ELY—A group of local residents here recently helped reunite a family and their lost dog after they were separated earlier this summer in the Boundary Waters.

Lisa Foss, a Minnesota Federated Humane Agent, said a friend contacted her to assist in the retrieval last week of a dog owned by a Minneapolis family that had gone missing in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness this fall. The dog had been spotted several times in the Ely area in recent weeks.

“A friend who works with (a pet retrieval service called) the “Retrievers” asked if I could help with the case of Lindsey, the missing dog,” Foss said. “Lindsey was with her family in the BWCAW and was lost in the wilderness when the family was going home.”

Lindsey was subsequently picked up by other campers in the area, but escaped from their home in Ely, according to Foss. “At that point I was asked to lend a hand with the Retrievers by setting up a live trap near where we had sighted her with our trail cam,” she said.

By this time she’d already been missing a couple of weeks. “The trap was set up but we think because of all the activity in the area she was spooked and left the area,” she said. Signs were put up all around Ely asking for sightings.

“Last Wednesday I got a call from one of the students at the (Vermilion Community College) Outdoor Learning Center telling me she’d been in the area. I drove out there and talked to several people who had seen her often and decided the trap needed to be moved out there,” Foss said.

She enlisted the help of her daughter, Jen Flermoen and husband, Steve, to move the trap and set it up. “Before we could even arm it, Lindsey appeared and within a minute walked right in,” Foss said. “She ate all the food and laid down a few yards away and took a nap. It was probably 45 minutes later that she ran off and we were able to arm the trap. We didn’t think she’d be back immediately so we headed back to town to grab a bite to eat.”

Foss’ remote link to the trail cam showed that Lindsey came right back and was trapped. “We turned around and went back and there she was, sitting calmly in the secured trap, shaking but unharmed,” she said.

They secured the dog with two leads, removed her from the trap and took her immediately to the Ely Veterinary Clinic. “The owners were notified and drove up from Minneapolis and were reunited that same night,” Foss said.