By Nicole June
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – After 17 months of struggle an injured dog has been rescued, thanks to the efforts of a concerned citizen and Montgomery County Animal Care and Control.
The story of Patches the dog began when a resident of the Tiny Town Rd. area (who will be referred to as ‘Ms. S’) spotted an Australian Shepard near the woods behind her property on July 5, 2014.
The dog ran from Ms. S when she approached him, and it was then that she noticed the dog’s collar was wrapped around its neck and hooked to its leg.
The dog had to lift up the leg to walk or run.
Because of the dog’s markings, she dubbed him ‘Patches.’
Ms. S called several rescue organizations for help but kept getting rejected. She reached out to Animal Control, which was under an interim director at the time. She seemed to have reached a dead end.
She continued leaving food and water every day for Patches, despite only spotting him late at night and sometimes not at all for weeks at a time.
“All I could do was pray that he survived. He wouldn’t come out during the day,” Ms. S said.
Then, in early 2015, Jeanette Farrell was hired as the new permanent director of Animal Control and quickly became interested in Patches’ case.
“It was such a blessing. She (Farrell) is so wonderful,” Ms. S said. “She came on her off-day and she wanted to know what was going on with Patches. Since that first day, she kept up with him.”
Farrell and Officer Rodney Journey personally searched the property for Patches, but could find no sign of him. Farrell then assigned Officer Journey to continue the case.
Farrell suggested that in the meantime Ms. S should install trail cameras to monitor Patches and make sure he was alright, since he had been so hard to spot in the daytime.
“That camera relieved a lot of worry for me,” Ms. S said. “For 17 months I was emotionally and mentally stressed out because I care so much about animals and I knew he was hurting with that collar wrapped around his neck and leg. It was just awful.”
Officer Journey got to work setting traps for Patches, but caught just about everything but the dog.
“The dog was pretty smart and didn’t go into regular traps,” Journey said.
He enlisted the help of other officers and volunteers to surround the area and corral Patches, but this failed as well.
“I pondered how to catch this dog because it seemed to be avoiding anything that we did,” he said.
Officer Journey spoke to two local businesses that provided him with advice and loaned him a large kennel with a self-locking door as well as a wireless video camera to track Patches in real time.
A military friend loaned him 450 feet of parachute cord, which he used to tie from the kennel to Ms. S’s back porch. He told Ms. S to watch the camera to see when Patches went inside, then pull the cord to lock the door.
After the third night of watching and waiting, Ms. S finally saw Patches enter the kennel. She pulled the cord, locking him inside, and called Officer Journey with the good news, who said he would come out in the morning to collect him.
After she heard him whimpering around 5 a.m., Ms. S went out to sit near Patches. “He is the most docile, precious animal you’ve ever met,” she said.
“It was awesome, after a 17-month chase. He was really a friendly dog, he was just scared,” Officer Journey said.
Patches was taken to the vet and scanned for a microchip. Much to the surprise of everyone at Animal Control, he had one.
The microchip revealed that Patches (whose real name is Willy) had been missing for almost four years. He had come from a home with a history of domestic violence, and the former owners agreed to surrender him to Animal Control and remain anonymous, due to a restraining order.
Patches will remain at Tiny Town Vet until he recovers, and will then be placed in foster care before being adopted. Ms. S unfortunately cannot adopt Patches, but said she just wants what’s best for him.
Farrell was glad that the dog could finally rest easy. “It’s been our goal to get Patches. This is a whole community effort,” she said. “He is the sweetest dog.”
Ms. S is grateful for the hard work of Farrell and Journey. “I really want to thank both of them, because I couldn’t get help from anybody,” she said. “No matter how many months went by she (Farrell) always cared about him. When Officer Journey was put in charge of the ‘Patches team’, without his ideas, Patches would have never been caught.”
Contact Montgomery County Animal Care and Control at 931-648-5750.