Lost Dog

 

                            Well I think yesterday was the worst day of my life, probably Robs too. It started the night before, I was bringing the dogs in from the pen at about 11.30 to go to bed, and I bring the ten boys in all at once. Well somehow Hektor got tangled up in Charlies lead and got his lead caught, the snap opened and he was off. I quickly threw the other dogs in the house and ran off after him, but by that time he was long gone, and of course it was very dark. I yelled for Rob, who had gone to bed, and he went out in the car to look for him while I started walking. I knew he had gone up the drive and out as I could see his tracks in the snow (thank GOD it snowed) but the road had been cleared so I didn't know which way he had gone then. So I guessed he had gone right (wrong as it turned out) and walked that way calling him, expecting to see a body on the road. After a couple of hours I came back and Rob was back, neither of us had seen him, Rob went up the trail to the right of the house on the ATV and I decided to go to the left. After about 100 yards I saw dog prints on the snow by the side of the road. I was able to follow them with the torch and they went into the track at the left of the house. Thank God he was off the road anyway. I followed the tracks for about a couple of miles, till the trail ends and goes into an overgrown marshy bit where I lost them. I tried to follow where I could see paw prints, but after clambering over trees and falling in icy water I gave up and went back home to see if Rob had found him. (it did occur to me later that normally I'd never ever wander about in the woods at 3.30 in the morning, but I was too worried about Hektor to be scared)

 

              Well Rob hadn't found him, and between us we spent the next few hours either driving round or walking, or cycling in Robs case, but no sign of him. I printed up some posters and put some in the shops and peoples mail boxes. I went to the vets to see if he'd been handed in, and they gave me a whole load of people to call, which I did, but nobody had him. I went for another drive in the car and actually fell asleep at the wheel three times and woke up on the wrong side of the road. Thankfully it's not too busy round here! I thought I'd better go home and try and get ten minutes sleep before going out again. I did get ten minutes anyway, then Rob came home and took the car out, so I decided to go back up to where I lost the tracks to see if I could see better in daylight. I went into the woods a couple of times to call him and wandered about there for a while. I can't begin to tell you how miserable I was. Hektor is an absolute sweetheart, and the thought of never seeing him again was unbearable, worse was the thought that we might never find out what had happened to him. I didn't know how Paris would cope without him either as they are inseparable. There were a few people out in the woods shooting rabbits by then too, and as he looks a bit like a coyote from a distance, he could easily have been shot. Well I carried on up to the top of the trail and was nearly at the top, calling his name when I heard a very faint woof. I wasn't sure if I'd heard right so I called again and heard a very faint whine. The trees were moving and squeaking though, so I thought it could have been that. Something told me he was in there though. I called again and heard another faint whine. My heart was thumping and I knew I'd found him I went into the trees and there he was, sitting next to a very rancid old deer carcass with his paw in a leg hold trap (illegal by the way).

 

                   The relief that I'd found him and he was alive was indescribable. He was pretty pleased to see me too! It took a while to figure out how to get his foot out of the trap as it was all rusty and stiff, but I managed it in the end. It was bleeding a bit and I was sure he'd broken his foot, but nothing that wouldn't mend, the most important thing was he was alive. He was soaking wet, and he must have been there all night. Both Rob and I had been past where he was about three or four times, but he never said a word! I got him home where Rob was very pleased to see him too, to say the least, and we rushed him off to the vets. Everyone at the vets knows him and they had been worried about him too, so they were really pleased to see him. He had x-rays and amazingly nothing was broken, just very bruised and sore. The top of his paw is cut, but it's not too deep and should heal up soon. He was very very tired. So were we, it was 2 pm when I found him! We all came home and fell asleep!

I never want to go through anything like that again. You can imagine the scenarios that were going through my head. One, which I hadn't even considered, but which the vet pointed out was that often animals caught in traps are attacked and killed by other animals in the woods as they can't get away. She said we were lucky to find him so quickly, she said they usually get dogs in that have been caught in traps that have been stuck for days and their foot has turned green and started to rot. I'm going back up there now to photograph it and report it to the Department of Natural Resources and get them to deal with it. After I've given Hektor another big cuddle of course!

Louise