More than we bargained for.

So I decided to add a bit of extra interest to my walking by starting Geocaching!  It gives me good reason to explore some new places and it is fun – I like getting in touch with my inner child!  I went and found one last night as soon as I have joined up and had a bit of an investigate as to what was involved.  Impatient? Me?  Never!

HURRY UP MUM!

Today we decided to extend our usual dog walk to seek out another one.  So in our usual woods and our usual route but an extra bit of hill.  On the way up we passed a couple with about 9 dogs, 3 or 4 spaniels, 2 terriers, a lab and 1 or 2 bull lurchers.  I was glad when we came out the other side with just our two, it was quite a collection!

We found the cache and got the giggles for a bit cos there was quite a geeky thrill to finding something someone else hid 6 years ago, and knowing that 80 other people have also found it since.  It was a gorgeous frosty day and the boys were enjoying themselves... After a stressful couple of days it was nice to just be out and relaxed.

WHAT a poser!

Just ten minutes before the end of the walks at an open bit of the woods we saw a dog stood by the fence looking very intently at us and the boys. Called the boys in expecting the owner to appear but they didn't and as we got closer saw that it was a spaniel and she looked very scared and was shivering.

Despite being scared she was clearly interested in us and came slinking up ever so carefully. No owner in sight or appearing so we got the boys on leads and Stu took some treats and went to have a look at her. No collar, docked tail - could be a pet but most likely a working dog.  We wondered if she’d been with the couple we’d seen earlier but those dogs hadn’t looked like they strayed very far from there owner or each other.  We decided that we'd take her and get her back to the car at least so she was safe, she was obviously cold and hungry enough to take treats off us even though she was very nervous.  It was just beginning to get dark too so we couldn’t just leave her and had limited options in terms of searching the woods – we couldn’t hear anyone calling her or anything.

We took off Oscar's collar and put that on her with one of the leads. Let Oscar off lead (because holding them both on one double ended lead is a nightmare, and Hugo would have to stay on lead because he would be more likely to pester her than Oscar and of course we have no idea whether she’d appreciate Hugo attention or not).   Oscar went off lead but can be easily kept away from other dogs. I was worried that we were then going to lose Oscar while he had no blimmin collar and tag on. But no he behaved as usual - it would be extremely out of character for him to go out of sight at all so it was silly to worry really!

Stu walked about 200m behind us with spaniel girlie on lead.  We managed to persuade her with treats to get into the crate in the back of the car,  and put the boys on the back seat. She had a small cut on her front leg but it had stopped bleeding and she wasn’t limping as she walked along – she walked very nicely on the lead so being a spaniel that probably meant she was quite tired. She was lovely and friendly with us and knew sit, which she did with much wagging and spaniel earnestness when asked.  Totally gorgeous dog and was clearly in good nick so we were pretty sure someone would be looking for her.

We asked at the local farm in case she'd run off from there (she looked like she had not long had a litter, so we thought maybe she’d pretty much weaned them and had done a bunk cos she was fed up of looking after them!) - nope and not locally known, got a rather grumpy response that she's probably a poachers dog!  So we took her home and put her in the crate which she seemed perfectly comfortable with – she was knackered enough to mostly sleep while she was in there. She had a handful or two of kibble which she troughed down. So she was hungry but clearly not starving or been stray for too long. We phoned the police and the dog warden and to log that we'd found her but said we could look after her overnight at least.  We were planning to take her to our vets in the morning to look for a microchip (being docked there will have been one, assuming it was a legal dock) and to see if they knew her.  A lot of people round here go to our vets so it was likely they would know her.

She spent the whole time she was with us either sleeping in the crate, growling at Oscar when her sniffed around her for too long or looking at Stu and wagging and grinning like he was her new found hero.

It wasn’t long though until her worried owners phoned and came to pick her up.  She promptly weed on the carpet in excitement when she saw them, much to their embarrassment!  Ooops.  And it turns out she had been in the big group of dogs that we passed!  She was 2 years old and called Echo and was just so pretty.  She had us both completely falling in love with her despite the growling at Oscar part!  We couldn’t have kept her though so I’m glad we found her owner (and that the system works in the police and council, even on a Sunday) – it would have been really hard to hand her over to a rescue!

Hugo and Oscar are very disappointed that the pretty girl didn’t get to have a sleep-over.  I’m sure they’ll get over it eventually!

I’m slightly concerned that this is what happens every time you visit a geocache!  I shall have to try another expedition and see...