SAN ANTONIO – Mary Oyler’s two-year search ended Sunday with a burst of joy and relief, quickly followed by frustration and disappointment.
Oyler had finally found “Jack,” the last of nearly 30 stray dogs in south Bexar County that Richard Ewers had taken in before he died of cancer. Oyler and other volunteers turned them over to animal rescue groups that found them all homes, except for Jack, who had run away. Yet Oyler kept looking for him.
“We promised Mr. Richard that we would rescue all his dogs. And as a rescue volunteer, we follow through,” Oyler said.
So when she saw Jack in the trap cage she set out with dog food and a carne guisada taco, she said, “I just couldn’t believe it. Yeah, pretty emotional, pretty emotional.”
While Oyler was on the phone arranging a transport for Jack, she said someone who probably had been watching her set out the trap pulled up in an SUV that blocked her view.
When Oyler was done, the trap door was wide open.
Oyler said she doesn’t know if they were out to steal the trap, but “in less than a minute, he was gone.”
“I was completely devastated,” Oyler said.
A teaching assistant substitute, Oyler had been looking for Jack every morning and afternoon, before and after work, when she feeds and rescues other stray animals.
She said there was even a foster home for Jack on standby.
“Tampering with the trap should be a crime, whether it be a city trap, a county trap or a rescue trap,” Oyler said. “Leave it alone. Do not touch it.”
Oyler caught a few quick glimpses of Jack on Monday along Loop 1604 and Tejeda Road, so she knows he’s still out there, close to where he and the other dogs lived with Ewers.
The longer Jack is on the loose, being that he isn’t neutered, he is only going to add to the serious over-population of stray dogs in south Bexar County, Oyler said.
“He is hungry and he’s definitely thirsty,” Oyler said. “So he’s got to come back. He has to.”
She said neighbors contact her whenever they see Jack, and she urges anyone else who may encounter Jack, to reach out to her and Save Our Strays San Antonio, on Facebook.
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