Rescuer Invents Crafty Trap For A Wily Stray – She Holds Her Breath As The Camera Rolls

When Bandit, a two-year-old black Labrador retriever, escaped from a local animal hospital, his family searched far and wide.

But Bandit was nowhere to be found.

The days turned into weeks, the weeks into months … finally, the devastated family had to accept that Bandit was gone.

But you never know when Fate might step in, and you should never bet against the survival instincts of a dog!

Two long years later, in March of 2018, a few pedestrians spotted a lone black dog wandering around in the woods, and someone called Nicole Asher of Buddha Dog Rescue and Recovery.

The only problem was that though this pup was wearing a collar, nobody could get close enough to read it.

Obviously, the first step was catching the elusive canine; this one had some obvious survival skills, and wasn’t about to be snared that easily!

So, Nicole and her team devised a plan: they would erect a very large trap and a surveillance camera to see if it worked.

Inside the trap, Nicole laid out toys, bones, and food and after tracking the dog’s movements, she decided on the perfect spot for the trap.

It was a fenced enclosure deep in the woods and though she’d made it as inviting as possible, Nicole still wasn’t certain that the dog would take the bait.

She and her team watched the cameras thanks to night vision and at first, the dog was “very skittish” and would run at the first sight of something new or foreign.

But as the days passed, the dog calmed down a bit, and Nicole watched as he started to put on quite the show for the camera!

“Watching his antics on video were a constant source of amusement.

He would chase the critters away from his enclosure, play with toys that we left for him and do his little playful dance in front of the enclosure.”

Finally, at long last, the slippery pup came into the enclosure completely. Success!

And unbelievably enough, when Nicole got a close look at dog’s collar, she realized it was the long-lost Bandit!

Unfortunately, Bandit’s family had since grown and could no longer care for him. They surrendered him to the rescue team immediately, hoping they could find a good home for him.

Bandit needs to recover a little from his two-year adventure, and he’s still not entirely comfortable around humans. But he’s getting there.

As Nicole finished:

“You can tell that he is a silly, lovable boy on the inside.

His story is amazing and I think he’s given a ton of people hope who have lost dogs out there.

They’re very resilient and smarter than we give them credit for.”

Dog lovers know this is true! 😀

Source: Honest to Paws