“Bear” ~ Case 425

Bear was newly adopted through rehoming only a few days before he escaped back in September 2023.  His family did their best for the past 3 months but sightings were few and far between.  ‼️ Soon after Bear escaped he was witnessed being hit by a vehicle.  TODAY 12/22/23, he was seen by his family and appears to be injured. The extent of his injuries are unknown but from a distance it appears he is limping.  

Our friends at Duck Team 6 put out a feeding station several weeks ago in the area of one of the sightings, but Bear has never visited their station even once.  Duck Team 6 reached out to us for tracking assistance so we agreed to take over the case. We are in direct contact with Bear’s family and they are going to be replenishing our feeding stations under our direction. 

‼️ We need the public’s help by reporting exact sighting locations to our team.  Please DO NOT CALL ANIMAL CONTROL.  They have been unsuccessful at capturing Bear, and our team needs sightings immediately in real time in order to track him more precisely.  Tracking him also helps us with locations to deploy our additional feeding station locations until he intercepts one. This helps us prepare him and condition him for capture.  

We strongly believe that more people are seeing Bear but they don’t know who to contact.  Please help us share our flyer to all of your neighborhood social pages and Nextdoor!  

Below is his case timeline where we will publish updates in real time and please check back here regularly for pertinent updates.  

Our team put boots on the ground tonight to conduct and aerial search and deploy a video monitored feeding station near and area he was seen at earlier today and several times before.  We will be on site for several hours and will post an additional update later tonight. 

♥️ Only six hours after our team got our boots on the ground, we located Bear during our thermal aerial search and he was resting in a den.  We carefully and quietly trailed a 140 yard liquid smoke trail (a whole gallon 😛) past his den to our new feeding station.  Our feeding station locations are strategically chosen based on ideal “capture” locations.  His current den is not accessible for deploying our corral so our goal was to lure him to where we need him.  Shortly after, he picked up the scent, followed the trail to the station and he ate!!!  😛  After he finished the food, he went right back to his den and he is in there now.   We are possibly setting up for capture tomorrow morning!  Stay tuned. 

Our team deployed the corral trap about 60 yards from his existing feeding station that he visited overnight.  Our team will be staging nearby indefinitely, awaiting his arrival for capture.  We are live streaming right now on all platforms.  

After staging on site for almost 12 hours, Bear was safely captured.  Upon our initial assessment he appears to have some head trauma, most likely from when he had been hit by the vehicle weeks ago.  We are transporting him immediately to Veterinary Emergency Group in Allen.  

Capture video will be posted tomorrow.  

Because he is such a huge escape risk, he is in pain from his injuries, and he is exhibiting unprecedented neurological signs, it’s safer for him and our team to transport him in a transport kennel.  It’s actually quite soothing to most dogs to be in the kennel.

Bear remained hospitalized overnight and our team stayed with him all night.  His assessment, Xrays, ultrasound, and bloodwork revealed that when Bear was struck by a vehicle shortly after he escaped 3 months ago, he suffered a spinal fracture and a skull fracture that are both healing nicely so no surgical intervention is needed.  Throughout that traumatic event he suffered a traumatic brain injury, his bottom tooth punctured his upper lip, his left ear was ripped off along with a large section of tissue and muscle on the top of his head.  His soft tissue and connective tissue injuries are infected with oozing puss.  

Bloodwork revealed that Bear is dehydrated, anemic and his white blood count is high. He also has diarrhea.  He has a little bit of fluid on his lungs.  He is Heartworm NEGATIVE. When Bear escaped we weighed 90 lb.  Today he weighs 72.2 lbs. 

Bear received IV fluids, antibiotics, and pain medications so he is still pain free this hour.  He will eventually be discharged with antibiotics and pain medication as well. 

Brain trauma in dogs can present a LOT of different ways, but in Bears’ case, he had significant head trauma resulting in fractures, he has a slight intermittent balance issue that hasn’t yet fully resolved, and he has a slightly lower heart rate.  All of which is indicative of a traumatic brain injury.  It’s also really hard to see on video but in person he has a distinctive gaze where he stares off in to space and it takes him a little bit to focus on you.  He is also pretty grumbly off and on even when he is pain free.  Dr. E feels strongly that he will eventually fully recover but the stress he has endured while trying to survive on the run in his condition has slowed down the healing process.  Immediately following his trauma it is absolute that Bear suffered a great deal out there. 

With the blessing of Bears’ dad, we are going to go ahead and neuter Bear while he is here with Dr. Elfenbein because it will help Bear psychologically and hormonally, also reducing his chances of getting cancer by more than 90%.  Akita’s do so much better in their lives all the way around if they are neutered.  

He will stay hospitalized for a few more hours and our team is going home for a little bit for some much needed sleep.  We promise to give you an update and more pictures and video this afternoon.  

Bear’s dad is out of town for the holiday so our team will be taking care of Bear until his family returns.  ~ Poor baby has had it rough the past 3.5 months with being rehomed, then escaping and being on the run, and then suffering such horrible trauma.  We will do our very best to help him recover, rehabilitate, and set him up for a successful future. 

Bear was discharged from Veterinary Emergency Group and he was sent home with pain medication, antibiotic, and a mild sedative. Right before we left he went potty in their designated potty area.  He did great on the leash.  He jumped right into the car by himself and he slept on the way to Selena’s house.  

As soon as Bear arrived to Selena’s home it was bath time.  Dr. E approved for him to have a bath and we just avoided his neuter surgical area.  After his bath he had his dinner and his medications.  We sent an update to Beats’s dad.’ 

Bear slept great all night!  On this beautiful Christmas morning he came downstairs, ate all of his breakfast and a Christmas treat and then he went potty outside!  He is truly a sweet boy!  

Bears’ new dad is likely returning home this afternoon and we will take Bear home!  Stay tuned for the reunion. 

❇️ We are registering Bear’s microchip in our 24PetWatch system registry to his new owner.  

He and team member Ginny have Selena’s guest room all to themselves and Bear said it’s time for a morning nap!  🐶

We visited with Bear’s previous owner on the phone this morning and learned a lot about his prior home history.  Since Bear’s microchip was still registered in the previous owners name, we had to contact her to verify that she had rehomed Bear.  Dog theft is very real so we always do our due diligence to protect dogs and their owners. 

They had to make the tough decision to rehome Bear because their daughter’s service dog started instigating fights with Bear and Bear would defend himself and do a lot of damage to their other dog.  In order to protect both of their lives, they rehomed him to his new owner.  

Bear had been on monthly heartworm preventative as well as monthly flea/tick prevention when he was rehomed and he had been vaccinated shortly before he went to his new home.  

Bear was reunited with his family on this Christmas Day.  

We gave Bear another dewormer today, a monthly flea and tick preventative, as well as a monthly heartworm preventative. 

His family did their best to make a temporary fix of the broken gate today when they arrived back in town but they are going to fix the gate permanently tomorrow when stores open. Regardless, we suggested to the family that they do not have him off leash in the backyard for at least two months.  We explained the psychological mindset of dogs after they have been on the run for this extended period of time eluding humans.  This makes them even more of an escape risk for several months ahead.  We explained that the family must do everything possible to prevent a future escape at all costs.  

We have registered Bears existing microchip to his new owner since the microchip transfer was never completed when he was rehomed back in September just before he escaped.  

We went over Bear’s medications and hospital discharge information.  

Because Bear’s kennel does not accommodate enough space for him while wearing the large post surgical cone, we brought him an extra large kennel to use during his recovery.  

We wish Bear the very best life and we hope that we receive updates from the family so that we may share with you.  

We will miss you so much sweet boy, and we love you forever!  ♥️🎁