Yoda the rescue dog is doing so well. He’s gone from being a very nervous puppy to a lovely affable dog and we adore him.
But I’ve been working in an office recently, so I’ve had to get a dog walker to look after him during the day. She’s absolutely brilliant with him, he gets to socialise with other dogs – very important for a rescue – and he’s perfectly happy with her.
On Tuesday, however, I got a panicky phone call to say that he had gone missing while on a nearby common. She had been looking for him for 45 minutes, no sign.
You can imagine how I felt.
I raced home to find a message on the ansaphone. ‘I’ve found your dog, and I’ve taken him back to my house.’
I burst into tears, I was so relieved, and rang up straight away. A woman answered. ‘Thank you for finding him, I’m so glad he’s OK,’ I said. ‘Whereabouts are you?’
And this is where it all gets very strange.
Because the woman who had ‘found’ my dog told me she lived over an hour’s drive away. And then she said something very weird. ‘I think dogs need a lot of love,’ she said.
‘Where are you?’ I repeated, starting to panic. ‘I’d rather not say,’ she said. ‘I’ll bring him to you.’
You can imagine how I felt.
It took a further 15 minutes of me persuading this woman for her to tell me where she lived. And in the end, what worked was when I said to her ‘Look, you’re telling me you’ve got my dog, but you don’t want to tell me where you are so I can get him back. You must see how strange this sounds.’
I’m not sure why she took my dog home with her. The usual thing, surely, would have been to take him to a local vet’s. He is chipped and that would have told them instantly where he belonged. I also know he wouldn’t have gone willingly into a car with her. He’s just not that type of dog.
He’s back home now, safe and sound. But I do wonder why that woman took my dog, and what it was she was hoping for.
written by Liz Jarvis