08/25/2026
Our friend, Jason contacted us a few weeks ago about a scared and unapproachable dog he spotted hiding on the 852-acre rural property he manages in Beverly MO.
We quickly created a couple feeding stations and trail cameras where the pup had been seen hiding. After a few days, pup found one of our feeding stations. We returned to Beverly MO and replaced the feeding station with a non-live trap, added a few cameras and Jason agreed to leave pup food twice daily while we worked to find rescue commitment so that we could proceed with trapping this stray pup.
We were faced with several challenges in getting this pup safe:
1) There is no animal control or animal welfare in the "county", thus we cannot trap without licensed rescue commitment. 2) Rescues are bursting at the seams due to the number of stray and homeless animals, making it very challenging to find rescues able to commit.
3) The location is about 30-40 minutes travel time. This complicates trapping as we are often trapping multiple dogs at a time, work full-time jobs. 4) We do not leave our traps live unless we can get to them in 10 minutes, to ensure an animal does not injure themself trying to escape the trap. When the traps are live, we are forced to stay near them which means our personal lives are on hold, as well as other dogs in our backlog to trap.
5) Feeding stations have to be baited 2-3 times a day, which means a lot of mileage due to the location, and time that we simply do not have. 6) We were also dependent on Jason to be available to take us down the impassable, muddy trails to where pup was hiding and being trapped via an ATV. Lots of coordination of moving parts go into trapping.
7) Transporting an XL box trap over a mile through muddy trails required an ATV
Several weeks went by and our hearts broke, as we watched the pup on camera become conditioned to the non-live trap and finally enter it consistently letting us know this pup was now trappable, but we could NOT set the trap live due to not having rescue commitment. It takes an emotional toll watching an animal in distress, knowing they are alone, scared and we cannot trap to rescue without commitment. It is heartbreaking.
Finally, on August 21st we received the rescue commitment and secured an approved foster, which is what we needed to get this poor thing trapped. YAY!!!
Early Saturday, August 22nd, we arrived in Beverly MO to finally set the trap live. Unfortunately, pup showed up before we arrived at 7:56am, discovered breakfast was not in the non-live trap and did not return to the trap once we set it live. We left the trap live until dark, then bungeed it up for the night and of course she showed up right after we left to head back to Kansas City. We were so sad we didn't get pup trapped.
On Sunday, we set out to Beverly MO again and decided to swap the existing trap with an XL trap after watching her body language on camera, as she appeared to be nervous when the box trap was live the night prior. When a box trap is live, the door is a bit lower and can be intimidating. There had been heavy downpours over the last few weeks since we placed the initial trap, that flooded out the trails making it impossible for a car to get to the trap. The trapping location was a mile+ drive through a narrow muddy trail, thus impossible to carry a heavy trap that distance. We got a little creative and strapped the trap to the back of a side-by-side and our buddy Jason was able to safety get us through the muddy trail to swap the trap. What an adventure!
Trap was live all day Sunday, but the pup was nervous and did not enter as we introduced too much change. We bungeed up for the night and decided we would have to start over with conditioning the dog to the larger trap.
On Monday, to our surprise the cameras revealed pup entered the XL trap during the overnight hours without hesitation. We instructed Jason not to feed pup breakfast and rushed to Beverly to set the trap live on lunch break.
At 5pm August 24th, this sweet, scared boy who survived several severe storms that included heavy rains, lightening, crazy wind, hail and downed trees, all alone in the middle of a heavily wooded 852-acres for many weeks, was finally safe!!! Can you imagine how scary this was for him?
Pup is safe with rescue, male and only 8 months old, and microchipped. We are actively working to contact his owner. If unclaimed he will be available for adoption after his required stray hold is up.
A big shout out to Jason (Land manager) for advocating for this county dog's rescue, allowing us access to the property, baiting pup twice a day, transporting us and the XL trap through the impassable muddy trails, and for rushing to the trap and sitting with him once he was trapped, to comfort him until we could get back to Beverly MO. You have a heart of gold.
Another big Thank you to Crystal Paugh Tucker with from for committing licensed rescue commitment. We could never have trapped this pup if it was not for her willingness to help this county dog. We cannot thank you enough as this pup likely would have been died on the property if not hit by the nearby active train. You are an Angel!
Finally, thank you Mary Maywuso who is a volunteer on our team that spends her lunch hour working feverishly to find rescue commitment for these dogs that have nowhere to go.
THANK YOU ALL!!!
*We are actively working to grow the Northland Trapping team, as it is very difficult to cover the Northland with two Trappers. If you are interested in learning to trap, reach out to our page via messenger*
