Two dogs missing since running away from a crash on Interstate 270 last month have been reunited with their owner.
Brian Shelton of North Carolina was driving north on I-270 to visit his parents in New York with his two dogs, Ena and Caleb, when he was involved in a crash Dec. 28 near the Comus Road overpass.
When a bystander opened his door to check on him, the two dogs ran off down the highway, Shelton said.
Ena was missing until Sunday, when she was discovered around 11 a.m. on Frederick Road in Clarksburg, Maryland. Caleb was found around 5 p.m.
“It’s the best feeling ever,” said Carmen Brothers, director of Lost Animal Resource Group, the organization that has been searching for the dogs. “I mean, you just can’t describe it. It’s wonderful.”
It was a combination of help from various members of the community, the Lost Animal Resource Group and Professional Pet Trackers that helped to bring Ena and Caleb home.
“We had been getting sightings, we had traps in place, we had tracked there, we had been doing drone operating there, and we were able to use calming signals to get her to come to Brian, her owner,” Brothers said of Ena, before Caleb was found.
She added that it’s important to use calming signals when spotting a missing dog so as to not scare them off.
“Calming signals would be getting down on the ground in a nonthreatening position, baby talk in a really high pitched tone and that kind of thing,” Brothers said.
What can you do if your dog gets away?
If your dog is not within eyesight any longer, Brothers says that there are several important steps to take that could help them get back home:
- Contact help. The Lost Animals Resource Group is a volunteer-based East Coast organization that helps owners in the area.
- Put dirty laundry (socks, bath towels, sheets) outside as dogs utilize their sense of smell the most.
- Put up simple fliers with the picture of the dog and a phone number in a 2-to-5-mile radius from where the pet went missing.
- Do not scare away the dog if it’s spotted. Call for help or get down to the ground with treats and let it come to you.
WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report.
