Rescue Dog Escapes, Roams Through Albertville Neighborhood

Amy Fesenmaier is asking people who drive near the Town Lakes development in Albertville to slow down and "be on the lookout for white fluff."

She’s not talking about snow — but about a dog she rescued and got loose from her less than five minutes after she brought her home Monday night. Fesenmaier runs a dog foster home from her home for Rescued Paws, an organization that helps rescue dogs.

The dog continues to roam the neighborhood and is seen several times a day, but just can’t be caught.

"I’m devastated, because I'm the one that saves dogs — not loses dogs — so it's been very hard on me," Fesenmaier said. "But it certainly is encouraging that people are seeing her. I'm glad about that  — that’s a good thing."

The dog, "Eve," was discovered on the streets of Romania as part of a litter of puppies, and the dogs were taken to an organization in Seattle that finds foster homes for them. Fesenmaier arranged to bring home Eve, and after picking her up from the airport, Eve got lose less than five minutes after Fesenmaier took her out of the car.

"When she got out of her cage, she became spooked and wriggled out of her collar and basically was fighting me to get away," she recalled. "So I hadn’t even had her five minutes before she escaped."

By Wednesday afternoon, Fesenmaier and her neighbors had spotted Eve three times that day, near Laketowne View and Laketown Drive.

She set a large live trap as a cage, and is waiting for the dog to discover the food and "then the hunt will be over."

Tuesday night, a Wright County deputy "was chasing the dog all over the neighborhood." Fesenmaier called for help in catching the dog.

"The dog continues to roam around, she's just not a friendly dog — she's not approachable," she said. "I would say she’s semi-feral, very very scared."

The dog is an off-white color, and to Fesenmaier, looks to be a mix of golden lab and white German shepherd. She weighs about 35 pounds.

"It’s not advisable for people to chase her, because we don’t want her to be chased out of the neighborhood or onto the freeway," she said, adding that the dog has stuck around the shoreline of School Lake, adjacent to Interstate 94. The dog has been seen on the frontage road leading up to the development.

Fesenmaier asks anyone who sees the dog to call her at 763-463-1415 or 320-420-2832, so she can keep track of the dog’s whereabouts in hopes of catching her in the next few days.

She said she has already called "everyone in the world" who could help her, and she "literally threw big cans of cat food, whole burgers from McDonald’s and Burger King into the reeds so she could identify that as her food source."

"I was hoping to socialize her, get her to be more comfortable around people and other animals, take her places, and just normal things that a dog should experience," she said. "This dog has been in a shelter for three months, and before that, roamed the streets of Romania. She never has really lived a normal life and has no idea what it’s like to be around kids, around people, and sleep in a bed."

She hopes she can catch the dog soon, with a colder weather forecast Friday.

"I want it to be a happy Thanksgiving," she said.