Lost & Found - A Long 48 Hours!

byChrystopherJ

5.1K followers

4 years ago

Pictured above is Tia, a 9 year old German Shepherd crossed Jack Russel, and Beau's best friend!

My human best friend, and Tia's owner, had to travel about 8 hours away on Monday to attend his Granddads funeral on Tuesday afternoon. Unfortunately they were not able to take Tia with them, and I was also unable to look after her, as my Granddad is currently in hospital and we've been told he doesn't have long to live, so at moments notice I need to be ready to travel about 3 hours to be with my Mum and family, so Tia went to stay with an in-home boarder and dog walker just around the corner from us at about 7am on Monday.

The dog boarder decided to take all of the dogs in her 4x4 to some woods where Tia has never been, but they kept her on her lead and all seemed to be ok. That is until they returned to the 4x4 and she refused to jump in the back, and somehow slipped her collar and ran off at about 6pm on the Monday. They called her back and she was returning, however, a passing cyclist decided to jump off their bike and to grab Tia, which just spooked her and she ran off into the woods.

The dog boarder, apparently, was out looking for Tia until about 2am on the Tuesday morning and didn't let anyone know that she had gone missing. They finally called my best friend to give them the news at about 5am Tuesday, at which point I then also received a call shortly afterwards asking if I could help look for her. I of course say yes, so myself and Beau jump in the 4x4 and go off to these unknown woods.

We park up where Tia went missing and start calling her as we walk through, trying to retrace the steps as given by the dog boarder. I have never been to these woods before, so I had no idea where we were or where we were going, so I let Beau take the lead. As we're walking along the main track, Beau decides to go off the track and enter the woods themselves. I'm thinking, hmm, this is either good news and he's picked up her scent, or, oh no we're about to get lost. We turn left, right, left, right, right, left, etc and I'm trying to remember all the turns we take so that we can make it back to the 4x4.

But no, Beau is pulling on his lead so hard that I'm just trusting him and I decided to go with it. After about two hours of walking, low and behold, we're back home! But still no Tia! Beau is either very clever and was able to find his way home, even though I was with him and the car is now a few miles away from home, or he picked up on Tia's scent and she had made it home, but as the gates to the garden were closed, she possibly walked off again. So I open the gates at the front and back of the house, along with leaving water out for her, and then I went back to my home.

I let Beau recover for a bit while I asked for a favour from our new neighbours, who very kindly gave me a lift back up to the woods, so that I could fetch my 4x4 and bring it home. Once back, I grab a bag and kit it out with food, water and an extra lead. We're in the UK and currently in the middle of a heatwave where the temperatures are currently about 32C. Not really ideal for dog walking, especially during the middle of the day, but I'm not leaving a lost dog out in these conditions either. I received a couple of potential sightings, so myself and Beau head off to investigate and check those out.

So we leave the house and head for my best friends house, so that we can check Tia hasn't turned up in the garden, but no, no sign of her, so we head off behind the houses towards some castle ruins. On our way over to the castle we bump in to various neighbours who have heard that Tia is missing, after my best friends other half posted it on Facebook. I think I bumped into 7 separate groups of people who were out looking for Tia, but I was still hopeful that Tia's best friend, Beau, would find her!

Once we got to the castle ruins and had a wander around, we headed back off to the woods where Tia went missing, via a possible sighting but, unfortunately, there was no sign of her. We decide to do a clockwise route all the way through the woods, until I realise that we're not on the track I thought we were on, and as it appeared, we were now lost. Being that deep into the woods I had no phone signal, but managed to make our way to the edge of the trees, so that I could get just one bar of signal. Fortunately, it was enough to load Google Maps, and I managed to start making our way south again.

After about nine or ten hours walking in the blistering heat, we finally make it home, after calling into my best friends to check that Tia hadn't turned up. Something I haven't mentioned, as I don't let it define me, but I suffer with M.E. I have been relatively symptom free for a few years now, as I know how to pace myself. Unfortunately though, I didn't pace myself on Tuesday and once I got home, that was it, I wasn't able to move from the sofa. I eventually, after many hours of laying still, made it up to bed, where I stayed until around 11.30am on Wednesday morning.

While I was dead to the world, my best friend drove home after his Granddads funeral and went straight up to the woods after dropping his family home, around 1am on Wednesday. He was alone and only had a torch on him, and as he didn't know the woods, fortunately, he stuck to the path and didn't venture too deep into the woods. He was up there for a couple of hours but finally made it home for about 3am, where he managed to get three hours of sleep, before heading back to the woods for 7am.

He spends another couple of hours up there, going a little further into the woods than he did in the middle of the night, but unfortunately still no sign of Tia. He went home and called me around 11am on the Wednesday, I'm still dead to the world in bed, asking if Beau was ok and had recovered from Tuesday, so that I could drive them up to the green barrier where Tia went missing from, allowing them to walk home via the road route. Hoping that they could lay another scent trail for Tia to follow.

I finally make it out of bed around 11.30am, get myself and Beau ready, then head off to pick my best friend and his 6-year old boy up. They jump into the 4x4 and off we go to the woods again. We literally arrive at the spot where cars park, but before I can manoeuvre into place to allow them to jump out, we see Tia from a distance! I put the handbrake on but left the 4x4 running, opened the doors, jumped out and let Beau loose, we all ran out calling Tia. That was the wrong thing to do though, as we allowed natural instinct to take over, which caused Tia to run off again, and we lost sight of her.

The main thing though, is that we now know that she is alive and still in the local area. I then left my best friend, his 6-year old boy, and Beau near to where we just saw Tia, and I headed home to pick up some camping gear, and so that his other half and their newborn girl, whose only about 4 months old, could follow me up to the woods. The plan was just to sit up there talking hoping that it would draw Tia back out to us. We decided not to tell anyone that we had just seen Tia, as we didn't want another man hunt happening, like on Tuesday.

About four hours went by and no sign of Tia, but we were adamant that she would return, even if it meant camping up there for a week or so. The 6-year old and the 4-month old were getting a little restless, even though we were sat in the shade under a tree, it was still rather warm. So my best friend decided to run them all home, leaving just myself and Beau up in the woods. While he was gone, he picked up his sleeping bag and some food, ready to camp the night.

Myself and Beau were just sat peacefully up in the woods, chatting to the odd cyclist that rode through, but other than those, there was no sound whatsoever, except for the occasional leaves rustling. Then, all of a sudden, although we knew it was coming eventually, the thunder started in the distance and the wind started blowing through the trees. No rain at this stage, but you could tell it was on the way, and as we were getting ready to camp the night up in the woods, I didn't really want myself or Beau to get wet.

I therefore started to pack things up so that I could make our way back to the 4x4, where we were going to sit during the storm. As I turned around to grab the last camping chair, Beau started to run off while on his retractable lead, so I press the button to stop him, thinking someone was approaching us, but then he started barking. I know his barks and it was an exited happy bark. I look up and there before my eyes, Tia is slowly walking towards us.

I grab a lead and after Beau and Tia have kissed and sniffed bums, haha, I give Tia a cuddle and slip a lead over her, no way am I letting her get away from me or allowing her to be spooked by anything. I grab the last few items and I start walking towards where the cars park. As I approach the green barrier, where Tia ran off from, my best friend pulls back up, gets out the car, leaves the engine running, and runs straight to Tia picking her up crying with happy tears. I've never seen a full-grown adult so happy before ;-)

We put the dogs and camping gear into the cars and head home. As soon as Tia gets into her kitchen she demolished the cat food, then her food and then ate four slices of my best friends pizza that he was taking up to the woods for his evening supper haha

Tia is a little black and definitely in need of a bath, but she's so happy to be home!

There are a few morals to this story, and this is where WA comes into this post. Do you really think I would create a post without tying it into business somehow ;-)

Firstly, if it wasn't for working from home, then I wouldn't have been able to take two days off to go looking for my best friends dog. Wealthy Affiliate can help you get to this stage of life, where you are no longer dependent upon an employer, allowing you to pick and choose when and where you work.

If you are not already a member, I would strongly urge you to create your Free Starter Member Account Today. If this is your first time visiting WA, then I will more than likely become your one-to-one Personal Coach, and I will do everything I can to help you achieve financial freedom, by doing something you love :-) You will also receive my special bonuses, that, as far as I am aware, no other member/coach is offering.

Secondly, the power of community! On Tuesday we had a great turn out of local villagers all helping and pulling together to look for Tia. It's amazing who knows what and who and when you need it the most. WE managed to check farms, barns, stables, houses, gardens and nearby woods, all within a few hours, simply by sending one message out on Facebook.

Exactly the same thing happens here at WA. Whenever you are in need, all you have to do is to post one question in the Classrooms or enter Live Chat and the cavalry will come running to your aid. You will typically get an answer within five minutes and the best thing, you will more than likely receive more than one answer. If it is not the exact solution you are looking for, it will at least be pointing you in the right direction.

It's not what you know, it's who you know. Although, a lot of members here do also know the answers, but if they don't, they will point you to someone who does know :-)

Wealthy Affiliate (WA) is an amazing Pay it Forward Community of over 2 Million Members from all over the world, and there is always someone available 24/7/365.

I am blessed to be a part of WA and also my new home here in Wiltshire. Such an amazing and supportive community both online and offline.

Thirdly, if you have an illness that prevents you from working a 9 to 5 job, shift based work or any job with fixed hours or that requires a certain degree of fitness. WA can help free you up to work when and how you want. Don't get me wrong, this is not a get-rich-quick scheme, and it will take a lot of hard work and dedication, but you can do this whenever it fits in with your schedule and/or health.

If you already have a job, then do not quit! You can do this with just a few hours each week until you start earning a consistent income.

If you have any questions whatsoever, do not hesitate to leave them below or to message me privately, and I look forward to hearing from you :-)