Yesterday I lost my dog.I did find him again (or rather, to put it more accurately - we found each other) but there was at least an hour, maybe 90 minutes when I was wandering, dogless, whistling and calling inanely throughout the woods.
The morning had started so well, Jasmine and I weren't fighting/arguing, Ben had managed to track down all his P.E. kit that he thought he needed for school (turned out he didn't need any of it as their timetable was changed last Friday because they're halfway through this school year) the sun was trying to break cover, all in all it looked like being a good day.
After dropping Jas at school, Logan and I looped down through the woods, past the football pitches by the main road and then climbed (trust me, crampons are almost necessary) the path back up into the woods emerging by the Friedhoff*, I then turned away and down into the woods along another path, but Logan was distracted by another dog on the upper path, they smiffed each other in that delightful way dogs have and as I called him, Logan looked as though he was coming, but then he had a change of heart, and hurtled into the woods furthest away from me and towards the Friedhoff.
If ever Logan decides to wander off he always vanishes at this point, he can get into the Friedhoff easily there because the wall is jumpable and failing that there are gaps in the fencing (not that he can ever find the spot where he came through when it comes to getting back out again though.) There's clearly some very appetising smells originating from the Friedhoff because Logan is a creature driven only by his stomach and his hunger and when I eventually find him digging in the graveyard he's usually chewing...
I got to the spot where Logan can normally be found, scoffing something undesirable but this time there was no dog. And so started the dog hunt.
At first no-one seemed to have seen him, although everyone was very helpful and positive, suggesting that he'd maybe find his way home (I expressed disbelief at this idea, Logan is a lovely dog, a better natured beast you couldn't wish for but his intelligence is limited strictly to calorie counting, he'd find his way home only if following a trail of bread crumbs) or that he'd come back where he last saw me (this sounded more likely and I heard this from different people) one lady said she'd call me if she found him, another said she'd seen him (this was after about an hour of me wandering around, shouting and whistling like a loon) but couldn't attach him to her dog's lead because her dog was "zickig" (bitchy/touchy - and it was too, a right grumpy bitch) the lumberjacks reckoned they'd seen him standing on the top of the (waist height) wall at the view point (I think maybe they were taking the piss. Logan? Expend energy in jumping up onto a wall? The only time he uses more energy than is absolutely required is when the children are trying to teach him a new trick (and feeding him treats) or when I take him running with me and he has no option but to run alongside me because I keep him on the lead to prevent him wandering off on the scrounge).
At some point during my increasingly frantic search I rang Rebecca who joined me as soon as she was able. She walked with Logan's bestest friend Oscar to join me from the far end of the woods, to ensure he wasn't up there - he wasn't.
The last sighting I'd had was from another retriever's owner who'd seen Logan disappearing down the path we'd come up almost two hours before and I decided to stand there, in view of the area he'd originally disappeared from, in the faint hope that maybe, just maybe he was circling round, retracing our route trying to find me, possibly I'm crediting him with too much sense, however, appear he did, looking thoroughly bedraggled and knackered.
I'd left the house at 7.30am and eventually made it home at 10am...a rather extended 60 minute walk - good job I had no serious plans eh? Bloody dog!
* word for the day; Friedhoff - cemetery
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