Aspen, a missing American Eskimo dog, has been recovered

After a near month-long search in every corner of Moscow and beyond, local resident Jim Mital has safely recovered Aspen, his two-year-old American Eskimo rescue dog that escaped during the response to the Moscow Mountain and Idler’s rest wildfire on Aug. 30.  

Mital had adopted Aspen from Becky’s Best Buddies rescue organization in Chewelah, WA merely two days before she bolted out of his rural Moscow home. Mital has owned several other American Eskimo dogs in the past and went into the adoption process looking for the breed after unexpectedly losing another “Eskie”, Tinker, to liver cancer.  

Mital was notified of Aspen being available to adopt through adoptapet.com, an adoption website where he had specified wanting a mature American Eskimo dog to care for at an older age while working full time with the National Marine Fisheries Service.  

Mital set up an interview and meet-and-greet with Angus, his Doberman Pinscher, in Washington and immediately connected with Aspen. Becky Washington, the coordinator of Becky’s Best Buddies, agreed that they would be a good fit, filing the adoption paperwork that same day. 

During mid-afternoon on Aug. 30, Mital was taking his dogs out for a bathroom break when Aspen, lounging on a nearby couch, sprung out of the open door, presumably spooked by emergency response teams handling the wildfire containment nearby.  

Mital initially tried to pursue Aspen on foot in flip-flops, but eventually followed her with his vehicle, already losing a several-minute lead in the process. It was during this initial pursuit that Mital became aware of the nearby wildfire. 

“I concentrated my search traffic in the areas west of Idler’s Rest Road,” Mital said. “I spent all afternoon (and) early evening looking for her, and could not find her.” 

Aspen spent the beginning of her life in a puppy mill, most likely restrained in a cage and not socialized with either humans or animals, causing her to be skittish and distrustful of people. This categorizes her as “high-flight risk” in unfamiliar or frightening situations. Mital believes that Aspen sensed the vehicles and action of the first-response team handling the Idler’s Rest wildfire, and this caused her to flee out of fear. 

During the first days of his search, Mital focused his efforts on creating lost-dog fliers and posting them in his neighborhood and nearby surroundings, assuming that Aspen would stick within the rural area.  

As the days and weeks went on, Mital received dozens of reported sightings of Aspen from neighbors, University of Idaho students and employees and Moscow community members. These reported sightings spanned the entire Moscow area from Wal-Mart, to the cemetery, to UI’s golf course and Student Recreation Center, to the Living Learning Communities, to both arboretums, among other locations.  

Community members would often try to chase or call after Aspen to capture her, but this proved unsuccessful due to her skittish and distrustful personality. 

After over two weeks of searching, Mital changed his strategy from following Aspen’s activity from each location to notating her travel patterns in an effort to safely live-capture her using a trap and savory bait. The strategy change was inspired by Babs Fry, a San Francisco “pet detective” and rescue/recovery specialist.  

“I just really started emphasizing on my posters and on my web page, ‘okay, do not chase her, just report the sightings to me, I’m putting those all on a Google map layer, and that will help us know once we get a trap, where to locate that trap,’” Mital said. “That will give us the best chance of catching her.” 

 Local lost pet organizations, humane societies, vet clinics, the Moscow Police Department, several UI offices and local businesses assisted Mital in his efforts to reunite with Aspen. Whether it was through spreading the information through word-of-mouth, posting fliers, leaving food and water for Aspen outside local businesses, reporting sightings or contributing to online pet recovery forums, Mital felt the support of his local community in the effort to bring Aspen home.  

“Three and a half weeks ago I knew nothing about finding a lost dog, and now I know quite a bit. I’m certainly not an expert, but the one thing that I’ve really learned in Moscow is (that) this is really a dog community,” Mital said. “So many people love dogs, and they’re bending over backwards to help me.”  

The morning of Sept. 26, Mital posted photos of Aspen on his Facebook page, successfully recovered in the live-capture mechanism. 

“My little girl is home!!!!,” Mital captioned the post. “Thank you everyone for all your assistance with her safe return!!! I’m just going to love on her all day!!!!” 

Mital plans on allowing Aspen to recover and decompress as long as needed after her safe return, looking forward to spending quality time and bonding with the dog he’s shown the ultimate loyalty to.  

Katarina Hockema can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @kat_hockema