Missing Pet of Month found, returned Cranberry Township family
Peggy Vorpe was losing hope Thursday, June 15, for the 4-year-old gray pitbull-terrier mix she and her husband had been fostering in their Cranberry Township home after she had been missing for 15 days.
When she got a call on the 16th day missing that said a volunteer trapper had caught Taffy at a goat farm in Adams Township, Vorpe was relieved and overjoyed.
“Oh my gosh I couldn’t believe it,” Vorpe said. “She seems great now, but she is very thin.”
Vorpe said Taffy, who was Pet of the Month in March, had been caught by Chix with Trapz, a nonprofit dog catcher based in Beaver County, on Thursday.
Renee Simmons, president of Chix with Trapz, said she helps catch dogs who are missing for some time and seem to be in “survival mode.”
Peggy Vorpe was losing hope Thursday, June 15, of finding the 4-year-old gray pitbull-terrier mix she and her husband had been fostering in their Cranberry Township home.
Taffy had been missing for 15 days.
Vorpe was relieved and overjoyed when she received a call on the 16th day that a volunteer trapper had caught Taffy at a goat farm in Adams Township.
“Oh my gosh I couldn’t believe it,” Vorpe said. “She seems great now, but she is very thin.”
Vorpe said Taffy, who was Butler County Humane Society Pet of the Month in March, had been caught by Chix with Trapz, a nonprofit dog catcher based in Beaver County, on Thursday.
Renee Simmons, president of Chix with Trapz, said she helps catch dogs who are missing for some time and seem to be in “survival mode.”
“I go more for skittish, scared dogs, the ones who nobody can catch," Simmons said. ”Once they get chased so many times, they just see a shadow coming at them. They run from everyone including their owners. It's fight or flight, and they just try to get away from everything.“
To catch dogs, Simmons sets bait in cage traps which are triggered by a laser sensor to close the door when an animal enters. A video recorded by Simmons shows Taffy milling around a cage set up at a goat farm for about 20 minutes before finally going into the cage for the food.
“You put a trail of food back there, and then you put the prize in the cage. I put the water bowl, the wet food, the chicken and all that at the back of it,” Simmons said. “You have to completely ignore the dog and just wait for them.”
Once she captures a dog, Simmons notifies its owner or takes it to the nearest humane society. Vorpe said she would be taking Taffy to the Butler County Humane Society to be checked on Friday afternoon.
