Piper--"This was an excellent day!!!"

News tonight from Karin! We are very excited!

This was an excellent day!!! The little dog paw prints in the nature reserve were Piper’s. Mason and I hiked in to scan them for scent ( over a mile away and with 21 degree temps), and Mason picked up her trail and ran towards the river. It was pretty exciting… and makes so much sense!

Lead dog Cade had sore feet. They are cracked from the hard crust snow and ice and I really thought he would not be able to work today. He was not happy about this. The dog shop in town had these disposable booties called "Paws" and they worked wonders. We put those on and Cade was ready to go. He and I went up to the bridge and walked in under the bridge. Cade picked up Piper’s scent and tried to run across a frozen marsh… Piper being smaller could do this. .. Cade and I not so much! We continued on up against the mountainside and then the scent trail turned up a logging road. We checked this with three dogs… it was Piper’s trail and it went into a private agricultural field. We were told not to go any further so we had to figure out another way in… tough when there are hundreds of acres.

With dark setting in... we looked for a way to get near the field. As we came around a bend in the road Cade began crying and howling. We had been driving for about 35 minutes and he was riding happily in the back when all of sudden he let out howls. I thought he was sick… so I stopped the van and ran to see what was wrong. The big brown dog bounded out of this crate and ran to the field to the west. He did not seem sick so I gave him Piper’s scent and he took off like he was shot out of a cannon. It was now dark and we could not see very well… Cade had Piper’s scent and he was trying to tell us to stop! It was pretty amazing. He has done this one other time… still it is pretty amazing! We will start here tomorrow.

The maps… The work we did today is in blue. The orange lines indicate the most likely path Piper has taken to get around. Where it says “Cade detects scent” is where Cade began howling in the van and then ran to the Southwest in the field. The yellow line- the half circle- indicates Cade’s maximum distance based on other cases… meaning Piper’s scent has to be inside that radius for him to detect it.

Also Kris the mail carrier has been helping me in the afternoon. The woman is amazing she knows every little dirt road and meandering path up here. She has been a big help.

Hold a positive thought ... The ice and hard pack snow are wearing on us… Tonight I fell on the ice and landed on Paco… not out in the icy woods but in the parking lot of all places. Landed on my butt… thank God for padding. Really scared Paco… me too.

Keep up the prayers and energy

Karin, Cade, Mason, Brodie and Paco