Thursday 27 April 2017

Saving A Dog - and other things

You read right, Taylor and I did a good deed last weekend; we saved a dog. More correctly put; rescued a dog. On SH1, in very busy holiday traffic, just out of some traffic lights with many cars leaving the smallish but very busy city we often visit. It was terrifying, but we caught him which was the main thing.
So what happened? Ok, it went a little bit like this. We both had our new glasses to pick up and figured we zoom up north in my little gold, Holden Barina called Annie. We'd take the hour trip north, grab the glasses, grab some lunch and take the hour trip back home in time for him to move his cows on his farm, and in time for me to go do my afternoon milking. Funnily enough, it wasn't as hectic a drive as I thought it was. Typically I wouldn't do the trip if I had to get back to work, but as quite often happens and you have to wonder why...some things just hold you up. You know how sometimes everything happens for a reason, whether you're held up so you miss something. Or you're held up so that you time something else perfectly - I do believe it was the latter on Saturday.





We got to Specsavers and, unbeknown to us, there was some sort of car show happening in that area of town. So finding somewhere to park took us two or three laps around a few blocks, trying to time it right for someone to leave so that we could snap up that car park. Sounds easy, but it was seriously time consuming and exceedingly frustrating! Anyhow we eventually found one, so we rushed in to grab our new fashion statements so that we could get back on the road again to accomplish our next mission. Lunch.
Good old KFC, why not?! Annie cruised her way through the drive through, then took us down to the Town Basin where I'd normally go with Mum and Dad, where you can sit and look out at all the boats in the big river thing. Where you can eat KFC while many people are out doing their well-managed, daily exercise, running along the board walk next to the water. It can sometimes make you feel the need to cover up the windows and eat your very unhealthy meal without feeling guilty. But then other times you can just smile, knowing that you're living your life. If that means eating some very oily chicken in carbohydrate packed burgers while people around you show off their running skills...so be it. Who's to say we don't exercise at home anyway? Such judgemental fitness bunnies!


I then had to stop in at Pet Essentials to grab some "duck" strips for the dogs. The treats we cut into little pieces so we can convince our little bundles of joy to do our bidding. Basically to convince them to hop into their kennels when we need them to; the duck is an essential part of this. Tay decided to have a wander around the store and discovered two gorgeous kittens in the back corner, where his eyes lit up at the adorable sight. Taylor loves his kittens, and I'm sure if he could've he would've stuffed the kittens under his shirt and walked out with them! They were pretty cute. So that took a little while. Finally, we were on the road again.

When you leave town you have to go through the last set of traffic lights, we're turning left so don't need to stop - rather just go left and then merge with the other traffic heading straight through. However when I came up to the intersection, instead of a car going through the lights - it was a dog. A dog who was running very fast with some cars hot on his heels!
Thankfully he had the brains to stick to his lane, and thankfully the car following him had the good sense of mind to slow right down and pop on his hazard lights. As did the second car. I was the fourth car so as I was merging I just drove in the middle of the two lanes with my hazard lights on to stop anymore cars getting through, as they wouldn't have known what was going on up ahead.
The three cars ahead of me were good, they slowed right down and managed to group around the dog - at one stage he veered right into the oncoming traffic (I nearly flipped out when he did that!), but for some crazy reason he darted back in front of us all again so the three cars could force him onto the shoulder.

I thought, sweet one of them will stop and grab him. But they all carried on driving!!! Like, what?! I made a very quick decision and quickly pulled in beside him, stuck my arm out my window and grabbed hold of him. He was your average looking work dog, medium size - maybe a huntaway/blue heeler sort of dog. Taylor jumped out and took him from me so I could get out. The poor thing was terrified, I'm glad he stayed next to Annie when I pulled in beside him - I never thought of what I'd do if he got a fright and ran into the traffic again.
Another car with two women pulled in behind us, they said they'd only stopped because they were curious if he was our dog. They were locals so said they'd take him to the SPCA for us, he was registered so it wouldn't take too long to find the owner at least.
The adrenaline rush from the event was ridiculous, the entire thing probably lasted a minute or so before we got hold of him, but it felt like a lifetime before he was off the road!

The next day I joined a few facebook group pages for the town so I could ask on there if anyone knew if he had made it home. Seconds later one of the women we spoke to replied to me. Saying they had posted all over the net trying to find his owner and it didn't take long for them to see the posts, he was home again within a few hours. Just like I had wondered, he had jumped from the back of a UTE - he mustn't have been tied on or somehow untied himself from it. And from where he had jumped off, to where we caught him - he'd run a long way. He was one very lucky pooch with one heck of a story to tell.
You kinda hope he'll always remember the faces of the people who helped him that day. I reached out and he sniffed my hand and stayed by my side of the car. It's such a good feeling that 1. he knew I was trustworthy, 2. he didn't get a scare and bite me! (that thought did flash through my mind as I reached out...) and 3. that he got home.
Facebook is a brilliant means of getting so many furbabies home again, I see posts up every day of a lost pet that somebody finds, or a found pet that somebody recognises and gets hold of the owner. It makes your heart swell just a tad, knowing for one occasion I was part of it :)

3 comments:

  1. Wow! Good job rescuing the dog . . . would have been pretty intense for a bit there!

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  2. Good work ��

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  3. Oh wow, bit of us excitement!!!

    Good on you though!

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