Labradoodle & Goldendoodle Forum
Lost in the Woods
So, it appears that unbelievably, many Doodlers out there are unaware of my poor Finny's recent plight; being Lost in the Woods for 6 hours. Yes, you read that correctly. My poor dog was Lost in the Coyote Ridden Woods for 6 whole hours. And I think everyone needs to know about it:
A few weeks back we interviewed prospective dog walkers to take Finn out walking with a little buddy pack. We don't need to have him professionally walked, we just thought he might enjoy the social aspect. We hoped it would boost his confidence as he tends to be a little cautious of the bigger doggies. All this was communicated to the walkers. They agreed to take him out with a small group of dogs around about the same size as him (251b's). All went well and after 3 hours he was returned home a happy boy. (Suspiciously clean and full of life, but happy). So, we booked up again....
On the second occassion as we handed Finn over the company mentioned they were taking one dog too many 'illegally' - (their words.) In my ignorance I found myself thanking them for squeezing him in! Three hours later I got a call - from my partner who began, 'Jess, I'm afraid there's bad news, it's Finn, he's lost in the woods!' Well, I nearly fell to my knees at this point... She told me that Finn had been lost within the first 15 minutes - (we didn't hear for over an hour). The walker had continued on - with the 6 other dogs, leaving our 1 year old puppy behind!
My partner and I drove to the woods to the place he apparently had been lost and so began a marathon search. I didn't help that my partner had arrived in Canada from the UK the previous night and was suffering from jet-lag. It didn't help that I had a class of students waiting to sit an English exam in a couple of hours. Mostly, it didn't help that the trees were adourned with home-made signs warning of recent coyote attacks on small dogs in the area.
Well now the woods go on in every direction, they just back on to wilderness. And they are really, really, dark. We followed sign-posts and animal tracks, we called 'til our voices were hoarse. There was no sign of Finn. The occassional jogger passed us by, as did the odd mountain biker. Other than that the woods were silent, except for the echo of our own distressed voices. Finally we made contact with the walker(s). Having dropped the other dogs off, the walker and her manager had come to search the same area, apparently another walker was scanning a different patch. They seemed quite unperturbed by our distress, even joking we'd be charged for a 6 hour walk!
Finally, just before the sun went down, a man on a track bike gave us hope. In response to the teary question, 'Have you seen a little brown and white dog?' came the blessed reply, 'Is he more white than brown?' Well, I could have kissed the guy at this point. Confirming the sighting with the help of a cell phone picture, we made off in the direction that we were told,'the little guy followed me for some time...'
Nearly an hour later a jogger told us he'd seen the same little dog heading off 'towards Mountain Highway'. Our poor Finny was clearly running one length of the trail to the other. But he had the sense not to leave the place where he'd been lost. I'm sure he knew we'd come and find him. At one point we 'felt' so near to him, I'm sure I heard him barking. But the evening just dragged on. The dog walkers suggested Finn might have walked home! The drive to the woods is 10 minutes or so, and involves busy main roads, so the thought of Finny trotting home seemed unrealistic and frightening, but I drove home to double check - just in case. I collapsed in the arms of my neighbour and she arranged a search party with friends from our block. They arrived with water and fresh legs!
We had only been in the woods 5 or 10 minutes however, and were debating how and where we should split, when I looked down the path - and saw Finny. A loan little figure, all white like a tiny cloud, with the sun setting behind him and giving him a glowing aura. He looked like a little angel. He was so quiet. We all fell silent. For a few seconds there was just the silence of the wood, the crack of a twig, a bird song. He just stood there. I was scared of alarming him, so I crept towards him calling his name gently. At first he seemed unsure. I guess he was disorientated and confused. We knew he had been trying to follow other people. He lifted one front leg, hesitantly. Then all at once he seemed to recognize us and he came bounding towards us all wriggly and hot and leaping, and we started cheering and crying and hugging him and each other! His ears were veined and his eyes lids were red and he was all sweaty and panting. We gave him water and leashed him up and headed back to the car.
We rang the company to tell them we'd found him before we left the woods. They said they'd call the following day, once we'd all recovered. They didn't. In fact it was a few days before we heard from them - by e-mail. They communicated their thanks for us 'helping search for Finn' and joked at how the dog walker, 'who had had the horrible experience of losing him' had named him The Invisible Dog. Needless to say we were not amused and did not respond to their e-mail. They advised of a trainer and implied Finn had a problem to have run off! We haven't heard from them since.
The compay didn't bill us for either walk. I take that as some sort of apology. I do understand these things happen - dogs bolt, but clearly the walker had more dogs than she could handle, and misjudged our puppy entirely, taking him off the leash too soon. We'll never know what frightened him so as to make him run off in that way and not come back - something he has never done with us. But the main thing is we got him back. And each time I look at him now I feel even more grateful that he's here with us, bringing us so much joy. Things could easily have been so very different. If the sun had gone down that night with our puppy still in the woods, I doubt if we would ever have seen him again, and the signs on the trees in the woods would read;
Lost: One Small Brown and White Dog, very friendly.....answers to the name of Finny.
A few weeks back we interviewed prospective dog walkers to take Finn out walking with a little buddy pack. We don't need to have him professionally walked, we just thought he might enjoy the social aspect. We hoped it would boost his confidence as he tends to be a little cautious of the bigger doggies. All this was communicated to the walkers. They agreed to take him out with a small group of dogs around about the same size as him (251b's). All went well and after 3 hours he was returned home a happy boy. (Suspiciously clean and full of life, but happy). So, we booked up again....
On the second occassion as we handed Finn over the company mentioned they were taking one dog too many 'illegally' - (their words.) In my ignorance I found myself thanking them for squeezing him in! Three hours later I got a call - from my partner who began, 'Jess, I'm afraid there's bad news, it's Finn, he's lost in the woods!' Well, I nearly fell to my knees at this point... She told me that Finn had been lost within the first 15 minutes - (we didn't hear for over an hour). The walker had continued on - with the 6 other dogs, leaving our 1 year old puppy behind!
My partner and I drove to the woods to the place he apparently had been lost and so began a marathon search. I didn't help that my partner had arrived in Canada from the UK the previous night and was suffering from jet-lag. It didn't help that I had a class of students waiting to sit an English exam in a couple of hours. Mostly, it didn't help that the trees were adourned with home-made signs warning of recent coyote attacks on small dogs in the area.
Well now the woods go on in every direction, they just back on to wilderness. And they are really, really, dark. We followed sign-posts and animal tracks, we called 'til our voices were hoarse. There was no sign of Finn. The occassional jogger passed us by, as did the odd mountain biker. Other than that the woods were silent, except for the echo of our own distressed voices. Finally we made contact with the walker(s). Having dropped the other dogs off, the walker and her manager had come to search the same area, apparently another walker was scanning a different patch. They seemed quite unperturbed by our distress, even joking we'd be charged for a 6 hour walk!
Finally, just before the sun went down, a man on a track bike gave us hope. In response to the teary question, 'Have you seen a little brown and white dog?' came the blessed reply, 'Is he more white than brown?' Well, I could have kissed the guy at this point. Confirming the sighting with the help of a cell phone picture, we made off in the direction that we were told,'the little guy followed me for some time...'
Nearly an hour later a jogger told us he'd seen the same little dog heading off 'towards Mountain Highway'. Our poor Finny was clearly running one length of the trail to the other. But he had the sense not to leave the place where he'd been lost. I'm sure he knew we'd come and find him. At one point we 'felt' so near to him, I'm sure I heard him barking. But the evening just dragged on. The dog walkers suggested Finn might have walked home! The drive to the woods is 10 minutes or so, and involves busy main roads, so the thought of Finny trotting home seemed unrealistic and frightening, but I drove home to double check - just in case. I collapsed in the arms of my neighbour and she arranged a search party with friends from our block. They arrived with water and fresh legs!
We had only been in the woods 5 or 10 minutes however, and were debating how and where we should split, when I looked down the path - and saw Finny. A loan little figure, all white like a tiny cloud, with the sun setting behind him and giving him a glowing aura. He looked like a little angel. He was so quiet. We all fell silent. For a few seconds there was just the silence of the wood, the crack of a twig, a bird song. He just stood there. I was scared of alarming him, so I crept towards him calling his name gently. At first he seemed unsure. I guess he was disorientated and confused. We knew he had been trying to follow other people. He lifted one front leg, hesitantly. Then all at once he seemed to recognize us and he came bounding towards us all wriggly and hot and leaping, and we started cheering and crying and hugging him and each other! His ears were veined and his eyes lids were red and he was all sweaty and panting. We gave him water and leashed him up and headed back to the car.
We rang the company to tell them we'd found him before we left the woods. They said they'd call the following day, once we'd all recovered. They didn't. In fact it was a few days before we heard from them - by e-mail. They communicated their thanks for us 'helping search for Finn' and joked at how the dog walker, 'who had had the horrible experience of losing him' had named him The Invisible Dog. Needless to say we were not amused and did not respond to their e-mail. They advised of a trainer and implied Finn had a problem to have run off! We haven't heard from them since.
The compay didn't bill us for either walk. I take that as some sort of apology. I do understand these things happen - dogs bolt, but clearly the walker had more dogs than she could handle, and misjudged our puppy entirely, taking him off the leash too soon. We'll never know what frightened him so as to make him run off in that way and not come back - something he has never done with us. But the main thing is we got him back. And each time I look at him now I feel even more grateful that he's here with us, bringing us so much joy. Things could easily have been so very different. If the sun had gone down that night with our puppy still in the woods, I doubt if we would ever have seen him again, and the signs on the trees in the woods would read;
Lost: One Small Brown and White Dog, very friendly.....answers to the name of Finny.
Comment
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Comment by Beth and Gang on June 27, 2008 at 3:34am
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I am so glad that your beloved Finny was found. What an awful experience for ALL of you. Did you know the walker would have him off leash? Or was that a surprise too?
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Comment by ClarkP on June 26, 2008 at 9:41pm
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What a truly horrible thing to happen! I've never had a dog lost like that but I can imagine your desperateness!
My old girl Cass was hit by a car when she was just 1 years old. (Kinda my lapse of supervision / kinda the neighbours lapse of supervision... we both though the other one was watching the dogs.) Cass was OK. But I remember vividly later that night, holding my puppy that now had stitches in her head and a cast on her leg and crying... telling her "You scared me SO bad! I thought I had lost you..."
I'm sure Finny's doodle fur soaks up scared/relieved tears even better than Border Collie fur. ;-)
I'm so glad you found her safely.
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Comment by Joe R. on June 26, 2008 at 7:15pm
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Wow! I'm so happy you found him. You definately handled the dog walker company in a lot more civil manner than I would have. Thank god for great neighbors and friends. Hopefiully they'll all get word out around you community about this poor company.
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Comment by JBAdorableDoodles on June 26, 2008 at 5:21pm
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I sure am glad your boy is safe & at home where he belongs. What a story
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Comment by Adina P on June 26, 2008 at 5:18pm
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I remembered what I was going to say! But I'll write it here in case I forget by the time I get to your page. The slide show is FULL -- I can only get in 100 at a time unfortunately. But if you have a brand NEW pic of Finn in clothes, I'll remove a pic of Rosco and sneak him in there =)
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Comment by Jessica on June 26, 2008 at 4:21pm
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Thanks. I am a very good story teller, this was for Fun - if I can call writing about losing Finn, fun! (See, I even got a tongue twister in!) Do you know of a good publisher? Seriously, I appreciated your kind comments. And yes, it was a truly awful day. (Is there still time/space for Finn in an outfit?)
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By the way, you are quite a good story teller =)
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I laughed, I cried, I felt like I was there!
But seriously, what a scary, scary, scary day that must have been. Poor little Finny and poor little Jessica! I'm still amazed at how nonchalant the dog walkers were toward the loss of Finn--unbelievable.
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