Late January into February was the coldest snap in what has been an exceptionally frigid (and windy) winter. There could not have been a worse time for a dog (particularly one named after a tropical fruit) to take to the open road — But that’s exactly what Mango did on Jan. 31, kicking of an extremely stressful run of four days for owners Steve and Lauren Lake of Hope Street.

Spoiler alert: Mango came home of his own volition, largely unscathed. But for the Lakes, the experience was instructive, and a road map of what to do when a beloved pet goes AWOL.

“While returning on his own seems miraculous, our experience working with Missing Dog Massachusetts and Hawkeye Aerial Systems has shown us that it really wasn’t,” said Steve. “Reaching out to both Missing Dog Massachusetts and Hawkeye Aerial Systems early on Saturday morning proved to be critical in Mango’s return.”

It began with a jailbreak

Exploiting a hole in the fence, Mango made his big escape on Friday, Jan. 31 around 6 p.m. The Lakes immediately mobilized, alerting neighbors who called the police, who in turn reported a sighting of a dog matching Mango’s description on Naomi Drive.

The Lakes would spend the next several hours, with Steve on foot and Lauren driving, between Chestnut Street and North Farm (where another sighting was reported around 8 p.m.) There was not a lot of sleeping in the Lake home that night.

The next day, Saturday, Feb 1, the Lakes posted announcements and photos of Mango on local social media, including Around Town Bristol, Bristol & Warren’s Daily dose and Barrington, Warren, and Bristol Community Group pages, all on Facebook. “The concern for his safety and return was heartwarming and encouraging,” said Steve. who was advised by several people to reach out to Missing Dogs Massachusetts (www.missingdogsmass.com) and Hawkeye Aerial Systems (on Facebook).

“Missing Dogs Massachusetts covers Massachusetts and Rhode Island and provides excellent guidance and on the ground assistance,” said Steve, who went to their website and filled out a form describing Mango, including a picture and where he went missing. They generated a printable and shareable flyer.

Missing Dogs Massachusetts (MDM) is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization that works to reunite missing and found dogs with their families. MDM works cooperatively with animal control officers, rescues, shelters, law enforcement, and the media.

They also contacted Hawkeye and spoke with Sam Aromin and told him where Mango had been seen. Aromin, who got into looking for missing pets somewhat accidentally after purchasing a thermal drone and successfully helping assist in a recovery soon after, was impressed by Mango’s athleticism. “He’s a runner,” said Aromin. “At one point he ran for 5 minutes straight for no reason.”

Steve and Aromin made a plan to meet in the Audubon parking lot, and while they waited they continued looking for Mango, with bike path users sharing their plight with others along the route — and learned that Mango had just been seen near Hanley Farm.

Lauren actually saw Mango from a distance, darting between Hanley Farm, Jacobs Point and Audubon. At this point, Mango was in what the people from MDM call “a panicked survival state.”

Mango, like many dogs, is on the skittish side. Approaching dogs like that will often trigger the dog into fight-or-flight mode and cause them to bolt.

Bring on the aerial reinforcements

The Lakes met Aromin midday Saturday. Though it took several hours for him to locate Mango with his drone, Aromin called around 5 to say he was tracking Mango through Bagy Wrinkle Cove. “He told us to meet him where he’d lost sight of Mango when he ran between houses and headed into the wooded area adjacent to Oyster Point,” said Steve. “He told us to go home and grab scent items and bring them back to hang in a tree, and place on the ground between the houses where he lost sight of Mango.”

At the same time, Aromin encouraged the Lakes to begin distributing flyers throughout the community, while he reached out to MDM to coordinate the next steps. A 10 p.m. sighting of Mango on Seymour Street in Warren was fruitless, and on a night that the temperature dropped to 11 degrees, the Lakes again got little sleep.

And still, Mango ran

The Lakes enlisted good friends to help them distribute flyers on the morning of Sunday, Feb. 2. Meanwhile, a volunteer from MDM was arranging to place a trap and a satellite camera based on Mango sightings near Bridge and Beach Streets in Warren. Additional sightings that morning included School and Water streets. Given that data, they
placed the trap and satellite camera on property owned by Radiant Light church, adjacent to the bike path, with the support of Radiant Light pastor Kenn Bongiorno.

The trap was baited with rotisserie chicken and liquid smoke, which was replenished every several hours.

On the morning of Monday, Feb 3, Steve went to replenish the bait, bringing Pepper, the other family dog, along. Later that morning there was a Mango sighting on a Ring doorbell video, casually ambling through a yard on Jacob’s Point. The homeowners showed the Lakes Mango’s tracks, and they were able to follow them in the fresh snow onto Hanley Farm Drive and then onto Audubon property — where they had their own Mango sighting. Based on that information, the MDM volunteer suggested relocating the trap and camera, with the permission of Audubon.

A message from Pepper

Early that afternoon they moved the trap to the Audubon property along with a number of scent items to place around the trap. They also brought Pepper and had her walk around the trap. As if on cue, she peed adjacent to the trap — a message to Mango that there’s no place like home.

When Steve went to change the trap bait around 10, it had been eaten (a later inspection would yield a trapped raccoon.) The Lakes went to bed leaving Mango’s blanket in the front yard and the gate to the backyard and door from deck to breezeway ajar on the off chance Mango found his way home.

At 6:30 a.m. on the morning of Tuesday, Feb. 4, Lauren got up to let Pepper out, and found Mango asleep on a couch in the breezeway. According to Steve, Lauren slowly opened the kitchen door, and quietly closed the deck door. “Mango got up and put his head against Lauren’s leg (something he did when we first adopted him from the Potter League!)…Half awake I heard footsteps on the stairs, a lone head appeared followed by a second. It took a moment to register that one of the heads belonged to Mango.”

He’d lost a few pounds and was tired, cold, sore, hungry and thirsty, but other than abrasions on his rear pads, he was in good shape. The MDM volunteer who assisted with the search suggested to the Lakes that Mango had found somewhere to spend the night that left him at least partially protected from the worst of the frigid weather.

“It took a few days but he was soon back to his old goofy, lovable self,” said Steve.