{"id":21339,"date":"2025-07-22T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-family-reunited-with-lost-dog-in-silverton\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:05:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:05:59","slug":"new-mexico-family-reunited-with-lost-dog-in-silverton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-family-reunited-with-lost-dog-in-silverton\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico family reunited with lost dog in Silverton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Silverton
Silverton resident Jimmy Keene II, pictured, rescued Luna, a mini blue heeler to the delight of her owner, John Rodriguez, on Friday. Luna was lost for two weeks, although she was frequently spotted by Silverton residents who tipped Keene and John\u2019s son Tanner off. (Courtesy of Jimmy Keene II)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Rodriguez family was preparing for a night of spectacle ahead of Silverton\u2019s widely anticipated Fourth of July fireworks show when trouble came a sniffing.<\/p>\n

Tanner Rodriguez was sitting in the bed of his father John\u2019s truck, accompanied by two blue heelers \u2012 Oakley, his dog; and Luna, John\u2019s dog. He said he doesn\u2019t know what caught the pair\u2019s attention, but something spurred them into action and they leaped from the truck bed and darted away.<\/p>\n

A pedestrian managed to catch Oakley before he got too far. But Luna, tapping into her cattle dog lineage, took off in a sprint. She was gone.<\/p>\n

\"Luna,
Luna, 2\u00bd, weighs 27 pounds, is energetic and \u201cfast like a cheetah,\u201d and \u201chas a bedtime like an old person\u201d \u2012 she gets up early and go to bed early, Tanner Rodriguez said.(Courtesy of Jimmy Keene II)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Luna, 2\u00bd, weighs 27 pounds, is energetic and \u201cfast like a cheetah,\u201d and \u201chas a bedtime like an old person\u201d \u2012 she gets up early and go to bed early, Tanner said. She\u2019s also a mama\u2019s girl, and spends her days back home running through the fields with her mother. She often checks on her owners, not wanting to be separated for long. But something Tanner can\u2019t put his finger on was different on July 4 in Silverton.<\/p>\n

The Rodriguez family didn\u2019t know it in the moment, but it would be a full two weeks before they\u2019d be reunited with Luna.<\/p>\n

Luna goes missing<\/div>\n

Unbeknownst to them, Silverton happens to be home to a man with a knack for catching lost dogs. Just shy of a full year ago, Silverton resident Jimmy Keene II reunited Konni, a Belgian Malinois, with the Jaxon family two weeks after it was frightened away during the 2024 Fourth of July fireworks show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In September 2024, Keene came to the rescue again. With the help of a group of compassionate community members, Keene recovered Ludo, an 80-pound black Labrador retriever that injured its paws on descending Ice Lakes Trail with its owners, and carried him 1\u00bd miles down the trail<\/a> to the Ice Lake Trailhead.<\/p>\n

Over the past two weeks, Keene and Tanner had been tracking sightings of Luna reported by Silverton residents. Keene said it was challenging at first because there weren\u2019t any patterns in Luna\u2019s movements.<\/p>\n

\"Silverton
Silverton resident Jimmy Keene, left, rescued Luna, a mini blue heeler to the delight of her owner, John Rodriguez, center, on Friday. Tanner Rodriguez, John\u2019s son, searched for Luna for nearly two weeks. The day after he left Silverton, Keene successfully caught the blue heeler. (Courtesy of Jimmy Keene)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

He set up trail cameras donated by two individuals, placed a pressure box trap loaded with Vienna sausages outside his home, and took to the streets to catch Luna\u2019s attention. He laid out a series of irresistible liquid smoke and kibble trails that led back to his home and waited.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Tanner was going about town, day after day, visiting locations where residents had reported seeing Luna. He laid eyes on her several times, but he had no chance of getting close enough to capture her before she was off again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs she alive? Is she having fun?\u201d Tanner said. \u201cYou come home and (you\u2019re) missing that energy from her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keene\u2019s trap worked the first night he placed it \u2012 in a sense. Unset, the trap attracted \u201cevery fox in San Juan County,\u201d as seen on Keene\u2019s trail cameras, he said. But there was still no sign of Luna.<\/p>\n

Catching Luna<\/div>\n

On Friday morning, Keene checked his trail cameras again. More foxes. But around 1 a.m., Luna appeared on the recording. She ate, and then went to her kennel, which the Rodriguez family left with Keene, and curled up among old T-shirts carrying her owner\u2019s scent. She slept there for three to four hours before wandering off.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe came here, she ate, she left, she came back and she went to sleep. So now maybe we have a pattern of her coming here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Worried that a marathon being held in Silverton over the weekend would scare Luna off, he decided to make his move. He baited the trap again, set it and waited. Sure enough, on Friday afternoon, Luna wondered into the trap, triggered it and was captured.<\/p>\n

\"John
John Rodriguez, left, and his son Tanner reunite with Luna, John\u2019s blue heeler who went missing in Silverton on July 4 and was captured on Friday. (Courtesy of Jimmy Keene II)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s the most frustrating thing, because you have to have a ton of patience. So it\u2019s super frustrating. But as long as there\u2019s a good outcome, it\u2019s so rewarding to reunite pets, you know, the fur babies, with their loved ones,\u201d Keene said.<\/p>\n

Keene said something snaps in a dog\u2019s mind when it\u2019s separated from its owners and lost in the wild. It\u2019s like its instincts kick in, and it doesn\u2019t recognize its human family. But after capturing Luna and letting her rest in her kennel, which he covered temporarily to let her be alone with her owner\u2019s clothing and scent, she calmed down.<\/p>\n

Tanner said the moment Luna saw him, she grew excited.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we walked through the door she looked at me and knew exactly who I was,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A word of advice<\/div>\n

Keene said six unleashed, free-roaming dogs in Silverton were frightened away by fireworks the evening of July 4. Four of them returned to their owners that same night.<\/p>\n

A labradoodle was found by its owners on Kendall Mountain the next day. It would take two weeks for Luna to be captured, even though frequent sightings of her made clear she was still in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dogs probably do well at home with some fireworks on the front porch, but the repercussion off the mountains, it just booms really loud here, because the mountains are so high,\u201d Keene said.<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018As long as there’s a good outcome, it’s so rewarding to reunite pets\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[382,950,28,714,327],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-animal","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-human-interest","tag-silverton"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77268,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21339\/revisions\/77268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21339"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}