NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio — A small dog’s five-day adventure in the bitter Ohio winter came to a happy conclusion Tuesday when Sonic — a 10-pound Maltipoo that had slipped away from his dog sitter in North Ridgeville on Jan. 2 — was reunited with his owners.
The rescue effort was led by Remi’s Pet Recovery, a volunteer-run non-profit organization based out of Brook Park that specializes in reuniting lost dogs with their owners. Founded in 2016 by Vanessa Petrosky, 63, the organization has successfully reunited hundreds of dogs with their families.
The rescue effort involved sophisticated tracking methods, including strategically placed food stations and trap locations, monitored by 24/7 trail cameras that are accessible via smartphone. Sonic was skittish, so the team prioritized keeping the area quiet to prevent him from running further away.
“Every case I treat like it’s my own dog,” Petrosky told cleveland.com this week. “Every day we learn more, get better and grow, and it drives me to do more.”
While time is essential in every rescue, the search for Sonic was particularly urgent due to dangerous weather conditions, with temperatures dropping to nearly 10 degrees at night. Given his small size of just 10 pounds, the rescue team knew time was critical.
“Little dogs are sometimes the hardest to catch,” Petrosky said. “Usually they’re runners, and Sonic was no exception. He was always a step ahead of me. Every time we’d get to where he was, he was gone.”
As community tips came in, Petrosky created a map on Google that allowed her to pin each sighting. She studied the locations to help decide placement of the food stations.
While community tips prove invaluable in nearly every rescue effort, the team carefully managed public information about sighting locations and kept them off social media to prevent well-meaning interference that might further frighten the skittish dog.
“This dog will run from you, his owner, me, and Jesus himself,” Petrosky said on Facebook, urging anyone who saw Sonic to call in the tip, but to avoid approaching the dog.
By Monday, the team had intensified its efforts, setting another trap in a new location where Sonic had been spotted. Volunteers shoveled paths through deep snow to make their traps more accessible and used heated chicken broth to create enticing scent trails.
On Tuesday morning, volunteer Stacey Baird went out to the search area to reset the food, re-shovel the pathway and search for paw prints before deciding to head home to change and warm up. At the same time, Petrosky’s phone rang – Sonic had been spotted.
Baird turned around and went back to the address, where she saw Sonic hiding under a tree.
“I told Stacey, ‘Don’t you dare leave. Keep your eyes on him until I can get a team there and we can get that tree surrounded,’” Petrosky said. “And she did exactly that. That woman laid in the snow for 4 hours.”
Meanwhile, Petrosky coordinated getting additional volunteers to the scene, including Tim Sherman, who successfully secured a slip lead on Sonic from under the tree.
The team arranged a surprise reunion between Sonic and his owners, who were called in for what they were told would be a strategy meeting. Remi’s Pet Recovery shared a video of the reunion on Facebook.
“When Stacey came in with that dog, and the owner came out of the kitchen and saw him, she freaked out. It was the most amazing, beautiful feeling in the world,” Petrosky said. “It’s always an adrenaline rush and the connections you make with the families are just something I can’t explain. The feeling you get, seeing them whole again, is incredible, and to know that I had a part in that journey is even better.”
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