Friday, September 18, 2015

Bad News! But then, Good News!!

It's been hell of a week this week. there I was with my blogging head back on with all good intentions of carrying on with catch up posts. Then on Sunday morning Natasha posted on Facebook that Astrix their border collie had run off in the early hours of Sunday morning whilst they were at a party on the complete opposite side of town. Something really spooked him, so much so that he messed himself and when Natasha put him outside he took off.
As you can imagine we were all worried sick for him, he's quite a nervous wee fella and the thought of him being out there alone, surrounded by miles of open farmland and one very busy road in front of Michael and Tash's friends house, quite frayed the nerves. It was a very tense week.
I have to say that usually I consider Facebook an unnecessary evil, at times it drives me mad, or rather the crap people post, drives me mad. But in light of the overwhelming support from so many people, I have to admit that it can be a very powerful tool.
I can't count how many people shared Astrix's photo and his details, through lost pet pages (sadly so many of those exist!) Gordonton (nearby village) community pages, farming websites and from these pages word of mouth.  I went to check out a possible siting at the beginning of the week. I spoke to a lay-by coffee cart owner who was at the time talking to a lady in her car, I mentioned a black and white border collie and the lady in the car said 'Would that be Astrix?'
Wow! That was on Monday morning.
We contacted all the surrounding dog pounds, on one occasion, Michael, Tash and myself had contacted one pound three times in one day. People in the immediate area from where he disappeared from were incredibly helpful. Farmers are well within their legal rights to shoot any dog on sight if they are worrying their stock, and rightly so. For me that was my biggest fear, especially as there are young calves and lambs in the fields. The people in the area were just amazing, one lady searched with Tash for two hours on Wednesday and her brother, very kindly let Tash put food in one of his sheds. The second big worry was the road, it's a 100km per hour road and with huge lorries thundering past, they scared me so goodness knows how Astrix would react being a country dog living at the end of a no exit road.
A lot of searching happened that week, lots of kms notched up and scores of people constantly on the lookout for one black and white, nervous border collie called Astrix.

And then came the good news...
I was at craft on Thursday and I had texted Tash to say that I wouldn't be able to go out and search that day. I'd had a constant nagging headache all week and felt exhausted, I know Michael and Natasha were feeling the strain too. But I needed a diversion for a few hours.
Then came the call....
"He's been found!!!" Tash could hardly contain herself and rushed out of work to go and pick him up.
Let this wonderful article fill you in on the details of that day.
Click on the link..


Here he is at home looking none the worse for the wear


That evening we went up the road for dinner and sank a few glasses of wine to celebrate, it was so good to have him home. It doesn't bear thinking about what could have happened to him.
He was however far too knackered to join in

The next morning he was acting as normal, annoying the cats and stealing their food.
Welcome home young fella, we missed you.
Oh yeah! And you're grounded mate! 
No more parties for you.
 Back soon with regular, boring and less stressful news



11 comments:

  1. Thank goodness for the happy ending!!! Pets can drive you crazy at times. If only he could speak and tell you what he's been up to on his adventure. Everybody can sleep easy now. Phew!!!

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    1. I asked him what he'd been up to and how come he didn't hear my dulcet tones calling him across the fields :D but he wouldn't say ;-D

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  2. Oh Sue - big tears in my eyes as I read this about Astrix's stressful week, the poor wee fella. He sure is a beautiful dog - I am so glad he was found safe & sound. And yes, I agree with you totally & have the same feelings as you about facebook, it does have its uses but drives me nuts most of the time too :-)

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    1. He had a sleepover here last night and he was as good as gold :D Luv him to bits :D

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  3. Good news all around. Great pet owners, wonderful helpers and a super nanny.

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    1. Hey J, even though it was pretty stressful it was also a humbling and amazing time too. xx

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  4. They are one of the family members aren't they. Glad you found him :)

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  5. So glad he was found unharmed, and is now safe back home.

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  6. So glad to read the good news!!

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  7. So nice to hear some good news Sue! Very happy it all turned out well.

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  8. Oh I'm so glad this story had a happy ending ... hooray :0)
    xx

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