Flander - His Disappearance Will Always Haunt Me

Last photo of Flander

​It’s time to tell the story of Flander who was never found. It was one of the most frustrating cases I ever worked on due to the behavior of the Foster family who lost him. His case will forever haunt me. I didn’t want to stop looking for him though all evidence pointed to him being forever gone. A couple of his posters are still hanging. I hope they remind the Foster family of him, but I don’t think they care about anything except themselves and how they appear. They are not who they appear to be. 

Flander was driven home to the Farmington Valley from NY state in a foster-to-adopt agreement. He was from a puppy mill and had lived 8 years in a cage. Flander knew nothing about the world outside his cage. The rescue vetted him. He had a much-needed dental and vet care.

On the trip home, the Fosters did not leash him or secure him in the car. One of them held him in their lap. They claimed that when they opened the door of the car in their driveway, Flander bit one of the adults and then ran off. Had he been secured; he would not have escaped.

They posted him missing on FB and asked neighbors to help. I contacted them right away and offered to help. I went to their home and went inside. I commented on their beautiful friendly cat outside. Both said they had no idea whose cat it was. Hmm. I knew that was a lie. Previously I saw the cat posted on FB because neighbors were concerned that the cat may have been dumped. The Fosters posted an unfriendly response that it was their cat,  their choice to let it outside, and people should leave it alone. The cat I just saw was clearly the cat I saw posted on FB as their cat. Why lie about it being your cat? That was my first red flag of many.

I asked why the dog was not leashed or secured in the car. They stated that “we previously ran a rescue and know what we are doing.”  That was my next red flag.  In the home were 5 other dogs they said they owned. They also had four children. This info will be important later.

I explained the process of trapping him using my camera and trap. Permission was obtained to set the trap in the vacationing neighbors’ yard where the Fosters saw him run. I set up the baited trap and camera and returned home to wait. The trap was not set to capture because I needed to be sure he would enter the trap and go to the back to trip the plate. I can’t risk the trap closing if he isn’t all the way in. The plan was if he showed up, I would call the Fosters who would run over, set trap to capture and hopefully the dog would go in. 

In August the food would spoil quickly. The Fosters were to rebait the trap with canned food, hot dogs, and/or chicken at dusk. I saw them at dusk at the trap and via a text they confirmed they rebaited it.

That night, the camera never notified me of any photos taken. I repeatedly checked the camera status on the app, and all seemed to be working. Little did I know that it was not working. The next morning at 9 am, a single image came through from the night before. Flander had been looking at the trap. I raced over to the location to check the trap and camera.   I brought another camera to the site.   Note:  I contacted the camera manufacturer and after several hours I was told their server was down all night and all images were delayed. I was furious. That photo was the last one ever taken of Flander.
 
I brought food to rebait the trap.  To my horror, the Fosters had baited the trap with a peanut butter sandwich!  No wonder Flander never returned to the trap. I asked them about it, and they said they thought he would like peanut butter. I wanted to scream but kept my cool. I needed to get this dog safe.

Two volunteers from the rescue came from NY to find Flander. Sarah, Carol and I sat in our cars all night nearby. A family of skunks began raiding the food in trap. I resorted to stuffing packages of hot dogs into the opening to their den before dark. I kept them well fed and they didn’t raid the trap. A bear and cub investigated the trap. Flander never showed up.

On the advice of another experienced trapper, we moved the equipment to the Foster family’s front yard with their permission. The trapper believed there was a good chance Flander would return. I secured the camera with a Python cable to lock to prevent theft because it was near the street. The Fosters watched us set up and I asked them to not touch anything.   We would rebait the trap, not them. 

Then the two volunteers and I went to a nearby park for the night so we could get to the trap quickly. As we waited, we talked.  We discussed the situation and discovered that the Fosters neglected to mention on the application that they had other dogs, cats, and four children. The rescue volunteer had their application where the Fosters did not truthfully answer those questions.  I saw the other dogs, cats, and four children when I was in the house. Why omit that important information? Also, the Fosters also did not immediately notify the rescue of Flander’s disappearance. The rescue had been calling and leaving messages to see how the dog was doing since the Fosters got him home.   The Fosters did not return the calls until the next morning.

About an hour into our wait, the camera app indicated the camera wasn’t connecting to the satellites, so we went to check it. To our astonishment, the equipment along with the cable lock was gone! I messaged the Fosters to ask if they knew where my equipment was. They didn’t respond. We called – no answer. Around midnight, they texted me that neighbors had contacted them to complain that the food would attract bears and that I was violating the ordinance against feeding wildlife. (Note that I confirmed with the Police Chief that I was not violating the ordinance.)  What she really said was the neighbors “went ballistic” and “were screaming at us”. What’s interesting is that I had been in direct contact with all their immediate neighbors, so I know that was a lie. The neighbors were very helpful. The neighbors were also concerned about the lack of interest the Fosters showed in getting the dog back.

I asked for my equipment back and they didn’t respond again for quite some time. Finally, they messaged that they put everything on the ground across the street. They had cut the Python cable lock and left the pieces on the ground. They had shut the camera off and removed all food from the trap.
That was the beginning of the nightmare. 

We got a sighting at the end of the street and set up equipment with permission in a yard. Now I hid a second camera that could see if anyone came to tamper with the equipment. After a few days of only seeing a fisher on camera, we were losing hope. At dusk we were standing in the parking lot next to the neighborhood and heard barking from the wooded area behind the neighborhood and near the end of the street. Only one house was in that wooded area and was down a long driveway. We had previously talked to that homeowner Steve who did not own a dog. We were positive it was Flander. As Sarah prepared to call Steve, the chilling sound of coyotes howling in that same direction stopped us cold. We burst into tears.

Sarah reached Steve who said he heard a dog barking in the woods behind his house. He also heard the coyotes. We asked permission to set the trap up there. He denied permission. No reason given – just told us we were not allowed on his property. Period. End of story. We were stunned.

We went into action to set the equipment up near, but not on his property. We set up in the woods next to the cul-de-sac. Just as we finished, we could hear voices coming down the driveway towards the cul-de-sac. We waited – expecting the homeowner Steve to be there to confront us. Once again, we were stunned. It was the entire Foster family returning from dinner at that house!  They were eating dinner, heard the dog and coyotes, and were there when Steve refused us access to the property. We spoke to them, and their basic response was that Steve didn’t want us on the property. And then they left. No concern for the dog.

We moved the equipment to a different area because the Fosters had seen where the equipment was.

During this ordeal, the Fosters were on FB looking to adopt a dog of the same breed! They also demanded a refund for Flanders adoption fee because they didn’t have the dog!

Research showed that they owned a farm “rescue” in New England for less than 6 months prior to moving here. They had several dogs, cats, and dozens of farm animals. They abruptly sold the farm. I have no idea what happened to all the animals. The dogs I saw in the house were not the same dogs they had on the farm.

During texts and conversations, Mrs. Foster said they moved here due to her brain tumor. She wanted to be closer to family. Through research we discovered that the husband also purportedly had a brain tumor. At one point, Sarah pointedly mentioned to them how awful it was that both had brain tumors at the same time. They threw her off the property.  Do I think both of them had brain tumors?  No, I do not.

Flander was never seen again. I have that last photo of him looking at the trap.

After a grueling couple of weeks with no more sightings, the rescue decided that we should end the recovery effort. The volunteers went back to NY. I maintained the equipment for a short while, then I stopped.
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The Fosters went on to get another dog of the same breed and a puppy who was found wandering the neighborhood.  They never asked about Flander again. I wonder if the same breed dog they have is really Flander. I wonder if somehow they did find him and not tell anyone. I hope it’s him, but I will never know.

Note:  No other group offered to assist myself and the New York State rescue in the search for Flander.