Scrim, the city’s elusive “Houdini Dog,” is back with the owner of Zeus’ Rescues–and all it took was a simple cat trap.
Michelle Cheramie, the nonprofit’s owner, who has been spearheading rescue efforts, shared an update on Facebook early Tuesday, saying he was captured this week after months on the run.
“WE GOT HIM!!! Much love to Trap DAT Cat!!! More details to come when I can breathe!!!” she wrote.
Around 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Cheramie got a call from someone with local stray cat rescue group Trap Dat Cat, which has been setting up humane traps in the Mid-City neighborhood. The traps are filled with fish and anchovies.
Cheramie said Scrim apparently wandered into one that was sitting on someone’s front porch overnight on Monday.
When she arrived at the house, she got down on her knees and breathed a sigh of relief.
“It truly was a community effort to get this dog back,” Cheramie said. “He wouldn’t be safe without the help of everybody in New Orleans.”
Cheramie took Scrim to a local vet, who scanned him for injuries “nose to tail” and gave him a clean bill of health. Then, she took him back to her house and gave him a bath.
The wire-haired, Westie-Terrier mutt became a local legend last year due to his penchant for running loose in the Crescent City, evading capture at every turn.
Scrim’s story started spreading on the internet last spring after he escaped from a foster home. Once he was captured the first time, the New Orleans City Council requested staff at Zeus’ Rescues bring Scrim into city hall chambers to receive a special proclamation and gift bag of dog treats.
All seemed well for Scrim. Cheramie kept him in her Uptown home as she searched for a permanent residence. But then, in November, he escaped again.
Home security footage showed Scrim leaping out of an open window on the second floor of Cheramie’s house. In the now-viral video, Scrim crashes to the ground, immediately gets up and wiggles through a slot in her wrought-iron fence, then sprints out of view down the street.
Afterwards, Cheramie launched daily canvasses of the city to look for him. She and a team of volunteers checked in through a group chat multiple times a day about the search.
In his latest episode of running loose, he spent over two months on the street, surviving last month’s historic snowstorm and February’s Super Bowl crowds. He was spotted in multiple neighborhoods, from the Lower Garden District to as far away as Harahan.
Now, he’s back in Cheramie’s home in Uptown, wearing a GPS collar. All of Cheramie’s doors and windows are locked tight, she said.
“Only good things ahead for him,” she said.
