Amid the devastating flooding that’s taken place in Texas this month, hundreds of animals have been affected.
Shelters have rescued as many as they’re able to, with other animals unfortunately still out there. And one dog, Ziva, was found alive after being trapped for 16 hours, all thanks to one of the best GPS trackers for pets.
Erin Doguet left for Colorado to celebrate the Fourth of July on July 3, leaving her Texas ranch and its 200 animals in the care of her sister, Shannon, and a petsitter, Taelyn. Helping them would be Ziva, an eight-year-old Turkish Kangal, and two-year-old Central Asian Shepherd, Una.
However, on July 4, Doguet found out that Ziva had disappeared. She “took off after a predator or possibly also spooked by the big storm, causing her to end up on the back section of the ranch, which is bordered by the Medina River,” Doguet told People. “As she crossed the river, the flood waters rose swiftly, trapping her.”
Fortunately, Doguet had previously fitted both of her dogs with Tractive GPS collars to help her see where they were when working on the ranch. So, though Doguet’s sister and petsitter didn’t know where Ziva was, she did.
"While I was away, I was tracking Ziva on the Tractive app, helping guide Shannon and Taelyn to her,” she explained. “I shared Ziva's tracker location and access to the app with Shannon so she could track her as well on the ground. The app worked flawlessly in guiding us to her location.”
Shannon and Taelyn couldn’t see Ziva when they arrived in the right place. However, the Tractive app has an option to play a sound from the collar. This helped Shannon find Ziva, who was trapped in a flooded gully and was difficult to spot.
Doguet explained, “Ziva was found trapped in a flooded gully along the flooded Medina River. The roaring river blocked any escape back home, and the three other sides were too steep and slick for her to climb out on her own.”
She added that she “burst into tears” when Ziva was found alive. Because the collar kept reporting that the dog was in the same location for hours, she was worried that she had died.
Ziva was trapped for about 16 hours altogether, but survived with little physical damage. She was so tired that she wasn’t able to help Shannon and Taelyn pull her to safety, and she “guzzled water and slept for the next 12 hours” once she got home. Fortunately, however, there doesn’t appear to be any lasting damage.
If you’d like to support the animals affected by the floods, the Best Friends Animal Society is raising money for its emergency response fund. Our article about how to help the pets and wildlife caught up in the Californian wildfires earlier this year offers some helpful advice, too.
