When we drove up to the Poitou Charente to view houses at the beginning of the week, we decided to put 2 of our dogs in Kennels and take our smaller 2 with us for the drive. The Kennels we chose had a great reputation and as they were only going in for 2 nights I wasn't too worried.
We came back from our trip and were really happy as we had found a house we really liked so I should have expected something to go wrong as life never goes smoothly for too long!
Surprise,surprise, the phone rang at 9am the next morning and it was Barry, the owner of the Kennels in Mezerville to tell us that Tim had been spooked whilst out on a walk that morning and had managed to get loose. He had disappeared at 7am so I would have preferred Barry to phone us straight away so that we could have driven over there and hoped that he would still be in the area. The kennels was over an hour away so we didn't arrive until gone 10am and after wandering around for 2 hours we couldn't see any sign of him. The kennels was in the middle of rural countryside and with endless valleys he could have gone anywhere!
We had to give up and head home with our other dog Leland. I spent the afternoon making "Missing" posters and spreading the word on Facebook and Twitter. Everyone was so kind and really helped to get word out and by the end of the day over 1500 people had seen the poster online.
I went back in the afternoon to put up the posters in the village and also the surrounding villages. It was difficult to know where to put posters as the villages were so spread out in that area and I didn't know how far he had gone! I spent another 3 hours looking for him with my Mum but still no sign. We were getting really worried and your imagination always goes into over-drive when a pet goes missing. I don't think either of us slept that night!!
The next day I didn't have much hope and had to go to do a Gite Changeover in the morning so I came home and wasn't sure what to do next. When the phone rang I was expecting it to be the usual cold caller ( we seem to have about 10 calls a day at the moment!!), so was shocked to hear a Dutch man telling me that he had been out hiking in Mezerville, had seen Tim but he had run away and had then seen my poster in the village. It was so kind of him to ring me, I will be forever grateful to him. We got straight into the car and headed over there. Cue another 3 hours of walking ( at least I lost some weight from all the exercise!!) and after nearly giving up hope, Mum found him near a farm in the area. Poor thing could barely walk as he had sores all over his feet. We took him home and since then, apart from eating and "doing his business" in the garden, he has been asleep ever since!
We came back from our trip and were really happy as we had found a house we really liked so I should have expected something to go wrong as life never goes smoothly for too long!
Surprise,surprise, the phone rang at 9am the next morning and it was Barry, the owner of the Kennels in Mezerville to tell us that Tim had been spooked whilst out on a walk that morning and had managed to get loose. He had disappeared at 7am so I would have preferred Barry to phone us straight away so that we could have driven over there and hoped that he would still be in the area. The kennels was over an hour away so we didn't arrive until gone 10am and after wandering around for 2 hours we couldn't see any sign of him. The kennels was in the middle of rural countryside and with endless valleys he could have gone anywhere!
We had to give up and head home with our other dog Leland. I spent the afternoon making "Missing" posters and spreading the word on Facebook and Twitter. Everyone was so kind and really helped to get word out and by the end of the day over 1500 people had seen the poster online.
I went back in the afternoon to put up the posters in the village and also the surrounding villages. It was difficult to know where to put posters as the villages were so spread out in that area and I didn't know how far he had gone! I spent another 3 hours looking for him with my Mum but still no sign. We were getting really worried and your imagination always goes into over-drive when a pet goes missing. I don't think either of us slept that night!!
The next day I didn't have much hope and had to go to do a Gite Changeover in the morning so I came home and wasn't sure what to do next. When the phone rang I was expecting it to be the usual cold caller ( we seem to have about 10 calls a day at the moment!!), so was shocked to hear a Dutch man telling me that he had been out hiking in Mezerville, had seen Tim but he had run away and had then seen my poster in the village. It was so kind of him to ring me, I will be forever grateful to him. We got straight into the car and headed over there. Cue another 3 hours of walking ( at least I lost some weight from all the exercise!!) and after nearly giving up hope, Mum found him near a farm in the area. Poor thing could barely walk as he had sores all over his feet. We took him home and since then, apart from eating and "doing his business" in the garden, he has been asleep ever since!
(Tim straight after he got home from his Doggy Drama)
Today, 2 days after finding him, I managed to get him to stay awake for more than 10 minutes at a time. The reason for my success? A Hyde bone of course! It always has to involve food lol. So he is now happily munching away :) We are applying Bio-Oil to his feet each day which seems to be really helping the sores so hopefully he will be up and about again soon.
I can safely say, he won't be going into Kennels again!!!!
Today, 2 days after finding him, I managed to get him to stay awake for more than 10 minutes at a time. The reason for my success? A Hyde bone of course! It always has to involve food lol. So he is now happily munching away :) We are applying Bio-Oil to his feet each day which seems to be really helping the sores so hopefully he will be up and about again soon.
I can safely say, he won't be going into Kennels again!!!!
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