What It’s Really Like To Trap And Rescue A Scared Dog

And people call her about it all the time.

That trap helps catch stray and feral animals in the Phoenix, Arizona, area. From saving bunnies for her rabbit rescue to helping roosters, chickens and peacocks, “I’ll trap anything that needs help,” Bogart told The Dodo. For years, she’s worked tirelessly and relentlessly to help animals. She is a pro at trapping and will stop at nothing to rescue an animal off the streets or in the desert, giving up weekends, nights and lots of sleep.

The German shepherd was hanging out behind the family’s home on rough terrain for at least two weeks.Jess Cargill

When Bogart was contacted by Lidia Manov, another Phoenix-area rescuer who volunteers with Ohana Animal Rescue, in Tempe, Arizona, and other rescues, about a German shepherd in desperate need of being trapped, Bogart sprang into action to help.

Manov found out about the German shepherd in need on Jan. 29 after she saw a post on her Facebook feed shared by an acquaintance. She reached out and found out the dog was “literally two miles from where I live in Phoenix.” She contacted the homeowner, a woman named Cindy, who for two weeks was feeding the dog in their backyard, an area of rough mountainous terrain.

Cindy was trying to gain the dog’s trust. She told Manov that the very skittish female German shepherd would only come out in the morning between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. and in the evening from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. Manov then contacted Bogart about her trap.

When Lidia Manov approached the scene the morning after they set the trap, she found the dog in the trap.Lidia Manov

Cindy told Manov that the dog would eat the food she left and then go up the mountain and look down on her.

After gathering all the details and checking the grounds for the dog to no avail, “the first night I went there with a blanket and then left food,” Manov said. “The next morning Cindy told me it looked as if the dog had slept in the blanket.”

Arrangements had been made for Bogart to drop off her trap. “I know Lisa is above and beyond the best,” Manov said. “When you do this you kind of only get one shot so you want to do it with someone who knows what they are doing, and that’s Lisa.”

The dog was trapped, unsure and scared.Lidia Manov

They had to act quickly, as the area was experiencing cold, rainy weather conditions. “When you drop a trap you cannot really leave it there unattended,” Manov said. “It has to be tended to the whole time because you can mistakenly trap wild animals.” And when you trap the correct animal, he or she can get scared and very upset, thrash about and get hurt.

To make sure the dog was hungry when the trap was set, Cindy stopped putting out food a day before.

Since Manov was off from work on Tuesday and would be able to monitor the trap, it was set on Monday night, February 1 at 8:30 p.m.

The bait: A pre-cooked, hot rotisserie chicken.

The trap was set with a trail of the cooked chicken leading into the trap.

Just like in “Hansel & Gretel.”

They waited.

“We sat there until 11 p.m. Me, Lisa (Bogart) and Jess (Cindy’s daughter). It was so cold that night. I only lived two miles away so I came back every two hours after 11 to check the trap,” Manov said.

Nothing. Not one sign of the dog.

Manov’s last check was at 5:30 the next morning. “I knew she was hanging around somewhere, and I didn’t want her to smell me. I didn’t want to disturb her feeding place too much.”

With more chicken in one hand, and a Starbucks in the other, Manov came walking back to the site at 10:45 a.m.

Bingo!

The dog was in the trap. “She had just been trapped because she was eating the chicken,” Manov said.

But as soon as the dog saw Manov, she panicked. She would have escaped had the trap door not closed.

After she was trapped, the dog was frightened and barked a lot.Lidia Manov

The dog was scared and kept barking, “but she did not freak out like I expected her to,” Manov said. “I didn’t go up to her as I didn’t want to scare her. I went around the corner so she couldn’t see me and started calling everyone,” including Cindy to see if she could calm her down as she was the one who had been feeding her. Manov also called Bogart and Saving Paws Rescue, AZ as they agreed to take the dog into their rescue.

No one expected the dog to be trapped in the daytime.

It happened so quickly, Bogart said.

Manov carefully talked to the dog from about 30 feet away, waiting for her to calm down. She was finally able to approach and hand feed more chicken to the dog through the wires. She stayed with the dog the entire day.

When the dog calmed down, Manov approached and hand-fed her some chicken, which the dog took gently.Lidia Manov

Due to the size of the trap, Bogart put out a plea for volunteers to help carry the dog and trap down the rough terrain.

The team of volunteers loads up the dog, whom Manov named Krassi, into the truck to bring her to Saving Paws Rescue, AZ.Saving Paws Rescue, AZ

Michelle Forster, a Saving Paws volunteer, came out around 3:30 p.m. to wait with Manov, who named the dog Krassi (a nickname for her father, who loved German shepherds).

Around 5:30 p.m., a small group carried the dog down. Volunteers included Manov, Bogart, Forster, Cindy and Al (the homeowners) and Jim Price.

“We loaded her up, and I rode in the back with her to Saving Paws in Glendale,” Manov said. “As soon as we let her out, she did a couple rounds of sizing up the fence as if she was going to jump it several times.”

When Krassi first arrived at the Saving Paws facility, she was scared and sized up the area seemingly to make an escape.Saving Paws Rescue, AZ

They feared she would try to escape, so they quickly brought her to a kennel inside the facility.

Not long after Krassi entered Saving Paws, a couple visiting the rescue “fell in love with her and are willing to take on her case,” Forster said. So far, Krassi is doing well, and Manov expects to see the dog again when she goes along on a home visit with the Saving Paws team.

Krassi finally began to settle down when she was safe inside the Saving Paws facility.Saving Paws Rescue, AZ

“This was the perfect trapping,” Bogart said. It was that quick.

“Rescue is tough,” Manov said. “Some of the most heart-wrenching situations I have dealt with in my life have been in rescue, so when you get a win it makes all the heartbreaks, blood, sweat and tears worthwhile. It truly solidifies all the reasons why we do what we do! No, we can’t save them all. No, we can’t save the world. But we will damn try because for the ones we save, the world will change forever!”