A woman’s Fourth of July trip to Colorado took an intense and overwhelming turn when she learned that her Texas ranch, which backs up to the Medina River, was being inundated with floodwaters, and her dog, Ziva, was missing.
Erin Doguet departed for her trip on July 3, leaving the care of her ranch and its over 200 animals to her sister Shannon and a pet sitter, Taelyn. Doguet’s working livestock guardian dogs — an 8-year-old Turkish Kangal, Ziva, and a 2-year-old Central Asian Shepherd, Una — were also assisting with caring for the ranch.
On July 4, as months’ worth of rain started to soak and flood the area surrounding her ranch, Doguet learned Ziva had disappeared.
“I left on vacation to Colorado, 1500 miles away. My pet sitter was caring for my ranch and animals while I was gone. Ziva 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. As she crossed the river, the flood waters rose swiftly, trapping her,” Doguet tells PEOPLE about what happened to the dog on July 4.
Thankfully, Doguet had equipped both of her livestock guardian dogs with Tractive GPS collars long before her trip to Colorado. The collars allowed her to track her dogs’ whereabouts while they were out working on the ranch.
So when Ziva disappeared during Texas’ catastrophic floods, Doguet’s sister and pet sitter didn’t know the dog’s location, but Doguet in Colorado did.
“While I was away, I was tracking Ziva on the Tractive app, helping guide Shannon and Taelyn to her. 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,” Doguet shares.
Once Shannon and Taelyn reached the spot indicated by Ziva’s collar, they still couldn’t see the dog. The Tractive app’s option to play a sound from the collar eventually led Shannon to Ziva, who was stuck in a flooded gully and hard to see.
“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,” Doguet says of the situation.
When Shannon spotted the dog alive and waiting for rescue, she told her sister right away.
“I burst into tears knowing they found her alive! When the collar kept reporting her same location for hours on the river, I feared she was dead,” the pet parent says.
Altogether, Ziva spent about 16 hours stuck, alone and confused, but ultimately survived the ordeal with little injury.
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“Ziva was so exhausted that she didn’t have much strength to help Shannon and Taelyn pull her out. Ziva weighs 120 pounds, and my sister stated she was so tired. She was just dead weight. Once home, she guzzled water and slept for the next 12 hours. She was physically unharmed,” Doguet summarizes.
To learn how to help support the victims and recovery efforts from the Texas floods, click here.
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