Lost Dog Saved By Drone

By Amy Fernandez

It only takes a second. You get distracted and …bang, dog is gone. Suddenly you notice that tiny hole in the fence but it’s too late. This is a relatable experience that invariably takes years off your life.

Every dog owner knows the drill. Panicked search of the neighborhood, enlisting friends and neighbors, broadcasting the alarm on social media. Most of the time the renegade is spotted quickly, corralled and (after you’re done having ten heart attacks), you fix the damn hole in the fence and life goes on.

Then there are those other times. The Allens recently experienced that unwonderful experience when their Dachshund, Whiskey, committed the aforementioned crime by escaping from their backyard in Morriton, Arkansas and evaporating into the woods.

The thing with Dachshunds is that they are fast and stealthy. They are built to navigate dense, wooded areas and, in this case, Whiskey was a credit to his heritage.  The Allens were out there searching, calling and, of course, imagining the worst. That went on for four days. They also posted tons of alerts to social media. That helps to get the word out. In this case it also led them to Chris Laughlin, owner of Natural State Drone Solutions.

Drone Solutions usually does real estate surveys and similar stuff. So, lost dog search is not their normal line. This was a weird request. Laughlin admits that their desperation left no room for the convenient “hard no”.

On July 15, Laughlin’s drone was scanning the woods on the off chance that he would spot this needle in the haystack–because that’s a lot of territory. And here’s the miraculous part. The drone was buzzing around and against all odds he spotted the Dachshund. He not only spotted it, he had a real time view of a coyote waltzing off with a struggling Whiskey clamped in its jaws. He sent the drone down to spook the coyote. It dropped its giant hotdog dinner.  He notified the Allens and buzzed his drone around the dog to prevent a second attack until they arrived.

Whiskey was subsequently checked out by their vet.  All is good. Everyone is reunited AND they fixed the fence.

Short URL: https://dev.caninechronicle.com/?p=334233

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