Ula's Topeka Adventure

...Or What Can Happen if Your Whippet Gets Loose.

A highly anticipated road trip to Topeka, Kansas, from our home in Ontario, Canada, to attend the American Whippet Club National Specialty took a dramatic and unexpected turn for the worse when my 10-1/2 month old puppy, “Ula,” was startled by someone who loudly banged their rear car seat flat down under the portico of the hotel entrance, just as we were steps away from entering the lobby after our bedtime walk at 10:30 pm on Tuesday evening, April 11.​

​​I could feel Ula backing up in alarm and I dropped my hand to release the pressure on her lead, but to no avail as she bucked and twisted free of her martingale collar and bolted at high speed across the hotel parking lot and out onto the busy avenue! I thrust the lead of my other Whippet, “Triss,” into the hands of a gentleman (unknown to me at that moment, but later identified to me as Ray Johnson) who was unloading dog equipment from his vehicle, pleading with him to “hold my dog” while I and several others who witnessed Ula’s escape, ran after her in desperate pursuit to cries of “Loose dog!  Loose dog!” and me frantically calling her name in a futile attempt to stop her. Ironically, Ula had been BAER hearing tested that morning with clear results, but as we have all heard, and as I now personally know, the Whippet Feral Switch had been flipped to the “On” position and she was in full flight mode with nothing filtering through those perfectly tested ears!

After a large loop back onto the far end of the hotel/convention centre property, twice running across the busy avenue, she disappeared from sight into the surrounding neighbourhood, gone into the night!  Word had quickly spread about Ula’s disappearance, and searchers came out to scour the area by foot, by golf cart, and by car, with local neighbours pointing out which direction they had seen her run.  It was dark, the neighbourhood was scary (imagine: pitbulls, drugs, and guns!), and it was like looking for a needle in a haystack, in the dark. After two hours of searching, realizing that Ula could be anywhere and that there was little more we could do that night, my roommate, Jane Handschumaker (who had previously retrieved Triss from Ray Johnson) and I returned to our room and lay down, but neither of us slept much at all, worrying over Ula’s whereabouts and fate.

Wednesday, April 12

After a fitful night, I went to the hotel lobby early the next morning, feeling completely overwhelmed, and at a complete loss….What to do??  I had no idea what to do first, or at all. Call the police?  Animal Control?  The Roads Department?  I felt like I was spinning in circles, but paralized by helplessness at the same time – I had no idea where to start.  There is an Angel on Earth by the name of Julie Poole, known to us all for her beautiful Aperture Whippets.  Julie is a social media master who, by 8:30 a.m., had found and posted on numerous Facebook groups such as the neighbourhood and Lost Pet groups as well as the Topeka Police Scanner group.  She had even scoured my Facebook history and found a photo of Ula, using the image to create a Lost Dog flyer ready to be printed and used to poster neighbourhoods.

I wandered the grounds around the hotel, still unsure what to do, but watching for Ula in the hopes that she may have returned to the hotel area overnight, when I stopped to chat with Lynn Mitchell at her motorhome.  At that moment, my cell phone rang.  It was the Topeka Police Department.  They had a sighting of Ula!!  Lynn immediately told me to jump in her van – “Let’s go!”  We drove to the area where Ula had been sighted, about 5 miles from the hotel, and an Animal Control officer was waiting to show us where Ula had been seen.  Suddenly, we saw her!!  She was running, still at full speed, down the middle of a (thankfully) quiet residential street.  Lynn followed her as closely as she could safely do, and I was calling Ula’s name out the van window, but she never turned her head or even flicked an ear to acknowledge that she heard us, even though we were only fifteen feet behind her!  She was still on the run!

Frustratingly, Ula cut through a property where we could not follow in the van, and we lost sight of her.  My heart was in my mouth, and my mind was screaming, “Is that the last time I will see Ula alive?”  This was a constant, prevailing fear over the entire time Ula was missing, as there were busy, city roadways and the I-70 interstate within easy range for a dog on the run.  A minute later, my cell phone rang.  It was the Animal Control officer, who reported that he had just seen Ula heading towards Memorial Park Cemetery.  As we drove towards that location, I checked my phone, which was blowing up with messages and texts from so many well-wishers offering their support and assistance.  Although I could not answer everyone, as we were focussed on spotting Ula again, I had to check every “ping” in case it was a sighting report.  Just knowing others were thinking of me and Ula was a comfort in itself, and I am grateful to everyone who reached out.

One of the messages I received was from an animal trapper, Amy Kenney Coon of Topeka Lawrence Dog Trappers, offering her help to find Ula.  I called Amy immediately, prepared to pay any price for her help in locating and hopefully bringing Ula back to me.  Amy was so gracious and calm, reassuring me that her services, and those of the group of people she will call upon to assist, are completely voluntary.  Amy mentioned that one of her counterparts, Stephanie Avila of New Leash on Life Dog Training and Lost Pet Tracking had a tracking Bloodhound, who could be brought in once we could pinpoint an area where Ula had been sighted; she assured me that runaway dogs almost always will settle into an area after a day or two of running, so we just had to wait for more sightings.  While Lynn and I were driving through the Cemetery, we received word that Ula had been sighted at an adjacent property, the Midland Hospice Care Centre.  Both of these properties were quiet and isolated, removed from populated neighbourhoods and city traffic, and I was encouraged that Ula would find a safe harbour there, although we did not see her ourselves when searching.​

As there was nothing further that could be done, Lynn and I returned to the hotel so Lynn could tend to her dogs and participate in their classes, but feeling that I needed to do something, anything, Jane and I returned to the neighbourhood, driving the streets and stopping to ask people if they had seen Ula.  It was a fruitless and discouraging afternoon, although, thanks to the efforts of two Whippet owners from afar, Candice Gore and Angie Diehl, the local TV station contacted me and came out to film a news report about Ula’s disappearance, which aired that night, providing greater exposure and reaching a much larger Topeka audience.

​Jane and I spent some of Wednesday evening watching the dog show’s competitions.  Competitors and spectators alike, almost every person I passed in the ballroom and hotel hallways, stopped to enquire about Ula and offer their support and wishes for her safe return.  Dishearteningly, all I could say was, “No, there is no news and there have been no further sightings tonight.”  Two people, through the evening, approached me and encouraged me to contact a lady by the name of Susan Hoke, a psychic who had been instrumental in finding several lost dogs, including Whippets.  I thanked them and made a note of her number.  At this point, I was considering any and all options to find Ula, but as it was late at night, and unsure how I felt about using a psychic, decided to sleep on it.

Thursday, April 13

On Thursday morning, “Trapper Amy” (as I had saved her in my phone contacts) put me in touch with Julie Hoffman, a former Topeka Police Department K9 handler, who could work with Stephanie’s Bloodhound.  Julie had arranged to have Lost Dog flyers made up so that the neighbourhoods where Ula was seen could be postered, providing instructions not to chase, but call in any sightings.  She explained that it was critical that people not call out to Ula to try to catch her, as this will only push a dog farther away from an area where it may have settled, once it is in a feral mode.  Julie arranged to meet Jane and I that afternoon, with Triss, and Jane’s Whippet, Kelvin, so that we could lay a familiar scent trail behind the grounds of Midland Hospice for Ula to find, and hopefully keep her in that area.  Naively, I offered to take off my shoes in order to leave a better trail, but Julie assured me that a person’s skin cells constantly slough off, and this is enough for a dog to detect a familiar scent. “Tracker Julie” (as I named her), took us into the bush in the area surrounding the Hospice Care Centre, and after laying the scent trail, we gathered in the parking lot, where Stephanie Avila (“The Bloodhound Lady”) met us, along with Brooklyn Jordan and Trevor Schatilly, a young local couple who were in training to launch their own tracking/trapping service.  They soon left to poster the neighbourhood with Lost Dog flyers, and Jane and I remained in the parking lot with Triss and Kelvin, hopeful that Ula might make an appearance when no strangers were about.  When nothing happened, I looked at Jane and said, “I’m going to call the psychic; what have we got to lose?”

When Susan, who is located in Ohio, answered the phone, and I explained about Ula, she began to describe certain landmark features:  railway tracks leading into an older business area; tall grass growing on the south side of a creek or river; long, low beige buildings, some tanks, and a tower – not a tall tower, but lower to the ground, with a rounded top.  My heart breaking, I asked her if Ula wanted to come back to me, and Susan told me, “Yes, she does, but she needs a direction,” meaning, Ula did not know how to find her way.  She said that Ula was no longer running, but tired, and walking along the rail tracks.  At this point, Brooklyn and Trevor returned, and could hear Susan’s descriptions over my speaker phone.  I asked them if they knew of an area which fit Susan’s descriptions, and they said, “Yes! Not too far from here – just on the other side of the highway.”  Thinking of Ula traversing the I-70 brought me to tears, as undoubtedly, that would certainly be her death sentence, but we had to go look.  Jane and I jumped in my van and followed Trevor’s car.  Just a mile or two away, after passing under the I-70, Trevor pulled over to the side of the road.  We were stopped just outside the Kansas State Highway Patrol works yard.  As we looked around, I got goosebumps on my arms – there was a rail line leading into the industrial yard, a creek bordered by tall grass, several open, beige-roofed buildings where equipment was parked, propane storage tanks, and a concrete storage bunker with a domed roof!  It was after 5 pm and the yard was gated shut for the night, but we called for Ula in case she was trapped in the compound.  Sadly, we had no sightings.  Lynn Mitchell and I returned after dark to check again, driving slowly by the works yard and shining flashlights into the yard’s open buildings and corners to see if Ula may be hiding there.  A Kansas State Police officer rolled up to us, curious about our actions.  She had heard about Ula’s disappearance through police reports and the media, and helped us out by using her vehicle’s high-powered spotlight to search the yard once she heard what we were doing.  Still nothing.  Trapper Amy, however, had placed a feeding station and trail cam earlier in the evening back on the grounds of the Midland Hospice Care Centre, based on earlier sightings, so we held out hope that Ula may return to, or still be in the quieter, safer neighbourhood, away from the Interstate. 

Friday, April 14

We returned to the hotel, resigned to spending another long, mostly sleepless night ahead.  I was beyond despondent at the thought of returning home – without Ula.  Then, at about midnight, two things happened simultaneously.  My phone rang, and it was a Topeka transit bus driver, who had reached out to me earlier in the day to let me know she had spread the word to other bus drivers, to watch for Ula while driving their routes.  Now, at midnight, she had decided to go out to the Midland Hospice centre to walk her own dog and search for Ula, as she couldn’t sleep knowing Ula was still missing.  She excitedly said that Ula had just walked right in front of her vehicle, quite calmly, not running, crossing the drive to go back towards the area where we had laid scent that afternoon!  At the same time, my phone pinged with a message from Trapper Amy, who sent me a text, “Look who just showed up on camera!” with a trail cam photo of Ula approaching the feeding station she had set out!  

Jane, Triss, and I flew through the hotel down to my van and drove back to the Midland Centre, where Cathy, the bus driver, was waiting for us.  Amy arrived with a trap, but first, she instructed me to go and sit down in the grass with Triss, and speak calmly, calling out quietly to Ula to see if she would come to us.  After about 30 minutes, Ula remained hidden (although I could almost feel her watching us from the bushes).  Amy scanned with her night vision camera but could see no sign of Ula.  She decided it was time to set up the trap where she had earlier set the feeding station, but this time, the food was inside the cage.  We retreated a distance away and watched, but Ula was not going to show herself to us.  We decided to return to the hotel and let the trap do its work, and although disappointed not to have seen Ula, it was at this point that I felt, for the first time since she ran, that there might be a happy ending on the horizon.  Amy’s confidence and calm manner encouraged me to believe that our search might soon be over!

At 2:30 a.m. I was awoken by a phone call from someone who had just finished her shift and had seen Ula’s Missing Dog posters in her neighbourhood; she had just spotted Ula in the same area where we suspected she was hiding.  I thanked the caller profusely and set my phone back down on the night table.  We did not rush back to the site; we wanted Ula to go back to the trap for food, so thought it best to stay away, although the caller’s sighting did confirm that Ula was staying within a certain area.

Jane and I must have drifted into a deep, badly needed sleep, because we both startled when Jane’s phone rang at about 7 a.m.  Jane answered, and then suddenly, she was screaming, “They’ve got her, they’ve got her!!!! They’re downstairs in the Lobby!!!”

Crying, laughing, screaming, we hugged each other, jumping in circles together, and quickly found our shoes and something to throw over our pajamas.  Arriving in the Lobby, I had eyes only for the trap cage, with Ula inside, as I ran over to her.  Ula started to wag her tail and cry when she saw me, and Amy prepared to release Ula.  Tears were flowing as I hugged Ula tight to me, never wanting to let her go again!

Many Whippet exhibitors were starting to pass through the lobby, on their way to exercise their dogs that morning, and phone cameras were snapping the happy moments as I shared hugs and received well wishes from everyone.  Ula was wagging her tail in delight at our reunion and ecstatic to see Triss again, although she didn’t seem to understand what all the fuss was about.  Surprisingly, she was not in bad shape, considering her ordeal.  A few scrapes and nicks, and a dozen or so ticks had to be removed, but thankfully, they were all dead or dying as we had treated with Bravecto prior to leaving home.  A couple of the veterinarians in our midst stopped to give Ula the once over, proclaiming her to be in reasonable shape, and so once the excitement abated, we retreated upstairs to our room, where Ula resumed her silly antics of jumping from one bed to the other and stealing all the toys!  But for the exhaustion in her eyes, it was like she had never been gone! 

While this story could end right here, it really doesn’t.

After a long nap with Ula and Triss, I ventured down to the ballroom later Friday afternoon, finally glad to be able to return all greetings with a smile.  More hugs were exchanged, and some tears, too, but tears of joy!  The local news station, WIBW, came to do a “happy ending” interview, which aired on the news that evening.  I had invited the recovery team members to a “thank you” dinner and we watched the report on Olive Garden’s bar TV (we made them change the channel!)

On Saturday, Stephanie Avila (the Bloodhound Lady) had decided to shop our wonderful vendors, and Kathy Rasmusson, organizer of the Whippet show, asked me if Stephanie would like to say a few words to our group during a judging break.  Stephanie took the microphone and explained to a full ballroom how her and Amy’s tracking and trapping organizations work together to help in lost pet situations.  As she finished speaking, the ballroom crowd stood up applauding, in a standing ovation!  This memory is still bringing tears to my eyes, even now as I write this.  Unbeknownst to me, a basket was passed through the ballroom, and was returned to me, overflowing with cash!  Between those donations, and others who handed me their sweepstakes cheques and cash as they passed me in the hallways, I was able to make a donation of almost $1,000 to Amy (the Trapper), Stephanie (the Tracker), and Julie (Stephanie’s Bloodhound’s handler) so that they can carry on their valuable work in the Topeka area.  

Brooklyn and Trevor, just starting their own lost pet recovery service, were also acknowledged when, after my return home, I contacted John Moses of the M4SID Microchip company here in Canada, and they donated a microchip scanner and supply of microchips on behalf of their U.S. company, Pets Home Today, to this dedicated and energetic young couple, who were so instrumental in Ula’s return, and who I know will be a valuable and welcome addition to the Topeka lost pet community.

My roommate, my rock throughout this ordeal, Lila Jane Handschumacher – you sure didn’t sign up for this but you never let me down and refused to let me go through this alone!  And last, but certainly not least, my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to our entire AWC Whippet community and my own husband and family, and close friends back at home.  You kept me going when I didn’t think I could.  So many people stand out in my mind whose acts of caring and generosity I will never forget, so let me summarize it to say that “Whippet Folks – You Are The Best!”