, here Maggie,” and then offer it some kind of food if possible. Then they should try to lure Maggie into a garage, home or other enclosure, then call the Smiths and/or the Tri-County Humane Society. The Smiths’ two numbers are 320-493-7359 and (cell) 320-309-4558. Their email is: Kevin.smith.1964@gmail.com
The Smiths have purchased a GPS tracking device for the collars of Abby and Beau so if they should ever leave home, they can be tracked via cell phones.
The best thing to do if someone finds any cat, dog or other lost, abandoned or runaway animal, Angie said, is to call the Tri-County Humane Society immediately, as well as Animal Control. Chances are, the owners of the lost pet have already contacted those agencies and will know how to contact those owners.
“Some people don’t want to bring found animals to the humane society for fear they’ll be euthanized, but the humane society has an excellent record of finding animals homes,” Angie said.
Besides that, if the animals are safe and sound in an animal shelter, chances are good owners looking for them will find them there sooner or later.
To check into getting a GPS tracking system for pets, go to www.thetrackr.com.
Maggie takes a break, with shade cap, during a hunting trip.
