He calls it “Stella’s Great Adventure.”
With those words, Kipling resident Mike Shefka described how his Australian Shepherd, a rescued dog he’s cared for since last July, recently ran away while Shefka was in the hospital for triple bypass heart surgery.
Mike’s son, Daniel, and a friend took care of Stella while Shefka was away, but the red merle decided to take off after a few days later when Daniel took her to his shop on Owens Road.
She was on the run for 33 days in the Angier area with over 20 sightings, Shefka said. His grandson Tyler set up a Facebook page and Daniel set up an account on the Neighborhood app that showed where Stella was seen over that period of time.
One woman said Stella stayed overnight on her back porch with her dog for two days. That was during a rainstorm, Shefka said.
Stella was eventually seen on camera in an event barn at 381 Mabry Road and a trap was set.
Daniel Shefka said the barn’s owner, Mike Lyon, set up a trail camera and spotted her. Food was set out for three nights in a row, and Stella was seen coming and going.
On the fourth night, they put out a trap with food but didn’t set the trap. Stella came, ate the food and left. The fifth night the trap was set, but Stella didn’t step on the pressure plate so she was not caught.
On the sixth night, she stepped on the pressure plate since it had been overlaid with cardboard, which was Lyon’s idea.
Daniel Shefka went to the barn and retrieved her in the cage trap and took her to his dad’s residence shortly after 3 a.m. on Feb. 27.
Once she was in her home, Stella was released from the trap and leapt at her caretaker.
“She knocked me down on the couch licking me,” Mike Shefka said.
Daniel Shefka felt bad about losing his dad’s dog. “I was very determined, very hell bent on getting the dog [back],” he said, noting he drove around the Angier neighborhood many times, knocked on doors and handed out his business cards.
A woman who finds lost pets, Erin Eaton, helped the Shefkas by giving them advice and let them use a trap from her business, K9’s On Call Missing Pet Services in Linden.
“Without her and the community, we never would’ve got her back,” Mike Shefka said of Stella.
Now that she’s back, Stella is a lot calmer than she used to be, he said.
It took three baths to get Stella clean, Mike Shefka said, noting she actually gained two pounds during her “great adventure.”
He smiled recalling a visit to Wendy’s restaurant in Lillington on Sunday, March 2. A woman at the drive-thru recognized Stella. “That’s the dog from the internet!” he remembers her saying when he drove up in his 1996 Ford pickup.
