“Oliver” ~ Case 428

Oliver was out for a leash walk with his family when he was suddenly attacked by 4 large dogs off leash who had just exited their home’s garage.  Oliver managed to escape the attack but he ran away from his family in the process.  It is suspected that Oliver is injured from the attack.  

He is extremely traumatized and scared causing him to elude humans.  Please IGNORE him if you see him. 

➡️ We need the public’s help by reporting exact sighting locations to our team as soon as possible.  Our team needs sightings immediately in real time in order to precisely locate, track and condition him for capture.  Timely reports also assist us with strategic deployment of one or more feeding stations that we plan to intercept him with.  

We strongly believe that more people are seeing Oliver but they don’t know who to contact.  Please help us share his 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 has boots on the ground.  Our immediate plan is to survey the area, deploy a video monitored feeding station and conduct a thermal aerial search.  

Feeding station has been deployed in an isolated location.  We did a 140 yard liquid smoke trail to help him find it. 

Our liquid smoke trail brought an off leash visitor to the feeding station.  Thankfully his/her guardian gathered him quickly before he ate the food and they left the immediate area.  

Our team worked so hard from sunrise to well past sunset today searching for Oliver.  There has not been a single sighting all day long.  We always start at the location of the last sighting and work our way out.  The last sighting was 24 hours prior to us accepting Oliver’s case so he could have traveled anywhere by the time we got boots on the ground this morning.  Although he could have, we are hopeful that he is still in the immediate area, and just hiding really well since he knows the area.  

We did not locate him during any of our thermal aerial searches today but the area is HUGE and this level of terrain will take DAYS of searching, not just hours.  We had hoped to locate Oliver resting in a den in the immediate area of the last sighting but he was not hiding anywhere within today’s search grid. 

‼️We desperately need new sightings to help guide our search, to help us track him, and to help us intercept him with a feeding station.  We advised Oliver’s family to hang flyers on all street signs in the area and to hand out flyers to every residence in the immediate area to help get more sightings.  We suspect people may be seeing Oliver but they don’t know who to call.  Please keep sharing.  

No sightings of Oliver overnight and he did not visit our feeding station overnight.  We put fresh food at the feeding station this morning.  We are standing by awaiting a new sighting and we can be on site today within only 5-6 minutes.  

We are grounded from aerial searching today due to weather.  

Still ZERO new sightings of Oliver.  We spoke to a construction foreman in the area this morning named Justin, handed him a flyer, and he said he saw Oliver on Friday.  There was another sighting of him in that same immediate area on Saturday.  After that, no new sightings.  We really believe people are seeing him but they just don’t know who to call.  

‼️We have worked many cases over the years where dogs were still in the immediate area but they found a small area to hide in, they stayed hidden, and there were zero sightings.  These cases were very challenging but we were able to locate them through grueling and very detailed aerial and ground searches.  Some took weeks to find them.  This includes searching storm drain systems, heavy brush, and inside and under partially open structures.  This could be the case with Oliver but it’s impossible to know.  There is a LOT of new construction in the area and a million places to hide.  We are hoping for a new sighting while we continue our search.  

The family still hasn’t been able to hang posters or pass out flyers in the area but when those get out we may get more sightings.  If you are able to help the family pass out flyers please reach out to them.  Here is a link to their social media post.  We are passing out flyers to anyone we see during our search, but our team is better utilized on the active search portion.  PAWBOOST: https://www.facebook.com/100057239059110/posts/pfbid02nEwyEbszxmh3S75Aj6eH4UDSKN8inZ47aD7F9XF1FgFgrXJN95bqpbfcgixXHENKl/?mibextid=cr9u03 (https://www.facebook.com/100057239059110/posts/pfbid02nEwyEbszxmh3S75Aj6eH4UDSKN8inZ47aD7F9XF1FgFgrXJN95bqpbfcgixXHENKl/?mibextid=cr9u03)

* We also asked the family to consider hiring Kimberly with Lone Star Pet Trackers because her K9's may be able to locate Oliver much faster than we can especially if he is hiding too well with zero sightings.  

We put fresh food at the feeding station this morning and freshened the liquid smoke trail after the full day of rain yesterday. 

We are grounded from aerial searching again today, due to very high wind gusts over 30 kn.

Nothing new to report this evening. 😢

Still no new sightings of Oliver and he has not visited the feeding station.  We have a full day of searching ahead with great weather. 

Thermal aerial searches have turned up nothing today as well as the ground searches we are doing. 😓

Still no sightings of Oliver.  We replinished the food at the feeding station and we will refreshen each day regardless of weather.  

Sadly, Kimberly with Lone Star Dog Trackers is not available until after Monday. 

We have lookouts at all of the construction sites nearby and we are doing our best to pass out flyers to people ourselves while we are in the area.  

We are devastated that Oliver will have to endure the frigid temperatures coming tonight and over the next few days if he is still roaming around out there. There is also a possibility that someone has picked him up and they have no idea who to contact.  Please keep sharing to nearby neighborhood social media pages, and even expand outward your shares.  He could be anywhere!  

The cold is here and still no sign of Oliver ANYWHERE.  😢

The Feeding station was frozen this morning but fresh food was put in.  

Still no sightings of Oliver.  We put fresh food in the feeding station.  

❄️ Ahead of the frigid weather coming in this afternoon our team is heading to Dallas to capture a feral mom and her feral puppies.  The puppies would likely not survive otherwise.  Case details: https://muttsandmayhem.org/case430-dallastx

♥️ We will resume our search for Oliver immediately after.  

We had two confirmed sightings of Oliver this afternoon.   Unfortunately both people chased him trying to hand capture him before they found our flyer online asking them not to.  Every time he is chased he is pushed to a new area. One of the sightings reported that Oliver was seen crossing over a busy roadway.  NEVER EVER CHASE A LOOSE DOG, not just Oliver.  

 ‼️One of the spotters was very VERY ugly in his text messages and he demanded that he will keep hunting, chasing, and trying to hand capture Oliver because he does not trust our process. Therefore, devastatingly we have someone in the hot zone working against us putting Oliver’s life at risk.  We have asked Oliver’s mom to reach out to him and essentially beg him to reconsider and let us do what we are highly trained and skilled to do.  

Our team will be on site throughout most of the night searching from the air and deploying new video monitored feeding stations.  

Fresh food was put in the feeding station tonight and we are conducting an aerial search based on the most recent sightings.  As you may know, we use your reported sightings (if reported asap) to narrow down our aerial search grid and helps us with strategic placement of our video monitored feeding stations.

❄️ It is 24°

We have only had this happen one other time in the past 11 years.  

The person who told us he would not stop interfering admitted that he purposely put out food when we asked him not to and we even explained “why”.  It’s in the precise area that this person saw him yesterday.  We found it during our search and we removed it.  It’s so heartbreaking that he wants Oliver to keep suffering simply because of his ego and because he is convinced he is correct in what he is doing. 😓~

It is CRITICAL that Oliver only eat at one of our feeding stations because we have video cameras in place to monitor the food and when some random person puts out food there is no way to know if it’s him eating the food.  Our capture plan involves corral trapping him at the feeding station where he is eating.  When people put out food… it sabotages the work we are doing to actually CAPTURE him, not just “feed” him.  

Our team is back on site continuing our search.  He will still be cold but find comfort in knowing that Oliver has a lot of places in the immediate area to seek shelter in from the elements.  If he finds a feeding station during this storm rest assured we will still plan to capture him regarding of weather as long as it’s safe for our team to be on the roads.  

While children and adults alike enjoy the snow, our team can’t think of anything besides how Oliver and the animals are miserable out in this mess.  😓 Both feeding stations are obviously frozen solid but regardless we will put out fresh food.  Heated dog bowls aren’t feasible because the stations aren’t located where there is access to electricity.  We confirmed that Oliver does have plenty of unfrozen water sources in the area.  

There have been no more sightings of Oliver since Friday.  Someone is taking down signs as fast as they are hung so he is still likely being seen but they don’t know who to call.  He is likely hunkered down in a sheltered den and hopefully we will find him.  It helps so much when they aren’t actively on the run during aerial searches.  

We deployed a third feeding station today in an area we believe he may be today.  We could not confirm due to a flight equipment issue.  We freshened all liquid smoke trails leading to each station.  

Unfortunately, we are grounded for the rest of the day from aerial searches because our drone supplier is closed today due to weather and we need to purchase a part.   😰😓

Oliver has not visited any of our 3 feeding stations yet.  We are continuing our aerial search today and if we locate him we will deploy a new feeding station at that location.  

Today was a very busy day of searching.  Today we worked in tandem with professional K9 handler Kimberly Thompson and her two tracking dogs Tulip & Lexie.  Both scent dogs tracked Oliver to the same precise areas.  We did not locate Oliver during the multiple tracks but we know where he has been and he will likely return to those same areas.  When he does we will be ready.  

Oliver‘s mom joined us on the tracks today so that her scent is spread throughout the area we want him to stay in when he returns.  We are also adding scent items at the feeding stations to help lure him in.  

All of the tracking details have been loaded to our case map that we will share publicly once we have Oliver captured.  We are also hoping for a new sighting very soon but it’s possible he is primarily in an area he won’t be seen by people as he tries to avoid them in his current physiological state.  This requires us to continue with our aerial searches and strategic placement and maneuvering of our feeding stations.  

Oliver has not yet visited any of the feeding stations and no new sightings.  Regrettably our entire team as well as Oliver’s mom are all sick.  We are taking a break from searching today to try and get healthy but if there is a new sighting today we will be on site within 10 minutes and get in the air!  

Thank goodness we finally reached temperatures above freezing today.  All three feeding stations have fresh food and fresh liquid smoke trails. We sure hope he hits one today!  

Another challenge that could be a possibility is that someone is feeding him on their property and they have no idea we are working his case. Once they typically find a food source, they stay put.  If that’s the case, we have to find that location otherwise he may not resurface where he would be seen by people.   We are doing our best to visit all of the rural properties in the area to notify them of Oliver being missing.  

It’s also possible that people are seeing him, they are chasing him, they don’t know to call us, and each time he is chased he runs erratically and changes locations.  Theres no way to know. 

Due to personal reasons, Oliver’s family has not had a chance to hang new flyers, put out ground signs, or pass out flyers to nearby residents and businesses.  We will likely not get any new sightings reported if people don’t know who to call.  So many people are not on Facebook or other social platforms so flyers and posters are critical. 

Still no new sightings of Oliver.  All feeding stations have been freshened this morning. 

Still no new sightings of Oliver.  All feeding stations have been freshened this morning.

We are so ready for it to warm up above freezing temps so that he will venture out of his den.  Our thermal aerial camera cannot see through structures so if he is denning under a brush pile or other solid structure we would never see him.  

We are not even going to complain about the rain… we are just thrilled that it is above freezing temperatures. 

The feeding stations have been replenished this morning and are replenished every day.  We still have no new sightings but we promise to let you know if we have any pertinent information.  

Just know that we are working hard behind the scenes trying to locate him.  Without reported sightings it’s truly like finding a needle in a haystack for a dog able to run.  

Thank you so much to Suzanne and Angie for helping hang flyers and to Bradley for your boots on the ground assistance.  

We are hoping to have new sightings soon.  In the meantime, we are replenishing the feeding stations daily and continuing to hand out flyers, talk to as many people and businesses as possible, and continue the search.

With devastating heartbreak, Oliver was found deceased this afternoon only 125 yards from where Kimberly’s Scent Dogs Tulip & Lexie tracked Oliver’s scent trail back on 1/16.  Oliver was roaming an area of more than 500 acres and we had 3 active strategically placed feeding stations setup for him with scent trails leading to them but he never visited any of them regardless of our vast liquid smoke trails directing him right to them.  He had traveled back to the area where his scent trail originally was but by then the frigid weather had moved in.  ~ He was so traumatized and in starvation mode that it sometimes affects their ability to smell as well as causes a lack of food motivation.  When they don’t feel well they don’t care about food even if they are starving. 

We notified Oliver’s family immediately and we transported Oliver to our medical team at Veterinary Emergency Group in Allen for a postmortem examination.  Oliver’s family is on their way to the ER now.  

⛑️ Dr. Fetters and Tech Debbie said that Oliver appears to have died of hypothermia exacerbated by starvation and possible underlying illness. His dental health was very poor and he was an 8 year old senior. There is no visible trauma to his body and no signs of poisoning but he had significant muscle wasting from lack of food.  Had Oliver visited the feeding station prior to the frigid weather, he would have had a much better chance at surviving the arctic temperatures.  He died laying on the ground on his left side as if he had drifted off to sleep.  

Mutts & Mayhem Emergency Search and Rescue has taken care of Oliver’s private cremation expenses.  

Our deepest sympathy to Oliver’s family in this very difficult time.  

♥️A very special Thank You to Mason for your amazing work today!

02/03/2024, Oliver‘s family picked up his remains today and took him home.