RAVENNA, Ohio — This is not the weather to lose your dog. But frigid temperatures aren't stopping Holly and Jeff Amon from their most recent mission: tracking down Wilma, the missing foster dog, with the help of their thermal drones.
They've spotted her every day for the past four days.
"She got out, and she will not let anyone catch her," Holly Amon said. "We have bait stations set up for her, trail camera on traps over the bait stations, just trying to get her home safely and get her some warmth. She can not be out there shivering any more."
It's a business that started last fall with deer recovery from hunting and quickly expanded to lost pets. Since then, they've worked to try to find 50 different dogs.
"You can get the dogs back a lot quicker, a lot faster and a lot safer," Holly Amon said.
Some travel far and wide.
"We had one dog that got out that we were on for six weeks – and it made it 32 miles as the crow flies," Jeff Amon said.
Consider Mallory Jacobs and her 9-year-old beagle retriever mix "Honey" among them. Honey went missing a couple of weeks ago at their home in Geauga County.
The weather was bad then, too.
"She's the sweetest dog, but we think she chased a cart and that's when she got out," Jacobs said. "She ran away at noon, there was no snow. By 2 p.m., there was six inches of snow at our house. So I'm thinking, she's freezing, she's alone, she's scared."
Honey was found in a barn and spotted by someone passing by. Despite that, Jacobs believes the drone brought peace of mind, helping rule out her worst-case scenarios.
"It made me feel a lot better that she wasn't frozen somewhere or even stuck alone outside hiding under a bush," Jacobs said. "It was nice that she was either with someone or at least she's inside where she's not freezing."
So what's the best advice from Holly and Jeff for other dog owners? Invest in tracking devices such as an AirTag on the collar.
"If they do get out, you can track where they're going," Holly Amon said.
Other places, such as Rescue Village in Geauga County, have also started using thermal drones in cases like this.
Clay LePard is the Ashtabula, Geauga and Portage counties reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on X @ClayLePard, on Facebook ClayLePardTV or email him at Clay.LePard@wews.com.
