Over the recent holiday weekend, Vashon Island Pet Protectors fielded calls for about 15 lost dogs, and one of those dogs is still missing.
Pete Kelley, the owner of Tumble, who is nearly 16, said Saturday that he and his wife are still hopeful they will find their dog.
“I haven’t given up on finding him,” he said, noting that the dog, while elderly, still sometimes acts like a puppy.
Kelley, who lives near the Southworth ferry, said he came to the island as part of a July 4 tradition. Tumble previously had stayed close to him or his wife during fireworks, but this year, someone in the group set off a loud fire- work, and Tumble, frightened, took off. He fled from the Wesleyan Way neighborhood, down Vashon Highway and eventually was spotted, still sprinting, going over a steep slope on SW 276th Street.
Amy Carey is Vashon Island Pet Protectors’ dog coordinator, and she learned about Tumble through Facebook and a call from Kelley.
Once Carey determined just how steep the slope is — above the Lost Lake area — she called in the Washington State Animal Response Team, a non-profit all-volunteer organization that helps get pets and livestock out of dangerous situations. That group was on the island just three hours after Carey’s call to them, she said.
Two of its members donned climbing harnesses and roped up to navigate the slope. Three islanders who are first responders for the Seattle Fire Department, Marci Grimsley, Janet Jaeger and Annie Myers, also came out to help, Carey said.
In all, Kelley said, he counted 14 volunteers that day looking for Tumble. Unfortunately, they did not find him, but they did find the red bandana he had been wearing. Additional search efforts have also been unsuccessful.
Carey said she has been the lost and found dog coordinator for about five years, and every year the July 4 holiday is “horrific,” with multiple calls about frightened, lost dogs.
This situation is particularly tough, she noted, because the Lost Lake area is hundreds of acres with few trails. She added she believes that if searchers can find Tumble soon, he will be OK.
“The ones we don’t find haunt all of us,” she added.
