Waldport community, sheriff’s animal control officers unite to locate and capture “Meru,” the runaway German shepherd

 

By JORDAN ESSOE/YachatsNews.com

WALDPORT – After 66 days, Meru is home.

The three-year-old white German shepherd disappeared in March after being attacked and chased by a pit bull at Governor Patterson state recreation site. The dog then wandered the chilly coastal landscape by herself for more than two months as her out-of-town owner and a large team of locals rallied to find her.

Finally, after patient searching and trap-setting, Meru was safely captured Wednesday. She is a little underweight, but otherwise seemingly unharmed and back home in Molalla with her owner, Emily Blue.

“I’ve never come across a situation like this, for this much time,” said Irene Bailey, a Lincoln County Sheriff’s animal services deputy. In her experience, missing pets that have been safely recovered were usually returned home within three or four days. Maybe a week at most.

This success story is principally due to the efforts of Bailey, Deputy Zach Akin, and Waldport residents Carol and Ron Clifford – and numerous exchanges of possible sightings and offers of assistance developed on the Waldport Community Facebook page.

“The whole of Waldport was looking. It wasn’t just us,” said Ron Clifford. “It was a whole city effort.”

Blue and her partner, Scott, have been taking weekend trips to south Lincoln County for 20 years and always bring their dogs.

They were on the beach at Governor Patterson park just south of Waldport the afternoon of March 6 with Meru and Ojo, a 6-year-old fox terrier. Another visitor in the area had a large pit bull. All the dogs were off their leashes, and the pit bull attacked Meru.

Terrified, Meru wrestled away and ran. The pit bull next jumped on the significantly smaller Ojo, bloodying her with multiple puncture wounds. The pit bull’s owner finally helped separate the dogs, and everyone agreed to go their separate ways. But Blue didn’t know where Meru was. The German shepherd was nowhere in sight, and she wasn’t coming when called.

Ojo had to be taken to a doctor. But it was late on a Sunday and the nearest open emergency veterinary hospital was in Corvallis, an hour and a half away.

A witness told Blue they saw a white dog cross the highway and head toward downtown Waldport. Blue and her partner drove around the immediate neighborhoods looking for Meru and asking anyone on the street if she had been spotted.

This is how Blue met the Cliffords, who were taking their evening walk.

Carol Clifford gave Blue her word that she would keep an eye out for Meru. She meant it. Slightly frantic and without further clues, Blue left for Corvallis to get medical treatment for Ojo.

“It was the hardest day of my life,” said Blue.

The next day Blue called Lincoln County animal services and connected with Bailey, who took an immediate and personal interest in finding Meru.

There weren’t any leads for at least a week. Then there were some sightings in the backyards of homes on Northeast Waldport Heights Drive, a road on the east side of Lint Slough.

While Bailey wasn’t sure how Meru could have crossed the slough, she set a cage with a trap door in one of the backyards where she had reportedly been seen.

Meru didn’t return to that area – the first mirage in a long string of misdirection and redirection. There were reports of Meru near the water, so Bailey and Akin next reset the trap in the muddy periphery of the slough.

The two deputies are animal lovers, and were often both putting in private time to maintain the search.

It was discouraging when a week would go by without a sign of Meru. Once she was gone for two weeks, there was an increasing likelihood she was dead. Bailey worried about other predators, but she also worried about lack of food and the frigid, wet weather.

The search was re-energized when Bailey was crossing the Alsea Bay Bridge with her husband when they spotted Meru along the river below.

Blue was coming back and forth from Molalla as often as she could, and the hunt for Meru was becoming such an overpowering preoccupation that she had to stop working. Twice during this time Blue thought she saw Meru in the distance. She called for her, but the shepherd didn’t come.

“She was obviously very afraid and/or reverting back to wild animal behaviors,” said Bailey. If that was allowed to fully set in, “she might never come back.”

There were other reported sightings, one on the west side of the slough and others around Northeast Crestline Drive.

Lots of people were putting out food for Meru, especially the Cliffords, who eventually adopted a pattern of leaving food out for Meru twice a day.

Bailey tracked Meru’s prints in the mud by a trail near the Waldport wastewater treatment plant and identified a good spot to reset the trap a final time. It was somewhat secluded and felt like an environment they could control – as long as Meru kept frequenting the area.

On Saturday, following Bailey’s advice, the Cliffords placed the cage with its door fastened closed, in hopes that Meru would get used to its presence without suspicion. At Bailey’s urging, they also installed two trail cameras to make sure it was Meru eating the food, not raccoons.

Every afternoon they left food at 3 p.m. and the video footage confirmed Meru’s daily arrival at around 4:45 p.m.

Bailey thought Meru’s reintroduction to homelife would be aided if scents from home were introduced. Blue brought toys and blankets. On video, they caught Meru playing with the toys.

But the trap wouldn’t work if she didn’t go all the way inside.

On Sunday they put the food in deeper, directly on the plate that would trigger the door. Meru went to it.

They waited one more day to try to cement Meru’s trust in the safety of the cage, and Tuesday set the trap to spring shut.

That evening, the Cliffords checked the cage at 7 o’clock expecting to find a securely captured Meru. She wasn’t there and her food was untouched. They went to bed heartbroken.

“It’s not going to work,” Carol Clifford said they thought. “She’s onto us. She’s too smart for us.”

That night, Blue could barely sleep, and at 3 a.m. woke with a premonition that Meru was in the cage. She left Molalla before dawn and arrived at the cage at 7 a.m.

And there was Meru.

Overjoyed, Blue immediately contacted Bailey. She advised Blue not to open the cage in the wooded area for fear the dog might bolt again.

The Cliffords helped Blue and her partner load the caged Meru into their truck and an official reunion took place in their garage. Almost instantly Meru seemed like her old self.

Blue said she plans to take Meru to the vet next week for a full exam, but “You could just tell she was okay.”

Ron Clifford said their daily efforts were “out of the kindness in their hearts.” And without Bailey’s compassion and skills, the shepherd may not have been recaptured at all.

“[Bailey] really went above and beyond,” said Sara Wynveen, the county’s animal shelter manager. “She worked both on and off the clock, and without her expertise, it would have been different.”

Different, and maybe without the happy ending.

After all her efforts, Bailey was working on a different assignment and was not be able to directly participate in Meru’s homecoming – and still hasn’t met the runaway dog. Blue said she will be in touch next time she and Meru come to town.

“You love animals, and you want to see that reunion,” said Bailey. “It’s just overwhelming and emotional. It makes you as happy as if it was your own pet.”

• Jordan Essoe is a Waldport-based freelance writer who can be reached at alseajournal@gmail.com

To see a trail camera video of Meru checking out the cage, go here