TAYLORSVILLE — When Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Mary Kaye Lucas walked into the clinic where Sara Buyers and dozens of other volunteers were helping newly saved dogs find foster homes, the long-time animal advocate feared the worst when she saw a blanket in the trooper’s arms.
“I think I said, ‘Is she alive?’” Buyers said of her reaction when Lucas told her she and several other troopers had rescued the frightened dog that escaped her would-be foster home.
But it was no ordinary rescue. It included a high-speed dog chase and shutting down a freeway.
“We were super grateful. ... Anytime a dog gets loose like that, you have to almost give them time to calm down. They get in such a flight mode. We usually don’t get that lucky to get them back so quickly.”
The 15-pound Chihuahua mix named Baby Girl was part of a special transport organized by Community Animal Welfare Society, Rescue Rovers and Paws for Life. The van carried 68 dogs from five different shelters in New Mexico and Juarez, Mexico, which were unloaded in the parking lot of the VCA All Pet Animal Hospital in Taylorsville.
Neisha Lockwood had committed to fostering two dogs, including Baby Girl, who was so terrified after the 16-hour trip that she growled, snapped and refused to come out of the kennel. Lockwood took her aside, away from the chaos, sat on the sidewalk and tried to coax her out of the kennel with some treats.
Instead, Baby Girl bolted from the kennel and took Lockwood and several other volunteers on a high-speed game of hide-and-seek that lasted an hour and ended on I-215 with Lucas and other troopers shutting down traffic to rescue the pup.
As volunteers pursued Baby Girl, Lockwood had to focus on getting her other foster dog home. Buyers and the other Community Animal Welfare Society volunteers had to process the other 38 dogs they’d committed to helping, and that made her quick return even more remarkable.
“We have to tag, leash and collar everybody,” Buyers said of processing a transport of newly rescued dogs. “Everybody gets weighed because we do flea and tick treatments and dewormer.”
They check their paperwork to see what vaccinations the animals need, schedule appointments and take photos of the new dogs. It’s a Herculean task that requires weeks of planning and an army of volunteers.
“Before we could address Baby Girl, we had to deal with the 40 dogs sitting in our care,” she said. “It’s 10:30 at night, and we can’t just stop what we’re doing to chase her. We did have volunteers out there trying to spot her and keep an eye on her.”
One of those volunteers was CJ Murray. He and his wife were there to pick up a lab mix named Bear. While his wife processed Bear, he chased Baby Girl on foot. A mountain biker and skier, he ran more than a mile trying to catch up to her before a man pulled over and told him where she was.
“A guy and his wife had just come off the I-215 ramp and they rolled down their window and said, ‘Hey are you looking for a dog? There is a trooper up there trying to catch it.’”
Murray ran onto the freeway using the light from his phone so cars would see him. The trooper came toward him and said it wasn’t safe to be on the freeway and that “the dog was way too fast” for them to run her down on foot. He let dispatchers know that the dog was headed south in the northbound lanes around 5000 South.
Lucas said she heard about Baby Girl as she was just leaving the scene of a nearby accident.
“We didn’t actually have a description, just a dog on the freeway,” the sergeant recalled. “But when he said he’d actually located the dog and that it was running down the ramp, we all kind of headed that direction.”
Trooper Kendall Rapier said he and trooper Riley Rugg were heading north on I-215 when they decided to try and slow traffic to give other troopers time to capture the dog.
“We wanted to run a slowdown because our biggest concern is the dog might run in traffic, and then we get people swerving to miss it, causing accidents, getting people injured and whatnot,” Rapier said. “We also want to get the dog off the freeway safely. I was in the right position to do that, so I ran a slowdown, and when they located the dog, I just held traffic so they could capture the dog without any accidents or injuries.”
Rugg left his spot on the slowdown to help capture the confused dog, who was hiding near the sound wall just off the shoulder of the freeway.
“She was hunkered down between the dirt and the sound barrier,” Rugg said. “I think she was scared to be honest, scared and cold. ... She didn’t like us very much.”
Baby Girl snarled and snapped, and unfortunately Lucas had the only leash and she was the last to the scene.
“She was hard to get to, and the guys had tried to kneel down to get her out of the hole, and she’d already nipped at them a couple of times,” Lucas said. “You could tell she was scared and cold. ... I gave them the leash, and they were going to effectively use it as a kind of lasso.”
Once they got it around her neck they were able to pull her out, but she had no intention of going quietly into anyone’s care. Lucas went back to her car and grabbed a wool blanket, which she wrapped around the terrified dog.
“Animals, dogs in particular are very unpredictable,” Lucas said. “Sometimes you get out there and call for them, and they’re so scared, they come right to you. And sometimes they think it’s a game and they start running in traffic. And sometimes you just don’t know. And yeah, sometimes they growl at you.”
This situation happened at the right time — 10:30 on a Sunday night — and they had the time and resources to focus on getting a good outcome.
“It’s always nice to have a happy ending,” Lucas said. “Being a dog owner myself, that’s what I would always like to do, find the dog in good health and being able to return it someplace safe.”
“She chewed through three leashes while I was trying to get her to the car,” Lockwood said of taking the dog home. “I brought her a hamburger from McDonald’s and she wouldn’t even consider it. ... She didn’t move for hours (after arriving at Lockwood’s home). I gave her a doggy day spa with low heat blanket, calming music and even aromatherapy. By the time I got up (Tuesday) morning, she was a lot more curious about me and the house and the other dogs.”
As of Tuesday night, she was playing with the other dogs and pursuing cuddles and kisses from Lockwood.
“She’s the greatest,” Lockwood said. “I seriously cannot believe how quickly she’s improved.”
Buyers said the Community Animal Welfare Society, which is an 100-percent volunteer organization, takes dogs that would otherwise be euthanized, especially from these out-of-state transports.
“They are a high euthanasia rate, and it doesn’t matter — puppies all the way up to old dogs and pregnant mamas,” Buyers said. “It’s gnarly. We like to have committed fosters, but sometimes we pull more hoping that once they get here, we can find fosters.”
Every dog on Sunday’s transport was in danger of being euthanized, she said. Which is why people like Lockwood and Murray showed up, offering to take one or two dogs, many of which have been sick, abused or neglected.
Lockwood, who has volunteered with the society for about five years, said she was so distraught she considered whether or not she wanted to foster anymore.
“From the minute she ran until the time I got her home, I was second guessing myself,” she said. “But I made a commitment and I do really well with traumatized dogs, so I doubled down even though I was nervous. The first time she licked my nose, I almost cried. It made it all worth it.”
Baby Girl — who may be renamed Freeway or Bolt — along with 37 other adorable dogs, will be available for adoption at CAWS.org. And anyone interested in volunteering or fostering can find information on the website.