A 10-year-old Jack Russell terrier named Luna has been loose in Yellowstone National Park since September, and volunteers say approaching winter may soon shut down the hunt.
NBC News reported that the California dog bolted from a park cabin during a family vacation and has eluded capture ever since, turning up at intersections, employee housing, and even lodges.
Katie Boucher, president of the Norris Ark Training and Recovery Center in Norris, Montana, is leading the volunteer search from just north of the park. She is tracking sightings, sleeping at a seasonal-employee RV park, and racing a calendar that is about to close on her.
The escape started with a do-not-disturb sign. Luna’s owners left her in the cabin while they went out. Housekeeping opened the door, believed to be an accident, and the terrier got out.
Boucher recounted the scramble that followed.
"The staff then proceeded to chase her around that area of the park for over two hours before the owners came back and discovered all the chaos and their dog missing,"
The family searched. They were told the little dog had likely died or been eaten by a coyote. Days after they left Yellowstone, word came that Luna had been spotted. They reached Boucher and asked for help. The owners prefer to stay anonymous. They also told her Luna spent her first year surviving on the streets before adoption, a history that may explain how she has lasted this long in the wild.
Luna has been seen crossing park roads, strolling through worker housing, and walking into lodges through automatic doors. Boucher says the pattern points one way.
"Her behavior pattern suggests to me that she is looking for her family,"
Volunteers set a humane trap baited with the family’s scent rather than food, so wildlife would not be drawn in. Marie Jaskula, a local resident who runs one of the park’s general stores, posted signs at every entrance so visitors would watch for the dog. She has a blunt message for anyone who spots her.
"It’s really hard to stress the importance of do not chase,"
Jaskula said the first impulse is the wrong one.
"Everybody sees this little dog buzz across the intersection or maybe around their employee housing, and the first instinct is to call her name and chase her."
That chase instinct is what sent staff running for more than two hours on the day she vanished. It is also what keeps a street-smart terrier running now.
A light dusting of snow has already fallen in the area. Overnight cold has not yet dropped low enough to freeze her, Boucher has said, but the season is turning. The RV park where she has been staying closes next Monday. This may be the last week she can keep looking without new lodging.
Boucher put the stakes in plain terms.
"Hopefully she has decided that winter in Yellowstone National Park is not a good vacation,"
She also spoke to what the loss has meant for the family that drove home without their dog.
"I cannot fathom how I would feel if I had been taking the vacation of a lifetime, and looking for all these memorable experiences in one of the most beautiful places on earth, and lost one of my family members there,"
Park staff opened a door they should not have opened. A chase made a bad situation worse. After that, the formal apparatus offered little comfort beyond a grim guess about coyotes. What remains is a volunteer with a scent trap, a storekeeper with entrance signs, and a 10-year-old terrier still tracing old paths through one of America’s most famous parks.
Winter does not wait on paperwork. Neighbors still do the work when it counts.
