MatSu Dolly

October 3, 2004: DOLLY IS FOUND! An 8 am phone call from Wright's Air Service got the search revitalized again.  The man reported that Dolly had just been sighted, but that she had shied away and ran when he tried to coax her into his vehicle.  We searchers were tired--Susan had searched for 4 1/2 hours Friday night through the rough wetlands (until almost 1 am) and had resumed the search with a lot of other volunteers on Saturday morning at 8 a.m.  Susan, dogs, and friends hiked wetlands, trails until 4 pm, then redrove the roads until almost 6 pm on Saturday.  [I'll tell you, this is going to take a lot of ibuprofen over the next few days to recover from all this exercise!]

Sunday morning, Hillary and Dennis led the search, joined by Susan and many miles of trails and sloughs were walked.  I heard her barks at intervals, and Dennis found her tracks and scat.  Just shortly before noon, we were tired and decided to call it a day.  I told Dorothy to follow me in driving the dike road, one more time. Dorothy got scared of the dike road and started driving, very slowly, the road at the base of the dike.

At noon--just as Dorothy was cell phoning me and standing outside her car, bossy little Dolly came running after the car and jumped in almost before Dorothy realized what was happening.  In straight distance terms, Dolly was found within a 2 mile radius of where she ran away.  Lots of searchers (Thanks especially to Hillary and her family, Dennis, Peggy and wonder dog Shania, Kelly, Steve and Kim, Al and his woodsy dogs Anaki and Fergus, and Dorothy (usually known as "Mom")!), lots of missing posters (created by Hillary and posted by Hillary and Peggy), repeated contact with Airport security, Fairbanks Animal Control, and the businesses on the East Ramp of the airport; and then lots of persistence and some terrific luck culminated in this success story.

As for Dolly, she was clean (still fluffy and white), thinned out, running a slight fever, and her pads and the tops of her toes were worn, with a few rub spots.  She was incredibly hungry and will need to regain about 4 pounds.  It looks like she did a lot of running in her almost-48 hours on the loose.  She was so remarkably happy to be back with familiar vehicles, familiar people and dogs.  Surprisingly, she was really thirsty (even after all the ponds, lakes, and sloughs to drink from!).  She's tired, but so excited to be back that she only seems to rest for a few minutes at a time.  I'm the one who crashed for over 3 hours after getting home--Dolly was busy playing with the cats, the other dogs, and the neighbor's dogs!

It looks like Dolly is teaching us that we will have to go through a gradual transition to a new forever home, instead of delivering her and leaving her to unfamiliar sights, sounds, and people.  Also, it looks like Dolly will insist on having another dog and definately a friendly, spunky cat who likes to play with dogs in her forever household.  For the family who has considerable time to work with this cute little girl, they will be rewarded with loving, cuddling, and comedy!

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October 2, 2004:  DOLLY IS MISSING!  (see Missing Dolly Poster) Dolly got frightened senseless Friday night at about 7:30 pm and ran away from the Tamarack Air Hangar located on the very south end of University Avenue.  The Tamarack Air Hangar is the very last hangar on the Fairbanks International Airport's East Ramp (for small aircraft).  She was last seen frantically running under the airport fence heading east into the wetlands- woods-slough area east of the public parking lot near the air traffic control tower.

Dolly is a dainty, small framed 30-pound dog, mostly white with light golden spectacles outlining her eys and light golden ears and a light golden spot right above her tail.  She is a gentle girl, and has a habit of anxiety barking.  She is shy of men and likely to be frightened of people in general.

Finding her quickly is of great concern, because she was lost in an industrial area bounded by the Mitchell Expressway to the north, the airport and airport industrial area to the west, and Van Horn and Peger Roads to the East. The woodsy area that Dolly entered is known to have a healthy coyote population, as well as numerous moose.  It is likely to also have fox, another potential predator.

A couple of us walked the woods area for over 4 hours Friday night and for over 7 hours Saturday with no sightings or sounds of Dolly.  However, she could possibly show up on any of the numerous roads in the area, in any of the gravel pits or industrial work areas, or along the many miles of woods trails and Tanana River Dike system.  Please, anyone who walks these trails, please look and listen for her. Report any sightings or hearing of repeated hoarse barking from a small dog to GRRF's Susan Flora 590-1900 or to Fairbanks Animal Control at 459-1451.   If you happen to catch Dolly, please immediately bring her to the Fairbanks Animal Shelter at 2408 Davis Road.

Authorities notified to date:  Fairbanks North Star Borough Animal Control and Animal Shelter and the Fairbanks International Airport Security.

September 10 , 2004:  Dolly is a 7 month old Golden Retriever-Brittany Spaniel cross.   She is the littermate to Doll Baby and daughter of Hogla and Princess. Dolly is very small at 25 pounds and just a little pistol.  She is the most outgoing one of the MatSU-4 and loves to play (she has discovered toys and especially likes the soft plush animal babies!). 

Dolly is the "bossy" one and barks at things she is unsure of.  She is getting used to being with other dogs too.  Dolly is very sweet and loves to be petted and to snuggle--with her soft long fur she is very fun to snuggle with and makes a fun lap dog. 

Dolly is still very much a puppy at heart.  Dolly might do best living with Hogla or a very easy going dog(s) that will let her be the queen bee.  She is very spoiled and Princess and Hogla let her get away with everything.  She is just so cute who can blame them?  Dolly has loads of personality and is very comical.

 

If you are interested on seeing this wonderful friend call us at 479-5577 or e-mail us at info@grrf.org

 

   

             Dolly surrounded by foster dogs!   Dolly standing next to Dad Hogla.