Provided/Dutch is back home with the Varnis family in Audubon: Colin, 4, TJ, 11, and Casey, 9.
By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
Downbeach Dutch, the year-old mixed breed hound dog who bolted out of his grandmother's Longport home, only to lose his way back, was reunited with his family in Audubon after eight days on the lam.
Thank God we found him when we did, his mom Jessica Varnis said Thursday evening.
Dutch slipped out the open door as his family was leaving to watch the fireworks in Margate July 4. Something spooked him and took off like lightning. After two meetups with Margate Police, he was just too fast to catch. He roamed streets in Ventnor, Margate and Longport, but seemed to prefer the marshlands in Margate where he struggled to survive on his own as family and friends frantically searched for him for days.
Varnis said two traps with his favorite toys and clothing of her children was set on a deck on Gladstone Avenue in the area where he was previously spotted, and at a house on Essex and Freemont avenues. A nearby security camera spotted Dutch at the first house, but being the elusive pup that he is, he slipped back into the marshy area.
Casey Varnis and Downbeach Dutch.
On Monday morning, he was spotted at the second location going in and out of the marsh. A security camera captured him sniffing around the trap that contained his bed about 8:30 p.m. He didn't go in at first, but returned a half-hour later and finally went inside the cage to rest. The neighbor called Varnis to let her know Dutch was safe.
I was in Audubon and flew down the Expressway when they said he had been found, Varnis said.
He was immediately taken to a 24-hour veterinarian in Linwood, who checked him out and cleared him to return home.
The vet said he looked pretty good considering what he went through, she said. They had to pick off some ticks and the pads of his feet were torn up, so we have to give him daily foot soaks.
Dutch needed a bath but wasn't as stinky as I thought he would be, she said.
He slept most of the day on Tuesday after reuniting with the Varnis children: 11-year-old TJ, 9-year-old Casey, and 4-year-old Colin.
We didn't get home until 1 a.m. and the kids were sleeping, so they didn't see him until morning, she said. It was hugs all around. The kids love that he's back home again.
Downbeach Dutch has been missing from his grandma's home on Manor Avenue in Longport since the 4th of July.
Dutch slept most of the day on Tuesday but is slowly becoming his old self again.
He's still not as energetic as he usually is, but today, he's a lot better, she said on Thursday.
Varnis credited Lindsey Tomar and Meryl Virga Bonaire from Atlantic County Lost and Found Pets for their assistance in locating Dutch.
Those ladies were amazing. They were so emotionally supportive to us, and they had the resources to help us set up the traps and spread the word, she said.
Ryan from OCNJ Drone was also instrumental in surveying hard to reach areas in the marsh at a moment's notice, she said.
He came out right away whenever we let him know Dutch had been spotted in an area, she said.
Varnis said they treated Dutch to a new bed, which at first he shunned in favor of his old bed, but eventually he took to it.
It's been quite an ordeal for him, and the kids are just so happy to have their slippery lovebug back home again.
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