Shari Hazelton creeps into a parking lot at Burcham Park, her eyes scanning car windows from behind the wheel of her Ford “Animobile.”

“I’m looking for smudge marks,” she says  a sign that a canine is a frequent passenger and might be running loose.

No dogs in sight this time.

A few minutes later, a voice on Hazelton’s radio summons her across town to a report of a dog at-large.

“10-4,” she says. “En route.”

Hazelton, one of three animal control officers for the city of Lawrence, heads off to what could be a routine call or a potentially dangerous situation.

“Sometimes it gets pretty hairy,” she says.

Though Hazelton’s never been bitten, she has the marks on her truck door to prove that some animals get pretty grouchy when she comes around.

She’s been busier since college students returned last month and since West Nile virus reached Douglas County. The virus has stirred panic in some residents who have found dead birds on their property.

“It’s a different adventure every day,” she says.

‘Think like an animal’

Although dogs and cats are the most common creatures she encounters, Hazelton also has found raccoons, possums and even skunks in her cat traps. The strangest call she ever got involved a rabbit at a Kansas University fraternity house.

“I thought it was a joke until I got there,” she says. “It was hopping up and down the hallways.”

Hazelton’s truck is equipped to tote anything from rabbits to dogs as large as Great Danes.

The tools of her trade litter her truck’s cab: dog treats, leashes and pull ropes fixed to the back window. Other tools are stowed in rear compartments, but their usefulness depends on the handler’s skill and instinct, Hazelton says.

“You have to think like an animal,” she said. “You learn what the different movements mean.”

It’s a skill nearly impossible not to hone on this job. Animal control officers last year wrote 515 tickets to dog owners and 17 to cat owners who were in violation of animal control ordinances, said Police Sgt. Doug Bell, who oversees animal control operations. Officers hauled 1,013 animals to the shelter, he said. Hazelton estimated each officer averaged six calls a day.

Close calls

But this is a slow shift for Hazelton, who works from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Her first call comes about 5 p.m. and leads her to an East Lawrence mobile home park. She spots a puppy peeking from below a trailer, gets on her hands and knees and tries to lure the dog with pepperoni sticks.

“Come here, baby,” she whimpers.

After a few unsuccessful tries, Hazelton leashes the pup. Back at the shelter, she records the animal’s breed, sex and age as a Humane Society staffer vaccinates him and leads him to a holding kennel.

“That was a pretty easy one,” she says.

Eleven days before, Hazelton answered a less timid call. Two loose pit bulls had pinned a woman against her car.

Hazelton pulled into the driveway and rolled the window part-way down. One of the dogs lunged at the truck, leaving a dent, and latched onto the window with his paws.

“I thought he was going to break my window,” she says.

It took six police officers using pepper spray to get the dogs back behind the fence, Hazelton says.

Getting animals home

Starting animal control officers are paid $9.78 an hour, with the potential for pay increases up to $14, Bell said. No special qualifications are necessary, though experience with animals or law enforcement is preferable. New officers learn most of what they need to know by riding along with veteran officers.

Nothing really prepares them for dealing with angry owners, who sometimes can be more vicious than their animals. Hazelton has written tickets to people who were inches from her face, screaming obscenities. Twice she has filed police reports  once after someone grabbed her, once because someone threatened her.

But she says most owners are responsible and reasonable. It’s a nice feeling, she says, to find a lost animal whose face has been plastered on posters across town by a forlorn owner.

“I love my job,” she says. “For the most part, it’s rewarding. You’re getting that animal back home.”