Jumpin’ Jasper

At 9:30 on a Friday night, a vet clinic in northeast Minneapolis contacted the Retrievers via our Facebook page, saying they needed help catching a dog. Jasper, a shepherd mix, was being boarded at the clinic while his family was in South Carolina. Jasper had managed to escape his leash and scale a 6-foot fence while on a potty break. The staff ran after him as he bolted into the adjoining yards, watching him clear four- and five-foot fences with ease.

I met teammate Jessica Peterson and Gina, a staffer at the clinic, at the site and we set up a Missy trap and cellular trailcam in the area of the sightings. The trap location was close enough to a residential street that we were able to plug a long extension cord into a neighbor’s outdoor socket to run the electromagnet/sensor mechanism. Knowing Jasper was a jumper, we secured the top of the trap with netting.

We wrapped up around midnight. When I got home, I configured my phone to play an alert on incoming emails, and went to bed.

We got the first alert around 5 a.m., but it was just a raccoon, attracted by the bait. (The sensor was placed high enough that the coon didn’t trip the gate.) Then at 6:59, we got our first look at Jasper, sniffing around the outside of the trap. Jessica immediately called the clinic staff, who lived a mile away.

At 7:06, the camera sent us a photo showing Jasper inside the trap. In the next few photos, we saw Jasper trying to dig under the trap. The ground was soft from recent rains, and for a few scary minutes, we were afraid he would find a way out of the trap.