Tuesday, March 16, 2010 Old Rag Dogs

Tuesday, March 16, 2010
MISSING OLD RAG DOG

The dog below is named T-Bone. He lives close to Old Rag Mountain and he went missing two weekends ago. His owner's name is Darrell Clark and he can be reached on 540-987-3103 or 540-987-9110. If you see T-Bone or if you were a hiker who happened to pick him up thinking he was lost or abandoned please call his owner. His owner was planning on getting him ID chipped and or tatooed but because T-Bone was so young he had not quite gotten around to doing it yet.

OLD RAG DOGS ADVICE

There are quite a few local dogs that one may see when hiking on Old Rag Mountain. They are not strays and they are not abandoned. They have owners that care a lot about them.

The area around Old Rag has no leash laws and dogs are allowed to roam free as long as they are not getting into any trouble. Many of the local dogs spend most if not all of their time outside and are very comfortable doing so. Like any dog, they might decide to roll in the mud or perfume themselves by rolling on some old rotting carcus. Just because they; look dirty, smell like an old dead animal, are sleeping under some boulder way up on Old Rag or sleeping next too your car at the Old Rag Contact Station (even late at night) it does not mean they are lost or abandoned.

Often their local owners will have put special tags on their collars had them tatooed or ID chipped for easier identification. In some circumstances they may be a hunting dog and have a radio tracking device attached to their collar. Often times they will have special tags with long messages embossed on them about the fact that they are local and know how to find their way home. That said, keep in mind that tags and collars can fall off and the lack of any of these does not mean that they are lost or abandoned.

In the past many of these local dogs have been taken to shelters or turned into the Shenandoah National Park by well meaning hikers thinking they were lost or abandoned when they were neither lost or abandoned. Unless they are clearly badly injured or dead please allow them to find their own way home. If you do take them make sure you put in a report with the Shenandoah National Park so that if they have owners trying to find them they will have a way of contacting you and getting their dogs back.