I’d like to share my story so that it might help others in the same position and satisfy all of my friends and family who keep asking me what happened!  My apologies for the impersonal format of a blog entry but I just found her yesterday as of this write and the story is too complicated and raw to personally tell so many times. Eventually I’ll pull out a quick, actionable list of tips for other searchers but right now I just need to do a brain dump. Ready?

Lucy’s story

My 10 year old American Eskimo mix, Lucy, is the love of my life (look at that face!) but isn’t the most well adjusted dog. She was my first dog and came to me as a one year old already troubled. Had I researched her breed (rookie mistake!) I would never have adopted her – Eskies are not for the weak of heart or will! She’s complicated, I like to say, but most would call her skittish and defensive. I’ve taken her to a half dozen training classes but it hasn’t made a dent in her fearfulness. Most of the time her behavior is within normal parameters, but if pushed, she flips into fight or flight mode. In March, her lifelong companion Desi passed away at the age of 14, and since then I’d been taking her out and about more often so that she can see other dogs. Unfortunately, the last time I went to the dog park she got into three separate skirmishes, and two of them with overly aggressive pit pulls, one of which stalked and pounced on her. Never again.

The trip

I planned a week-long trip to Austin and my old housemate Frank, whom Lucy loves, now works two jobs and wasn’t available. I asked a highly recommended boarding place (they have an open farm-like environment instead of cages) if they thought it was a good idea to let her board there while I was gone. They reassured me that all of the dogs there were well socialized and not aggressive, and that if she were having problems that they could sequester her. If she was having a really bad time they could take her back home and do stop-ins. I knew this would be difficult for her but really wanted to try to get her more social skills and get over some of her fears, and the boarder said without me there she wouldn’t be as defensive since I wouldn’t be there to defend. Reluctantly, I did it. To my friends that supported that decision, hey, it was a good idea on paper but Mistake #1: Don’t put your dog through something potentially traumatic when you are out of state.

I left for Austin on Friday and worried about her but got one report that she was “shy at first but warming up!” Then radio silence until Sunday when I got the worst call a pet owner can imagine: “There’s a situation with Lucy. We can’t find her.”

Mistake #2: I didn’t hop on a plane the moment she was reported missing. Instead, I trusted the boarders to look for her because they said they didn’t know if she’d run away or was still on the property and they didn’t want to ruin my trip. Well, it had already been ruined and I waited 24 heart-wrenching hours until I booked a ticket home. If they’d immediately used the techniques I eventually learned, we might have located her in 24 hours instead of 72.

Note: This is the last time I’ll really talk about the boarders. I don’t want to get into a discussion there until I have time to sort some things out.

The problem with lost skittish dogs

If my lab Desi had gone missing, while tragic, it would not have been nearly as worrisome as losing Lucy. Desi really liked people and would have met up with someone nice who would have read her tags or scanned her microchip and she would likely have been returned quickly. Lucy was wary of strangers and even some of my friends whom she’d met many times. If she was running scared there was no way someone could catch her without a trap. She’s wily. Maybe I could see her getting so hungry that she’d warm up to a stranger, but she would have to abandon all of her instincts which would be in overdrive. Although they are absolutely necessary, no tag or microchip was likely to help her. This situation required a very intense search effort and educating people who might spot her about how to approach skittish dogs.  While well meaning, trying to actively track them down and catch them, or even calling their names, can make the situation worse.

Missing Pet Partnership

Luckily, when I was still in Austin, a friend recommended contacting Missing Pet Partnership because they use tracking dogs and wow – they have a great organization. What I found most valuable was their wonderfully detailed 36-page document on pet recovery. As they stated at the beginning, while it seems difficult to imagine spending that much time reading when your beloved companion is missing, you really need to execute a focused, proven plan to successfully find your lost pet. Missing Pet Partnership provided very detailed instructions for making effective posters, which is by far the most valuable thing you can do in your search efforts. I absolutely believe this after having been through it.  I spent hours driving around and looking for her in places she had been spotted in 12-24 hours earlier just because it seemed like the best thing to do. If I’d just done that, I wouldn’t have found her.

Communications plan

I waited to post on my social networks (Facebook and the 800 person Dogs@Microsoft email alias) that Lucy was missing. The post had to be actionable and repostable because I knew it would get a lot of responses, therefore improving its popularity and visibility in people’s news feeds so I didn’t want to waste that attention. I needed to plan before I posted.

First I needed a communication method for people that expressed an active interest in volunteering and it had to be flexible enough to add people from a mobile phone, so a simple Hotmail thread fit the bill.

Then I created the poster designs based on Missing Pet Partnership’s recommendations. I was a designer already but the UX of posters for the road is unique! Then I put my summary/ad text on a webpage and included links to all of the signs in both doc and pdf, as well as good photos.

Then I posted to my social networks. The post was to the point and wasn’t overwhelmingly emotional or personal so people wouldn’t feel weird about sharing it with their friends. I clearly asked for people to repost and if they were in the area and could help, to email me on Hotmail. I opened up my Facebook permissions to “Everyone”. My friends know how funny this was for me, the permissions queen! Then I changed my Facebook profile pic to a good picture of Lucy’s face because a lot of people were going to see it.

After a few hours’ worth of responses rolled in, I started a Hotmail thread with about 30 volunteers and listed specific jobs I needed done (calling shelters and vets, Craig’s List and other web listings, making posters, hanging posters) and then organized events and delegated tasks.

One of the things that didn’t work so well was that I kept receiving offers by email to help when it was too late or the timing was wrong to accept their help. I wish I’d at least gotten to let them know but I was too focused to figure that out and I was just using SMS to communicate with the ground troops who were immediately available. I didn’t make a conscious decision to do that, it just happened. The email thread became secondary, almost just a way for me to give updates and for people to share sighting information.

There were about 20 close friends and family constantly texting, calling, emailing and Facebooking me for updates so I cut off all communication with people not directly involved with the search, telling them, “No time to talk – check Facebook for latest.”  While I valued the concern, I could not have functioned had I not cut off the extraneous communications – it was hard enough to keep my emotions in check while I tried to coordinate this large a project.

Monday night

I got off the plane, got my car, and headed straight to the boarding facility. Frank had been there earlier in the day searching the property and surrounding area and couldn’t find her. I met a friend there, whom I really needed for moral support and to help search. We examined the property’s perimeter and saw only a few very difficult ways out. I really don’t have any idea how she escaped, but knowing she wasn’t there allowed us to confidently start searching outside of the property.

We searched for three hours in the vicinity and there was no sign of her, which was a good thing considering the coyotes and bears in that area. Based on subsequent sightings we were very far off track, but we just needed to do this.

It was extremely hard to give up and go home to sleep.

Tuesday: Volunteer day

Volunteers were crucial in this search. Some were close friends, some were people I knew online and had never met in person. One friend even came straight from an out-of-state flight to hang posters until late in the night before going home to unpack. On Tuesday I was able to leverage 40 hours of volunteer time making and hanging posters and searching. How would I ever have accomplished all of that myself? I also had two point people handling all calls to vets/shelters/rescues and all the online posts (Craig’s List is your friend – we got one sighting reported though there).

We had three volunteer events on Tuesday. The first was a poster making party at my house (we even had pizza – the only “real” food I’d eaten in days) where three volunteers brought materials and poster printouts and we spent two hours making 150 of the most awesomely effective posters ever. It was a strange feeling staying at home when I knew Lucy was out there somewhere but I had to resist losing focus.

The second event was for a second set of volunteers who paired up to hang posters (one driver, one hanger). We set out in three different directions and hung posters for several hours. I fielded and mapped sightings with my sidekick’s help.

The third event was a meet up point for more poster hanging and actual searching at the last known spot. Based on our subsequent sightings we weren’t that far off from where she’d been a few hours earlier. Close, but no cigar.

The run, mapped

I want to provide all of the sightings to demonstrate not only the path she took and distance she travelled, but that in less than 24 hours I received 30 calls and 9 confirmed sightings, all due to the kick ass posters.

I live in Rose Hill right there at the bottom left:

Here is the full map on Bing

The run, timeline

All these sightings came in out of order so while making a valiant attempt at constructing a timeline, I’m sure this isn’t totally accurate.

Point of Escape/Sighting 1

Sunday 1pmish: Novelty Hill

The start of her journey.

Sighting 2

Sunday 5pm: 166th on Education Hill going south at 92nd

While I was hanging the very first poster (right) someone flagged me down to give me a sighting. Wow. For the first time we knew Lucy had in fact escaped the boarding property, had not gotten eaten by bears or coyotes behind their property (she was going the opposite way – smart girl!), and had navigated over a large highway (Avondale Way) in just a few hours from her escape. Unfortunately, she was seen running in traffic which was worrisome, but at least we had a trail.  And wow – she’d sure gone fast! She’d made it over halfway home in less than a few hours after escaping.

Unfortunately, in my haste I’d written all the details and sighter’s contact information on the back of a poster and mistakenly hung it somewhere. I wish I could contact that family because they were total dog people and had been very concerned. I hope they find out we found her.

Sighting 3

Monday 4pm: turned east into a cul-de-sac on 102nd at 166th

Sighter Todd said an obviously spooked Lucy ran up a cul-de-sac and went behind a house into a wooded area. I searched and postered there but no one had seen her.

Sighting 4

Monday 5pm: hanging out at a greenbelt near 116th and 166th

Sighter Mary Margaret said she seemed to be limping but not dangerously so (unlikely she’d been hit but was just tired).

Sighting 5

Monday 5pm: 172nd Ave NE going north crossing 116th

Sighter Laurie gave us the most detailed lead we received on Tuesday and even took the time to meet with us in person to show us exactly where Lucy had been. Lucy was running north on 172nd down a specific sidewalk and crossed 116th. The specificity and recency meant the search dog could get involved. Laurie knew immediately that she was a runaway dog and searched for her for over an hour but couldn’t find her. More than one sighter told me this which is so amazing.

Sidekick Dottie and I started to see a pattern: for over 24 hours she came up against scary highways and seemed to be trapped in Education Hill. Closing in might be possible!

Sighting 6

Tuesday 6pm: on jogging trail by Sunrise Elementary School

Oh no – she’d crossed busy 124th street. So much for our theory. Looks like she made the crossing at night.

Sighter Laurie said a jogger told her he “might” have seen Lucy just a few hours earlier.  This is where we had a rendezvous point Tuesday night and fanned out to search on foot for several hours.

Sighting 7

Tuesday at 7:30pm: running up 166th and turned onto 128th

Sighter Eric saw Lucy running up the middle of 166th blocking traffic. He was pretty annoyed that someone would let their dog run around loose until he realized she was totally spooked. He said he didn’t see the green tag on her but that she seemed to have a head too tiny for her fluffy body which is not something I’d heard before and made me chuckle.

This was a sighting that was recent enough to get a dog tracker to work it, and I spent hours combing the area Wednesday morning. Again, based on what I know now, she was well out of the area by then.

Sighting 8

Wednesday 1am: A Woodinville Winery

Sighter Chris called to tell me he was patrolling the grounds of a winery in Woodinville and spotted what he thought was a coyote.  Then he noticed Lucy’s green tag and realized it was a lost dog. He tried chasing her down but she ran away. He told his coworkers to keep an eye out for her but she was long gone. He found Lucy’s listing on Craig’s List because we hadn’t postered over there, found my number, and called me. So much for the theory that she was only travelling during the day!

Sighting 9

Wednesday 1pm: 136th NE Pl and NE 132nd

Julie gets the prize for most devotion to the cause. She spotted Lucy running up the middle of the street (and Lucy had almost come to her but turned around, kicked up her feet and jetted) and thought, “That looks like the dog I just saw on posters.” Frustratingly, she didn’t own a cell phone.  She drove to a poster and wrote down my number, actually flagged down a motorist who had a phone and called me. She had to give back the phone but stayed in an easily locatable spot and waited 15 minutes for me to show up (I don’t think I’d ever driven that fast). She waited another 20 minutes for the search dog to show up so she could give a specific details on the sighting. Though all the sightings helped us, this was the most crucial sighting that lead to her capture.

I’m going to buy Julie a cell phone

Search dog

Jim from Missing Pet Partnership arrived on the scene with his search dog, Kelsy, who looked so much like Desi it was eerie. Kelsy took the scent from one of Lucy’s stinky dog beds that the boarder had retrieved from my house and rushed over. Kelsy started from the point that Julie specified and then went in the opposite direction that we knew Lucy had been travelling. She took us around about a block radius and wallowed in tall grass where Lucy likely played and then went nuts around a hollowed out space in a bush. Our theory is that she went backwards and the bush was where Lucy had spent the night. We tried putting Kelsy back on the trail and she led us down to a monstrous vacant house (a sign of the times) and ended up very interested in some coyote poop. The conditions were a little too hot and dry for Kelsy to get a good scent on Lucy but since the sighting had been so recent, we wanted to give it a try. Kelsy is usually more successful so I want to encourage others to try her out if appropriate.

I drove around the area in the direction Julie said Lucy had been travelling and I put up some posters but didn’t see her. I decided to leave because based on other sightings and the speed at which she’d been travelling, she could again be anywhere. I went down the hill towards Woodinville and hit some traffic when I received a call.

Sighting 10

Wednesday 4:36pm: 136th NE Pl and NE 132nd

“I have your dog directly in my sight.” Oh my God.

Capture

I was a half mile away, having just left the area she currently was – I had likely been within 100 feet of her. She might have heard me softly calling but didn’t come. Sighter Bethany had seen a sign I’d just posted 5 minutes earlier, saw Lucy and immediately called me. I raced back while staying on the phone with Bethany (setting a personal land speed record), and talked her through exactly what she should (but mostly shouldn’t) do when capturing a skittish dog:

• Keep your distance but don’t let her out of your sight
• Don’t look like you are focusing on her, don’t even look at her
• Don’t get out of the car so she can see you are a person
• Don’t call her
• Find a bag or wrapper that sounds like a treat bag to crinkle
• If you aren’t in a car you can try lying on your back on the ground and they might be curious enough to investigate, especially if you are crinkling something
• Note the time, her exact location, mood, and health

I arrived on the scene and Jim was already there, in fact he called me when I was on the phone with Bethany. I hadn’t gone all the way down this driveway because there were big “No trespassing” signs but now that we knew she was down there we didn’t care. The home owner wasn’t too happy we were there but Bethany and Jim were already telling her the situation. I looked around and Jim was next to the house looking into the backyard. I was talking to Bethany and Jim motioned for us to be quiet.  He silently waved me over and I moved towards his position. There was Lucy in the backyard. She was dirty and wet and spooked. She had just seen Jim and was scurrying away, though not too fast, and she was headed towards the front area where the home owner and Bethany were talking. I pointed to the side of the house where Lucy was coming out and signaled for them to be quiet. Lucy appeared and she looked at them with trepidation and I just said her name in my normal baby voice that you use to talk to dogs and she came right to me. I basically crouched over and held her so tight and started sobbing.  Lucy was doing her earsplitting high pitched whine that she does when she sees me after she’s been stressed out but it was super loud. I could hear the home owner ask Jim and Bethany how long Lucy had been gone and I heard one of them say, “Three days,” and the home owner finally understood what was happening. I kind of came to and apologized for my embarrassing outburst but I know no one minded it – it was pretty honest.

Jim took some photos, including the one that’s been making the rounds.

He lent me a leash and I loaded stinky Lucy into the car. I talked to Jim for awhile afterwards and he gave me some advice about not letting her gorge herself on food and water. I texted and emailed the volunteers who had been helping and let the news fan out.

I couldn’t stop looking at her the entire way home.

After care

The first thing Lucy did was drink a ton of water and ate an entire bowl of food (which is unusual for her to do all at once). She was very stinky but not as muddy as you might imagine (her fur seems to repel dirt). I gave her a bath – and me too! We were both pretty gross. I bundled her up in towels and she basically didn’t move for four hours.

Lucy was obviously very sore but didn’t seem to have any serious injuries or broken bones. The pads of her feet, however, had abrasions and ulcers. I called the emergency vet (my regular vet was closed) and they said that if they were particularly deep and in need of cleaning to bring her in but otherwise we should just let her sleep and not traumatize her by heading in there. I took her to my regular vet the next day and they said that she just needed antibiotics, a bit of tramadol, and periodic soaking in warm water with Epsom salt for 5-10 minutes.

She is understandably suffering some post-traumatic stress (so am I!).  She is much more attached to me, was quite wary of the highway at the vet’s office, and was particularly shaky at the vet. I think her behavior will return to normal in the coming week or so. (Postscript: She seems to be almost totally back to normal four days later).

Final theories on her journey

It’s quite possible she knew where home was because after escaping she immediately made a beeline in that direction. This is statistically improbable and knowing Lucy, is pretty amazing. Even though she may be a bundle of neuroses, she is still a dog.

We also think she was travelling along the Olympic oil pipeline that eventually runs by my house and is a place we often go walking. She may have been trying to go home that way, and in fact, was found right on the pipeline. See this photo? The bright white dot in the bottom left quadrant is where she was found and that green strip on the left is the pipeline. She might have made it home in a few more days.  Of course, that’s how the local bears travel too which is scary.

While most of her sightings were her running the the middle of the road, you can’t extrapolate a behavior pattern from that because more people are on roads which lead to them calling in the sightings.  The most interesting sighting was at the winery at 1am – it’s so unlikely that a human would be out there to even see her at that time of night. Frank has given her a new nickname: The White Coyote.

I imagine this may not be true in all cases, but Lucy travelled the most the first day, and less the subsequent days. Her pads were raw and painful and she was sore from running, plus she got trapped in a neighborhood she couldn’t easily escape from so maybe that’s why she was there for over three hours.

Tips for searchers

General tips

• You need one leader in charge. This is a full-time job. I happen to be skilled at design, marketing, social media, project management (organizing, prioritizing, resourcing, leading), and compartmentalizing emotions to function well in a crisis. For people that don’t have these skills it would be much harder to be successful, but it’s hard to delegate the “top job”. Hopefully you know a trusted friend who has intense passion and the ability to kick major ass at this stuff. I only know one person I’d trust with that (a dog lover and former EMT), and I put her in charge of all my online and phone activities and she enlisted volunteers to help her. I would resist putting all your trust in an organization that helps out people in this situation (there are many out there) because they just don’t have the same incentive you do and it’s hard to know who is reputable.
• Resist searching all night. The most heart wrenching thing I’ve ever done was lay comfortably in my warm bed while I knew Lucy was likely sleeping under a bush in the cold rain. The fact was, it was very improbable that I going to find her at night and I needed at least enough sleep to function.
• One way to stop from spiraling into sadness is to imagine what your pet would want you to do. It’s your responsibility to find them and there were a few times I pulled over to cry and then made myself stop and kept driving because Lucy needed me to. While it’s important to release some emotion, you can cry more later.
• Posters were by far the most effective tool in finding her. She went missing Sunday afternoon, we started hanging posters Tuesday afternoon, and we located her Wednesday afternoon.  So even with a 48 hour head start it only took 24 hours of the posters being up to locate her.
• I’d recommend doing the poster hanging in response to the sightings once they start coming in because we initially postered quite a bit in the total opposite direction of her first sighting. I wish I’d saved more for the second day of searching so that when I had those fresh leads I could have postered more in those areas. Luckily I had saved a few and those were the ones that did the trick. One tactic you could use is to remove posters from areas you know she isn’t in and reuse them in better areas.
• Double back the next day to check on old posters, especially in the rain. Many of ours needed retaping or stapling.
• Write down the name of each sighter and their phone number as well as the sighting information. I didn’t write down some of the phone numbers because I figured I already had them in my phone, but trying to sort that out later is proving to be a mess and I really wanted to tell some of the callers that we found her.
• Some callers want to talk for 10 minutes on the phone even though the sighting isn’t credible or was a lot older than the leads you are currently following. Once a fresher lead went to voicemail while I tried to get someone who’d sighted her less recently off the phone. Afterwards I tried to be direct (bordering on rudely abrupt) about my priorities and say I was meeting up with a search dog and had to go just so I could keep the line free to talk to sighters in person.
• Oh, and I got three calls recommending pet psychics. Just sayin.
• After you find your pet, make sure you account for calling the vets/shelters and taking the online ads and posters down and save some volunteer resources for that – you will have zero time to do this yourself in  timely manner.  One of my volunteers had a great idea to leave a few of the large posters up at key intersections and add new printouts that say “SHE’S BEEN FOUND! THANK YOU!”  Wouldn’t that make your day to see that on your commute instead of a sad poster that flutters and fades after a month? I even received two calls thanking me for posting the found signs, and three calls from people who were relieved then they’d seen the Craig’s List posting upated with the found photo.

Poster supplies needed

Don’t skimp. The life of your pet is at stake. This totaled $200, not counting printing costs.

• Poster printouts – I’d recommend 150 the first day, 100 a day subsequent days, though if you are in a dense urban area, you may not need as many
• Fluorescent poster board – I’d recommend 50 large, 100 for portrait posters (however you want to cut that up – I think it’s 1/4 a large so that’s 75 large sheets total).  I know that seems like a lot and poster board is expensive but DON’T SKIMP HERE.We ran out of poster board on the second day, but that could have been prevented by not wasting so many posters in questionable areas
• Sheet protectors – these saved our butts because it rained the entire night after we hung the posters
• Giant fat markers
• Strong clear packing tape – 8 rolls
• Duct tape – 8 rolls (at least one per hanging car)
• Scissors – 8 pair (enough for poster party and at least one per hanging car)
• Heavy duty staple gun (one per hanging car – wish I’d gotten more of those)
• Heavy duty staple gun staples!

Things to take in your car

You are office camping! Be prepared!

• It works well to put things in reusable canvas/vinyl grocery bags
• One bag of office supplies
• One bag of posters
• One bag of food
• One bag of clothes
• A folder for map printouts or an actual map (I wished my iPad had 3g! My tiny iPhone screen didn’t cut it)
• Notebook and paper to take down sighting information
• PHONE CHARGER (My mistake #3!)
• Paper towels
• Food that will keep (PBJ FTW!)
• Enough water for a full day
• Shoes, jacket, jeans in case you get too wet
• Hat in case it rains
• Light waterproof jacket
• Gloves in case you go into brambles
• Flashlights, non-wimpy
• Crinkly wrappers to entice a dog
• Leashes

Thanks

I want to specially thank my hard core volunteers: Brandy, Jaree, Debbi, Jacki, Kim, Dottie, Nelly, Khiota, Frank, Penny, and Susan. Let me know if I’ve forgotten someone!

I also want to thank the people that called in sightings, several of whom searched for over an hour and even took time out to meet with me in person.

Chris, Jim, and all the good people at Missing Pet Partnership. Please donate to them – they really need donations to keep going.

And all the people who passed on the information online and showed their concern. I was overwhelmed with the outpouring of support and effort from both my friends and total strangers.

What a happy ending. As one of my friends wrote, “Well goddamn. The world isn’t so bad.”

I didn’t know what to do – I was there alone with another disabled senior dog and a high maintenance devil of a dog that was going to be no help either.  I immediately called the most knowledgeable person I knew: Judith from Old Dog Haven. Thank God she answered the phone and told me exactly what was going on:  While it looked like a stroke, strokes are very rare in dogs and it was quite likely that Desi was having a vestibular event.  Wait 15 – 20 minutes and she should be able to walk home with some help.  Use the leashes or a towel as a sling if necessary. She may have residual effects but it was not life-threatening.  What relief.

While sitting in the park and trying to keep Desi calm, I did some research. (What did we do before Smartphones?).

What is Vestibular Disease?

The Vestibular System is what keeps the head and body oriented with gravity. It includes sensors in the inner ear that provide a sense of balance and equilibrium. During a vestibular event, the brain is unable to recognize the information from the inner ear and the result is much like being super drunk with the spins.  (Yep, that’s about how Desi looked!)

Vestibular disease typically affects dogs larger dogs (check) who are 12-14 years old (check), particularly Labs (check).  The causes are unknown in most cases, but can rarely be caused by ear infections, tumors, cancer in the ear or brain tumors. Symptoms come on very suddenly and are drastic and frightening to witness. Dogs can stagger and stumble, roll, have head tilt, eyes that dart or roll, have facial paralysis, head tremor, and body weakness.

A dog with Vestibular Disease

While a visit to the vet can provide peace of mind, there is no medical treatment for Vestibular Disease and the symptoms of an event usually go away after a few days.  That said, I’ve read that some people have treated it with Prednisone and Acupuncture and I’ve tried Dramamine, though I’m not sure how well it worked. If you do go to the vet, just keep in mind that some vets don’t know about this disease and some animals have been euthanized unnecessarily so go in well-informed and get second opinions if you need to.

What to expect

After 20 minutes, Desi was able to stand and walk home, albeit with a leash sling under her belly and frequent stops.  She didn’t want to move for 24 hours, and then only for short distances.  Typically what would happen is that she would realize she really had to go to the bathroom and she’d try to get up quickly and make her way to the door but would fall somewhere on the way and pee.  Although she was very nauseous (her moans were so sad) she did not throw up, but she did not want to eat or drink on her own and required hand feeding and a lot of coaxing.  After the third day, she was walking normal distances (outside to go to the bathroom with assistance), and after the fifth day she was almost back to normal.

How to prepare

These are things to have on hand to treat your dog:

1. Irresistible food. Chicken and rice, baby food, or a bland canned food.  Normal treats will probably not suffice.
2. A lot of towels.  Not your normal three dog towels, more like 10. Thrift stores and garage sales are great places to pick up towels on the cheap. I guess doggie diapers would work too – I hadn’t thought of that until now.
3. A sling or harness.  This is particularly important with a big dog. Desi is 75 lbs which isn’t even that big for a Lab but 75 lbs of dead weight is not easy to carry. Get a real dog harness or carrier. I got a cheap one made by Outward Hound that works ok but falls off her so I would recommend one that is more fitted and has a chest strap like this one by RuffWear.
4. Dramamine: 1-2 mg per kg (05-1 mg per pound) twice daily
5. Prepare for care. Make arrangements for what you would do if your dog needed 24-7 care and you weren’t able to provide it.

How to treat

1. Keep your dog still. The most dangerous part of this illness is the potential injury your dog could suffer from falling.  Desi almost hit her head really hard on a table leg during her first episode. They really don’t have control and should not be left to navigate on their own. If possible leash, crate or pen your dog.
2. Keep things calm and quiet and provide moral support.  Dogs don’t understand why their world is suddenly turned literally upside down from their perspective and will need reassurance.  Don’t get upset because dogs can read that and will get more worried.
3. Hand feed and water your dog.  They can be very nauseous and may not want to eat.  If they refuse even food you would eat yourself, you may have to take them to the vet to get an IV.  During the first day of an episode, Desi will only eat cooked chicken.
4. Prepare for indoor restroomage.  Keep a lot of towels under their rear and don’t let them get up suddenly and stagger towards something because they will likely fall and pee on it (oh my poor sleeping bag…)
5. Leave a light on.  This helps them keep their bearings.
6. Be prepared to provide 24-7 care for at least 48 hours.  Desi requires 3 days of constant monitoring when she has a vestibular event.  Luckily most of the episodes have happened on the weekend and I can work from home for a day or two.

Lingering effects

Desi has a very slight head tilt and when she runs back up to me with the ball her back legs are off to the side a bit (reminds me of two people in a horse costume). But she runs and fetches just like she used to, which at 15 years old now is a blessing.  Not every dog is lucky enough to recover as well as Desi did, but most are not bothered by the symptoms that linger (usually head tilt).  You can search YouTube for dogs with vestibular syndrome – there are tons of videos.

However, Desi used to love the water.  She’s a Lab, right?  She used to jump into the water after the ball and swim and swim.  I had even taken her to a doggie spa in the wintertime a few times so she should swim in a heated pool which she loved.  Since the onset of her Vestibular Disease, water makes her panic.  I took her to the lake twice last summer – the first time I thought the waves were too much for her and the second time in calmer water I realized she was just done with swimming in the lake – she was just stressed out and not happy.  This past winter I took her to Mega-Dogs dog swimming pool in Woodinville (which is awesome) and she was totally panic-stricken.  It looks like water just doesn’t agree with her anymore, now that her vestibular system has been compromised.

It can come back

Some owners report that they have not witnessed subsequent events in their animals but many report repeat occurrences.  I’m writing this on the weekend of Desi’s fifth event in a year and a half.  Each event has been similar, although there were two in the middle that weren’t as severe as the first or the one she’s currently going through.  I’ve actually been surprised by this one – it has been worse than the last three and I’d hoped they would get less severe over time but I fear the severity has been random.

One day last summer I came home from work and she was having an attack. I don’t know how long it had been going on, but it made me not want to spend too many hours away from home at a time again.

Having old dogs is a lot of responsibility and work, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

—–

Addendum: Unfortunately, this time Desi’s symptoms did not get better after a few days like they usually did.  On day four her breathing became labored and she was not just dizzy but weak.  I took her to the vet and they discovered a football-sized tumor in her abdomen.  She passed away that night, just two days after I wrote this.  She was 15 and we were so lucky she was happy and able up almost until the very end. So the takeaway is to get your dog to the vet if symptoms change or you want a concrete diagnosis.  In Desi’s case, we are fairly sure she did have a vestibular event, but her tumor made it impossible for her to recover.

Helpful reading:

Vestibular disease: Leave a light on

Vestibular Disease in Dogs   By: PetPlace Veterinarians

I’m a music person: someone who needs a soundtrack in my life.  If I didn’t, I’d listen to NPR and call it done.  Luckily, I like a wide variety of music so I don’t pick a radio station based on just its genre.  My main criteria is that the people are likeable and aren’t annoying.  Unfortunately, this limits my options down to two music stations in Seattle: 103.7 KMTT (“The Mountain”), because they have good people, and JACK FM, because they have no people (their gimmick is that they totally DJ-free).

Someone on Yelp described The Mountain as, “The radio station that doesn’t insult your intelligence,” and that’s an accurate baseline.  The DJs on the Mountain are “good people”; they are genuine and likeable and you’d be comfortable and have fun  hanging out with them.  After listening to them every day for years, they feel like friends and I truly care about them as people.  They lack the superficiality and ego that pervades most radio shows on rock stations and they don’t resort to base humor to get laughs.  The topics they talk about are mainstream with a lefty bent.  It’s like a wonderful little No Kardasian Zone.

The Mountain also has a deep history in Seattle.  In line with their moniker, they are very environmentally aware and involved, partnering with Subaru (“on the road to carbon neutral”) to plant trees on the mountain to Sound greenway. The Mountain also sponsored the much-missed Summer Nights Concerts on the Pier (hey – join my Bring Back the Concerts on the Pier Facebook group!), they put out a compilation album every year of live tracks from “Mountain Artists” recorded in their studio, and they even go on the road and broadcast from local coffee shops.  I previously blogged about their broadcast at the Redmond Tully’s in 2006 and 2007 (check out my photos, which they published on their website).  Events like these keep their core listeners involved and invested in the station.

So what happened?

In 2009, Dave Bensen came up from SF to become the new Program Director and the programming seemed to shift from the strong heritage of acoustic adult alternative genre to the more “variety/classic rock” format you see at JACK FM stations.  The Mountain’s position of being intelligent and progressive started getting diluted. They started playing more Pink Floyd and less Brandi Carlile.  The idea was to widen their audience which is a totally fair goal, but I believe they alienated their core listeners.  Core listeners are not only less likely to change the channel, but they are more likely to buy their CD compilation, attend their concerts and events, and market them with bumper stickers (and blogs!).  Maybe there aren’t as many of us as they’d like, but we are more valuable (and vocal!) than transitory listeners.

I think some of the problem is their narrowing the age of their target audience. The feedback on the Mountain’s Facebook page is very anti-classic rock and I know that a particularly grating “oldie” is what makes me flip the channel the fastest.  Most people identify the music that was popular before they came of age with their parents.  For me, that’s the music of the 60’s and early 70’s.  I don’t consider 80’s music “classic”, just nostalgic because I lived through it. I imagine people ten years older than me feel the same about music from the 70′s, and people twenty years older than me feel great about 60′s music.  I think the Mountain has targeted older people by playing more music from the 60’s and 70’s (and replacing the engagement ring ads with cancer care ads!  Thanks, I think).  In some ways this may have made sense when considering who is still listening to FM radio in general (those young whipper-snappers and their technology!) but there are some people like me (Ok, admittedly more technical than young) who are committed to FM, for better or for worse and diluting the qualities that made me a core listener doesn’t seem smart.

It sounds like other listeners are just as confused and concerned. Recently, the station has started hammering on their new tagline so hard it’s gotten grating.  “Acoustic, Electric, Classic, Eclectic”, while catchy, is too broad and only somewhat accurate.  Acoustic yes.  That’s the Mountain’s key differentiator.  Indigo Girls, Brandi Carlile, Jack Johnson, Lyle Lovett. Yes, yes, yes.  But Electric? That’s a little fuzzier. Why not play some Def Leppard then?  This butt-rock chick would dig that, but that’s not what the Mountain is about. Classic?  That’s relative, plus there are other stations doing “Classic Rock” (like 95.7).  Eclectic?  OK – play some Bjork!  Yes, I get it, I am just not totally sold.

Then amongst this programming shift, 12-year station vet Marty Reimer, and his sidekick Jodi Brothers, were abruptly  “fired” back in 2009 and were replaced with a pair of DJs that sounded robot versions of them.  I felt bad for the new guys, they were put in a tough position, but they were lacking the warmth and humanity of  Marty and Jodi and people were rightly pissed.  Protest groups sprung up and the Mountain’s Facebook page was filled with toxic vitriol for months.  At that point I started changing my listening habits.  I now listen to JACK or the Mountain, switching back and forth when one or the other plays “Tiny Dancer” (inevitable, unfortunately). I don’t like listening to JACK in the morning though – it feels very lonely with no DJs and I feel out of the loop without news updates.

What now?

The Mountain has been talking about making a lot of changes starting on Monday the 17th and have gone through an excessive palette cleansing period (two weeks of an A-Z and then Z-A playlist with no DJs at all).  It’s clear since the morning DJ Sean Demery left at the beginning of the year that there will be someone else at the helm, but they’ve alluded to changes in the programming as well.  And as crazy as it seems, clues point to Marty Reimer making a return. The station actively solicited and publicized listener feedback, including the persistent cries to bring Marty back (they even included listeners expressing this in a recent promo for the impending changes).  Also, I have found it puzzling that Marty continued to stay in Seattle and broadcast from his basement to a podcast audience for the last year and a half.  I don’t think he would have done that if he didn’t think he could get his job back.  If he really thought he couldn’t, he would have moved to another market or on to a new career.  However, I find it hard to imagine the Mountain would take him back after whatever it is that caused him to be let go, plus there was the defiance he showed by moving his daily stand up comedy feature to the Mountain’s competitor Jack FM, calling it the “5:19 Funny”, airing one minute before the Mountain’s “5:20 Funny”.  I’d pay good money to be a fly on the wall during their negotiations if he’s really coming back.

And even if Marty comes back, I’ll still miss fan-favorite Lee Callahan (now on the air at several other stations, including JACK) and I’ll still miss the duo of John Fisher and Mike West.  Remember the Fisher and West Rock Test?  “Pass the test and we’ll play your request!”  I actually bought a waterproof radio for my shower because I kept listening for the Rock Test every morning and running late for work. I always wanted to pass the test and then request something crazy like Metallica.  I was devastated when Mike West left in 2006 and John moved to afternoons and Marty took over in the mornings (and Lee left abruptly afterwards). What I’d really love is for Fisher and West (and Lee) to come back in the mornings, Marty to move to the afternoon, and all will be right with the world.  But that’s turning back a lot of time.  I guess we’ll all find out on Monday!

Make a budget

The first thing to do is think about your annual giving budget. Maybe there are external goals you can strive for, such as being a “Leadership Giver” ($1000/yr at Microsoft) or meeting your company’s matching limit ($12k/yr at Microsoft). Tithing in many religions requires a donation of 10% of your income to charity. That might seem like a lot to some people and a little to others – people are different and it’s all relative.  Think about how blessed you to have health, a job, and a safe place to live.  If you don’t have those things, that’s something to consider, too.  There is so much need in the world.  Think about how much money you could give up on a monthly basis and feel ok about it.  There’s a number in there somewhere – just find it.  If you have more time than money to give, find ways to volunteer your time to organizations.  Some companies actually match volunteer time with cash ($17/hr in Microsoft’s case).  Think of your time, just like cash, as one of your resources to give.

List your causes

Now make a list of the causes that are most important to you.  Start with ideas, and problems, not specific organizations.  Hunger?  Education?  Human rights?  What causes mean the most to you?  What fires you up?  What makes you sad?  What gives you hope?  Be specific. Like most people I care about world hunger and eradicating disease, but I am also passionate about things not many people have heard of, such as Adoptee rights, which are the rights of adoptees to their own birth records. What can you support that not many other people will? Think about how your unique life experience can positively impact the world.

Find the right mix

Now make groups, or mind maps, of these ideas.  Are there patterns?  Maybe there are several causes that can all fall under “Political reform” or “Disease prevention”.  Maybe there are four similar things but you mostly care about a fifth.  Think about finding a combination of causes that represents you.  Make it proportional.  Make a pie chart.  Bust out Excel. Here’s a xls that can get your started.  Limit yourself to five causes or less so you don’t spread yourself too thin.

I think this is the most important part of the process because you can uncover areas where your passions and your giving are misaligned.  I have found that what often happens is that when giving is opportunistic, you disproportionately give to causes that are close to home.  For example, since I’m gay, I have many friends and organizations that are constantly pelting me with appeals to support LGBT causes, yet I am also passionate about causes that are not in my face all the time so I have to be more deliberate about my support of them.

Choose organizations

Now that you know what’s important to you, who is making a difference in these spaces already?  Who are the big guns that just need more ammunition?  Are there gaps in the services they are providing?  Perhaps newer organizations you can support as they get off the ground?  Do some digging on the web, “Like” organizations on Facebook, ask friends who are involved with organizations what they are like.  Fill in a few potential organizations under your causes and take the time to winnow them down. Your overall budget will come into play here: You don’t want to give much less than $100 to each organization so that your money goes to more than just the overhead of keeping you as a donor.  Keep the numbers simple.

Don’t spread yourself too thin. Making a large donation to one group is better than splitting it between two similar groups because your money will have more of an impact.  Not only will there be less overhead (mailings, e-newsletters, events to attend) but you will be able to focus your own attention better on fewer groups.  Think of this as building a relationship, not dump-the-money-and-run.

Plan the timing

Maybe you want to make all your donations at once so you are done with it (and are less likely to change your mind later!) or maybe you want to make half your donations now and half in six months – whatever works within the rest of your financial plan.  Some organizations offer monthly auto-payments, but one-time donations are simpler to manage as a whole.

One option to consider is choosing one organization per month to really focus on and dive into.  Maybe an organization has an annual auction or fundraiser and you can give them that whole month.  Think about them that month, read all their mail, drag your friends to their events, and feel connected.  Then you can move on to another organization next month.  It’s a way of feeling like you don’t have to be 100% involved in every organization 100% of the time.  Give 100% 10% of the time.  If you feel good about what you are giving, it doesn’t matter how quickly you give it.

Adjust as necessary

So Katrina happens – now what?  One thing to remember is that the vast majority of people are reactionary givers.  Most natural disasters elicit massive donations from the general public, often at the expense of donations to other organizations.  You can stand steadfast and stick to your plan, make disaster relief one of your causes you already give to, or plan for some discretionary giving every year.  Just don’t get swayed by emotional appeals and throw the rest of the plan out the window.  Life happens – you can adjust the plan if necessary.  The goal is to feel good about your plan and the impact it’s making on the world.

Have a great, giving New Year!

In honor of the Christmas season, I’m pulling out an oldie but a goodie out of the archives.  The following is a 100% true story I wrote for my personal web site back in 1997 before the days of blogs.  Enjoy.

The worst job I ever had was a temp job working the customer counter at UPS during the holiday season. I learned so much about the psychology of Christmas; it was both fascinating and disturbing.

As I expected, I dealt with hundreds of hurried shoppers who were breathless from trying to make those last purchases in time for them to get there before Santa, but as the days wore on, the true ugliness of human nature was revealed in to me in a way I would just as soon forget. Every other customer was a spouse (usually the husband) sending presents to ungrateful distant relatives that his spouse (usually the wife) had packed. What exactly was in those huge boxes was unbeknownst to him. He was just doing his (easier) part of Christmas duty and he just wanted to shell out some money and get rid of the damn things. But ah, it is not so easy! First we must know what is *in* these mammoth boxes so that we can discern whether they are a hazard to UPS employees. If they contain glass of any kind, which most Christmas presents do, they must be checked to make sure they are “double-boxed” which will make them more likely to arrive in one piece. Yes, this means opening the boxes. Yes, this means unwrapping the presents. Is that a picture frame? A Christmas ornament? A jar of mint marmalade? You don’t know? Well I’m afraid we have to unwrap it. Yes, you can call your wife.

So there was always one man in the service area calling his wife. There was also always one wife having a nervous breakdown about us having to ruin her intricate gift wrapping and wasting her valuable time. “What do you mean you have to tear this open? I just want to get rid of this stuff! Take it! What do I care if it breaks? Just take it! Here I’ll break it for you! (Stomp Stomp Stomp!)”

There were more than a few women who actually resorted to stomping on their packages for us to demonstrate their willingness to send broken presents. Hell, what did they care- it’s the thought that counts, right? And wouldn’t it serve those ungrateful nieces and nephews right to get mangled booty. Wretches. This in turn made the men on the phone change their minds about calling their wives. “Oh, I just remembered what was in those packages- it’s books! Yeah, right. Books and clothes!” That became the savior of the season. I whispered it to the temporarily bewildered customers as they waited in the serpentine lines. Books and clothes. Books and clothes. A seasonal mantra evoking safety and peace.

May your holidays be full of books and clothes.

A few friends have gotten their first iPhone in the last week and I thought I’d list my current favorite iPhone apps (besides Text, Mail, Calendar, Phone).

Useful apps, in order of how much I use them:

1. Facebook
2. mBox Mail – for Hotmail/Live Mail
3. Listomni – this is how I manage my life! I have 200+ tasks prioritized which keeps me focused and not overwhelmed. The grocery list is worth the price of admission: it remembers what I shop for, knows where to find things, and it makes it super easy to shop
4. Mint.com – money management and budgeting.  Amazing.
5. Accuweather and The Weather Channel – Accuweather is pretty accurate
6. TweetDeck – my favorite Twitter app
7. Yelp – This comes in handy often – I check it to see the best restaurant/shopping/repair place nearby and I write reviews that feed out to Windows Live and Facebook
8. Urbanspoon – A fun way to find restaurants
9. Wikipanion – Wikipedia
10. BigOven – Recipes
11. MyNetDiary – Food, Weight, Exercise tracking
12. Pandora – internet radio. Only problem with it is the speed/quality/connection but I use it at the gym when I have good reception
13. iPhlix – For managing Netflix
14. eBay – Dangerous!
15. Amazon – Even more dangerous!

How I get my news:

1. Huff Post – the left
2. WSJ – the right
3. NYTimes – the Times
4. NetNewsWire – RSS

Fun stuff:

1. myLighter – fun at concerts
2. Flashlight – this has come in handy more than once
3. Rain Stick – what a nice sound
4. Labyrinth LE – tilt to move the marble around the wooden maze
5. LightSaber – great sound effects
6. Handy Level – it’s a real level!
7. Ocarina – amazing use of the iphone’s capabilities

Headed to SXSW Interactive tomorrow – I’m very excited.  I’m from Austin so it’s actually a vacation and I’ll be down there for a week and a half to visit the family and play in the sun as well.  This is the weather here today in Redmond and I need a vacation!If you are as overwhelmed as I am by the almost 400 panels, here’s my Excel spreadsheet that I used to sort and filter. http://cid-989d470165883d80.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/SXSWi  Unfortunately it’s not up to the minute accurate (copied from http://sxsw2009.sched.org/ last night) but it’s a good way to get a baseline.And if you get a free afternoon, here’s my list of swimmin holes that are fairly close to the city. 

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&encType=1&cid=989D470165883D80!7002

Say hi if you see me there!