A doggone good story

You can add Petey the dog to the list of heartwarming stories about lost dogs getting found — in this case, with help from a drone.

The French bulldog has been part of the Sutton family since May 2012. He turned 13 the day before he went on his “excursion,” said Mitch Sutton.

Mitch Sutton said Petey is a “junkyard dog” and goes to work with him and has lived in scrapyards all over the country like Colorado, Oregon, Montana and Washington.

“He doesn’t usually wander off, that was the weird situation,” Mitch said.

Petey did go missing briefly in Yakima when he jumped out of the back of a pickup near White Pass, but was returned through a Craigslist ad. Most of his other escapades and close calls were of a different nature. Mitch said Petey’s been run over or hit multiple times by different sized vehicles, four-wheelers, golf carts and a dirt bike.

“The vet says the only reason he’s still alive is because he’s so dense and compact, he can handle the damage,” Mitch said.

When Petey went missing Feb. 10 from Sutton Salvage, no one noticed he was gone until the end of the day. Petey is also deaf, which complicated the initial search when Mitch and his coworkers were looking around for him at the junkyard. Then Mitch checked the video footage and saw that Petey ran across the road at 2:10 p.m.

Mitch suspects Petey was likely chasing a cat, then got disoriented from the cold and lost his way.

The search for Petey was on as temperatures in the region dipped to single digits, which worried Mitch. He also left the shop door open just a bit so if Petey came back he could get in.

Reports of Petey going missing began to circulate on social media Feb. 10 and the search for Petey was getting a lot of attention with likes and shares.

“Many people know him from the junkyard,” Mitch said. “He’s got a very big following around town.”

Austin Zimmerman, who owns Alpine Aerials in Lewiston, also saw the posts about the missing dog. The drone company is veteran-owned and volunteer-based and doesn’t require payment, but takes donations to help with the search and rescue of people and animals.

“Some people aren’t fortunate enough to be able to provide anything,” Austin said on why the company is donation-based. “I feel like that is a bit of the reason people don’t call me, they think I charge.”

Austin has military experience and works well with first responders. He wanted to use his knowledge and resources to help the community.

“The way I see it with animals, I treat it the same way as people. I will be out there as long as I can to help with the search,” Austin said. “In the end, it’s the other people’s family that’s lost, whether it’s an animal or person.”

When he’s helping find people, he usually gets a call from the emergency response system. When it’s an animal, the owner has to contact him by phone or email. He typically doesn’t get involved unless the owner reaches out or if it’s a rescue center because he wants the animal’s owner to be involved. He also avoids using drones within city limits because he doesn’t want to invade people’s privacy or create a panic.

After working his day job at Schweitzer Engineering Labs, Austin stayed up and had his drone battery charged waiting for a call to join the search, but he wasn’t contacted.

An employee sent Mitch a link to Alpine Aerials but Mitch waited to call. On Feb. 11, some neighbors reported that they had seen Petey walking around. The Sutton home is across the street from the junkyard.

“He wanders back and forth from the junkyard quite a bit,” Mitch said.

Betsy Sutton, Mitch’s wife, looked around Feb. 12 and found Petey’s tracks. Mitch said Petey has distinct tracks because of how he walks from his injuries. The tracks led to a culvert under the Old Spiral Highway, then to the North South Highway and the Port of Lewiston. They followed the tracks for as long as they could, but didn’t find Petey.

When Mitch returned to Sutton Salvage, he heard that an employee from Liberty Mart had seen Petey by the train bridge. Another search was conducted in that area and along the levee. Until he was seen by the Liberty Mart employee, Mitch didn’t think Petey had much of a chance of survival.

“We always say he’s bulletproof, but not many animals that size survive,” Mitch said. “We thought we were looking for a corpse (until he was seen).”

But Betsy told Mitch that he “never should have counted him out.”

It was then that Mitch decided to call Austin.

“Best thing people can do is call first, right off the bat,” he said. “What Austin can do with his drone, it’s pretty impressive.”

When Austin got the call from Mitch on Feb. 12, the two met up at Pacific Steel and Recycling, after Austin had a search and rescue meeting with the Nez Perce County Sheriff’s Office. With his drone, he was looking in the area Petey was last seen, by the train bridge and Lewiston Wastewater Treatment plant. It has a marshy area so Austin was checking around there with the thermal, but the water was making it difficult.

“All the water was warmer than the ground around it,” Austin said. “Water retains heat really well.”

Eventually a tiny red dot was picked up on the thermal camera. Austin told Mitch that it was an animal and based on the color, the animal was alive. Austin got closer and switched to a floodlight.

“And plain as day, there was Petey laying on the hillside,” Mitch said.

Mitch drove as close as he could to the area where Petey was behind the Nez Perce County Sheriff’s Office, then hiked in. Austin’s drone still had the light on Petey, with 8 minutes of battery left. Mitch had a flashlight, but the spotlight on Petey helped him see where he was. Then Mitch found Petey.

The video captured it all.

“You can’t explain what was going through my head at the time,” Mitch said. “If that video had sound you would have definitely heard some crying.”

Petey’s reaction was a little different.

“Best I can tell, he was probably wondering if it was real,” Mitch said.

He doesn’t know if Petey was lying there about to give up or trying to get warm, but “as I held him I think he realized, ‘OK, I get to go home.’ ”

Betsy also hiked down the hill and Petey was wrapped in blankets. Mitch gave Austin a “big giant hug.”

Mitch thanked Austin for his help in finding Petey. The situation serves as an example of what drones can do to help with search and rescue efforts. While Austin mostly does agriculture work with drones, he works with Nez Perce County Sheriff’s Office and Whitman County Sheriff’s Office to help with search and rescue, which he’s been doing for more than a year.

His smaller drone has thermal capability and an attachment that can drop a radio or other small device. His larger drone can hold around 50 pounds, so it can be used to help search and rescue teams bring in backpack equipment and stretchers.

“It can make a huge difference in finding people,” Austin said about the thermal drone.

And it made a huge difference for Petey and his family.

“You don’t think about it until it happens but they are our best friends,” Mitch said. “Been through a lot of stuff with that little dog.”

(Mitch clarified that Petey would object to being called a “little dog.” Petey was raised with mastiffs, which affected his perception of his own size.)

Mitch said Petey is recovering well, but the cold got to him. He already has arthritis so the first couple nights when he got up he was in pain and limped a bit. But he took some medication and was back to work. Petey isn’t running around the yard at Sutton Salvage but hanging around in the crane and shop with Mitch.

“I don’t think we’ll have to worry about him wandering off again,” Mitch said.

But just in case, Petey now has an air tag on his collar to help track him.

Betsy thinks Petey’s stories would make for a good children’s book, but the problem for Mitch is he “lost track of the half the things (Petey) shouldn’t do that he’s done.”

But this is a Petey story that will definitely be remembered.

Brewster may be contacted at kbrewster@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2297.