By Eric Mathison

Who you going to call when your dog backs out of his collar and disappears in downtown Burien?

We didn’t know but, fortunately, our friends Rebecca Dare and Bill Opfermann did—Jim Branson at Three Retrievers Pet Rescue in Burien. If Jim’s name sounds familiar, it is because his parents owned the property that became Eagle Landing Park in Burien.

Awhile back, in a blink, our escape-artist poodle, Otto slipped out of his collar with all his identifying tags and bolted into the middle of Ambaum Boulevard, just south of Southwest 152nd Street.

I chased after him.

That was the wrong thing to do, according to Jim Branson, who has written the booklets (available free at 3retrievers.com) on how to find your lost dog or cat.

Chasing almost never works, Jim declares. It just makes your pooch run away faster.

Then I crouched down and excitedly called Otto.

Crouching is the sign of a predator about to attack, Jim notes. What I should have done is sit down on the pavement, turn toward Otto’s side and speak calmly until he settled down and came back to me.

Otto bolted and I jumped in my car to look for him but he was GONE.
For the next hour I tried to think like a dog as I searched for him. I failed miserably. They didn’t have Otto at Burien CARES shelter either and didn’t have any reports about him.

Then I made the call I dreaded.

“Honey, I’ve lost the dog.” She wasn’t happy.

While we were organizing the search effort, Rebecca and Bill told us about Jim.

Jim and his black Lab, Kelsy have been helping find lost dogs and cats in the Puget Sound area since 2008 with experience in over 2,000 cases.
Jim said he is busy all the time, especially around the 4th of July and its aftermath.

If contacted right away, there is a 90 percent chance Kelsy can follow the scent trail and successfully find the lost dog, according to Jim.

Wait and the success rate goes down to 20 percent. After a week, it’s just five percent.

Unfortunately, Otto ran away in mid morning and we didn’t meet Jim and Kelsy at the runaway spot until early evening.

Kelsy took a big whiff of Otto’s bed and off they went.

Kelsy and Jim search at a brisk pace that increases considerably when Kelsy picks up a strong scent. I lagged behind by a half a block. It made for a strange parade.

Even though Jim and Kelsy wore bright vests declaring they were pet rescuers following the scent through back yards in the semi-darkness made me very nervous about being shot.

Around 148th and Ambaum, Kelsy indicated Otto was very close. So I called out Otto’s name. Another dumb move, Jim noted. Better to call the name of another dog your pet is familiar with. Your dog will be curious about what’s he’s missing out on (maybe a treat) and will come to see what’s up, according to Jim. Who knew dogs know their friends’ names, too?

By this time, Kelsy and Jim had trotted four miles around Burien, the scent trail was ice cold and Kelsy was dog tired. He plopped down on my foot to rest. Sadly, we hadn’t found Otto. But Kelsy had given us a very good idea where to look for him in the morning.

Strange as it seems, Jim uses another dog, Komu to find lost cats.

Frantic owners blanket a wide area with flyers when their cat goes missing. Jim says the lost cat is usually no more than seven houses away from home, hiding in silence under a nearby neighbor’s deck or shed.

Because of his extensive experience finding pets, many people call Jim when they spot a loose animal. So, Jim has helped set up Useless Bay Sanctuary to capture stray dogs, reunite them with their families or adopt them out if the family can’t be found. The sanctuary has adopted out 50 dogs in the last two years all over the Puget Sound area. His group can catch dogs with techniques that other animal rescue groups may not be aware of, according to Jim.

So did we ever see Otto again, you may be wondering.

After the search, desolate, I planned to put up some more flyers.

I had driven a couple blocks when my cell phone rang.

“This is Blah Blah from the Blah Blah Pet Chip Company. We have a call from a veterinary hospital that a dog with a chip registered to you has been brought to their facility. Would you like me to transfer the call to you?”

“YES, YES!”

Three minutes later, I roared into the vet hospital’s driveway. There was Otto with a woman leading him on a leash into her car.

She was stealing Otto! I was going to lose him again!

I ran over to the car and yelled rudely, “EXCUSE ME, BUT THAT’S MY DOG.”
By the way Otto was jumping joyously all over me, it was hard for her to claim I was lying.

She turned out to be the nice lady who had found Otto near where Kelsy had thought Otto was.

Driving home, I pictured the jubilant surprise for Marge when Otto unexpectedly bound into the house with me.

But Marge called first to report she was on hold to talk to a vet. hospital that might have Otto.

I responded, “If I were you, I would hang up because….”

Jim Branson can be contacted at 3retrievers.com, uselessbaysanctuary.com or 206-552-0304.

Eric Mathison is a former editor of the Highline Times. He can be reached care of Ken Robinson at kenr@robinsonnews.com.