KOLOA — When Marcus Keamoai-Barnes went outside to toss out the trash, he was startled when a large dog jumped from the Dumpster and ran off into a pasture. When he saw the same dog on the following days outside
KOLOA — When Marcus Keamoai-Barnes went outside to toss out the trash, he was startled when a large dog jumped from the Dumpster and ran off into a pasture.
When he saw the same dog on the following days outside his Koloa home sniffing through garbage, he called to it and put out food, but it fled.
Keamoai-Barnes later wondered about that dog and where it came from, and as he stood in line at Da Crack a few days into the new year, he got his answer.
“I was waiting for my food and looking at the flier, and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s the dog that keeps jumping out of the Dumpster,’” he said. “I couldn’t believe how long he was missing.”
On that flier was a picture of a black and tan Rottweiler mix named Rafael. He hadn’t been seen since Nov. 23, when he ran away during a Kauai Humane Society field trip outing in Poipu with a visitor, who accidentally dropped the leash.
“He looked just like he did in the picture,” Keamoai-Barnes said. “He must have been eating good out of the Dumpster.”
Despite repeated searches by a core of volunteers for nearly six weeks, the shy, 4-year-old canine wearing a bright “Adopt Me” vest and dragging a leash, remained at large, with almost no reported sightings over the past month.
Searchers were beginning to lose hope until Keamoai-Barnes called the number on the flier.
“I think I’ve seen your dog,” he told Tracy Capman, a volunteer searcher who answered the call.
“Where?” she asked.
Two borrowed feral pig traps, baited with wet dog food, were set out where Rafael was last spotted. On the second morning, Capman arrived to find both traps had been sprung. There was nothing in the first. When she peeked in the second, there was Rafael, curled up, shivering and scared.
He was a little thin, but overall in good shape. And he was still wearing that vest, tattered and torn.
Capman ran to her vehicle, grabbed a leash and let Rafael out.
“He was still timid and shy, but he was really happy to be found,” she said.
“It’s amazing. I’m happy he’s back,” she added.
Rafael is in foster care but is available for adoption; the Kauai Animal Welfare Society has taken up the cause of finding him a permanent home.
KHS’s popular field trip programs give its dogs a chance to leave the shelter and spend the day with a guest who agrees to look after them. It’s rare a dog gets away. That happened only one other time, and the dog was caught a few hours later.
Finding a lost dog alive and well more than a month after it’s gone missing is unusual, but happy endings are always a treat.
“I’m surprised but I think it’s wonderful,” said Penny Cistaro, KHS executive director. “We’re very happy and I’m very thankful to the volunteers.”
Capman, who volunteers to run with dogs at KHS on Sunday mornings, was involved in the search from day one. She made fliers and posted them around the South Shore and ran many miles watching for Rafael.
She and a friend, fellow volunteer dog runner Dinah Chao, continued the search and rallied more support. One friend used her 20-mile training run to search the Poipu area for Rafael.
Another let them borrow a wildlife night camera designed to take pictures when something moves within its sensor range. Others canvassed the area with pictures of Rafael and asked people if they had seen the missing dog.
“It’s really heart-warming to see all of the people who were concerned and wanted to help,” Chao said.
There were reports that he was spotted in places — the old bypass, the new bypass, across from the missionary church.
“Wherever we heard he was, we would go,” Chao said.
But Rafael proved elusive, which caused heartbreak for his searchers as the days and weeks passed.
“You try to think positive: ‘We haven’t found him yet but maybe somebody else has,’” Capman said.
While others might have said enough is enough, they stayed the course.
“It just comes from just keeping on it and not giving up,” Chao said.
One aspect that kept them going was that so many had joined them.
“It makes it so much more hopeful when you have so many people involved,” she said.
It wasn’t the first time they were successful in tracking a missing canine.
Capman, Chao, Carla Bissell and Ann Croydon found a chocolate lab mix in Kilauea last year that had been missing two weeks. They are committed to giving their best to shelter animals and finding them homes.
“It’s a passion for all of us,” Capman said.
“We bonded over it, us girls.”
Volunteer Bissell, who is fostering Rafael at her Wailua home, said he’s doing well.
He’s been to the veterinarian for a checkup and is in good health. He’s mild-mannered and does well with her other pets. And he certainly seems to enjoy being warm and safe and having a home.
“He’s obviously been through a lot,” Bissell said. “He’s had adventures, that’s for sure.”
To adopt Rafael, contact KAWS, kaws4paws.org or email infokaws4paws@gmail.com
