I have a small bit to add to the story of Pitts in the form of an article my grandfather, an ecologist, wrote with him in the Journal of Mammalogy: Dog Locates Winter Nests of Mammals[0]. The article reads as a charming account of scientists tramping around in the woods with a dog looking for mice. When I talked to my father about this article, however, I learned that this was an attempt by my grandfather to help Pitts and keep him psychologically grounded. I guess the woods made him feel a little bit better.

[0] https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-mammalogy_1952-05...