DOGGIE TREAT
Tasty bait brings pooch, lost 11 days, back to B’klyn owner
A RUNAWAY DOG’S 11-day adventure in Brooklyn came to a happy end Sunday morning thanks to bait the pooch couldn’t resist: hot dogs and liquid smoke.
Teddy, a 4-year-old Labrador Korean Jindo mix, was healthy and back at home after a nearly two-week ordeal that ended with her safe in a trap set in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the dog’s owner, Kane Giblin, told the Daily News.
The company that lost the pooch, Wag!, hired a trapper from Washington, D.C., who skillfully lured Teddy with a pungent doggie chum.
“We were able to set up a trap in the garden. We filled it with hot dogs and liquid smoke,” Giblin, 27, said, referring to the flavoring sauce.
“I’m going to have to get her back on a healthy diet.”
Teddy whimpered, giving lots of kisses to her owner and jumping around when they were finally reunited. The odor of liquid smoke, a flavoring for barbecued meat, still lingered around the cage.
“It was really special,” Giblin said.
Wag! also used drones in the lengthy search effort and hired a Jindo specialist who brought in her own Jindos.
The company had hoped Teddy, who is extremely skittish, would be more responsive to her own breed. Wag! monitored a special hotline and hired workers to hang missing dog flyers.
The pooch went AWOL while on a stroll in Prospect Park on Nov. 30 with a Wag! dog walker.
Giblin kept a diary during the ordeal so she could remember the daily drama.
“TEDDY HAS BEEN FOUND!” Giblin wrote alongside a photo of the dog in a snow-covered section of the greenspace by Prospect Park.
“We set a trap at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and this morning we trapped a little bear!”
The dog had worn-out paws and a tick, but was relaxing at home after a visit to the veterinarian.
“She’s happy to be in a comfy bed,” said Giblin, of Prospect-Lefferts Gardens.
Recovering the dog proved to be a challenge because she was so jumpy. Teddy was rescued from a South Korean dog meat farm in May.
“We got lots of sightings, but anytime anyone got close to her, she just took off,” Giblin said.
She credited neighbors, the Botanic Garden, Wag! and the trapper for helping save her pup.
“Teddy is home because the community came together to bring her back to me!” Giblin wrote.
Teddy’s escape was not the first time Wag! workers wound up empty-handed: In 2015, a Brooklyn Chihuahua named Duckie went missing and was hit by a car.
And this past September, a Beagle-Labrador mix named Buddy was captured after running out an open door while his owners vacationed in Disney World.
“We are delighted that Teddy is back home with his owner, safe and in good health,” the company said in a statement.