Sunday Morning Update

This update from Karen covers the last several days; you can see how hard she's working -- and how much she's learning about the goings on of the animals around here!


What a week! We've been going non-stop since Tuesday's sighting and subsequent sightings on Wednesday and Friday. I'm an adrenaline junkie by nature and was pounding the pavement until I hit the wall last night. I'm trying to be patient and wait for sightings but always end up walking, talking and fliering fueled by hot sightings.

Carol and Julie (mother and daughter) own the family homestead and farmland on the south side of Glade Road (area of last week's sightings) as well as 80% of the quadrant bordered by Backwoods Lane, Glade Road, Buckshot Lane and the top of Brush Mountain on the north side of Glade Road. Julie lives on the property south of Glade Road; Carol lives 15 minutes away and drives Glade Road several times each day.

They are huge animal lovers, intelligent and all-around wonderful! They are continually rescuing, fostering, feeding, spaying/neutering, vaccinating, etc. the dogs and cats who wind up on their land. They work with the local and regional rescue/humane groups. They are trying to coax two dogs while helping find Izzie.

The first dog is Scruffy. He has been sighted, almost daily, for about six months. (His picture was posted on this blog a few days ago.) Carol saw Izzie with Scruffy Tuesday; she knows the dogs who run in the area and is certain the dog she saw was indeed Izzie.

The second dog is Foxy. She is about the same size as Scruffy, all black, fox-like ears, long-haired. Four years ago, Foxy was taken in by two vet students who lived on Bobcat Lane. She was spayed and given a rabies shot. Foxy escaped from the vet students about a month after spaying and has been running loose in the area since. Julie and I talked about Foxy on Friday; she had not been sighted since May but Julie is confident she is eating at one of the feeding stations.

Yesterday I was driving "the loop" as night fell; my headlights picked up a pair of eyes at the foot of the farm driveway (close to the feeding station). I stopped the car and got out to get a closer look (hoping, praying it was Izzie).

It was the elusive Foxy! She stared at me and I kept my distance while talking to her softly for five minutes. Neither of us moved and I slowly backed away, got in the car and left. I called Julie and let her know: she was so relieved! Foxy is known to travel at night and is elusive; sightings are few and far between. Easy to figure with her dark coloring.

My other dogs and I walked and walked yesterday. There are so many places Izzie could be. We were on cow trails, creek beds, wildlife trails, logging and mining trails, farm roads, Forest Service Roads, main roads and the Heritage Park Trail. We could hear the canons from Lane Stadium; they go off each time the Hokies score, and they scored 52 points yesterday -- go Hokies!! We covered the north and south sides of Glade Road; I'll guesstimate an area covering one and a half square miles. We all slept well last night!