The DevilDog is Missing!
It's quarter past ten at night and since two o'clock this afternoon, the DevilDog has been absent without leave.
Now, normally DD heading off to do his own thing wouldn't bother me overmuch. He is, after all, a Patterdale Terrier, and they are well hard. He's been known to disappear on little 'jaunts' from time to time. Usually he comes back a few hours later, a big grin on his face and the blood of something recently dead in his fur. He's never stayed out all night before though, so I am worried.
We're in Fife at the moment, Norman's Law just to the east of Newburgh if you want to dig out a map. This is terra cognita for the DevilDog - it's where he spent his formative years. There's not much of the hill he doesn't know, not many of the local inhabitants who haven't tasted his unique brand of patterdale justice over the years. For the last few days he's been overinterested in a patch of woodland in the west lee of the summit. There's something in there alive that wants to be dead, or dead that smells like it wants to be rolled in. Yesterday he disappeared for a while but was back with the rest of us when I returned to the farmhouse, so today when he went off I worried not.
As dusk was approaching I began to get a bit apprehensive. We're all meant to be heading back to Wales tomorrow and a late start due to terrier absence was not what I wanted. I went back to the woods and shouted myself hoarse. No reply came there, and no DevilDog. Not even the sound of underground baying that usually gives the game away.
Later and darkness fell (as it does). The promised rain came on and still no sign. Supper time arrived, and still nothing. Now I was really worried.
I've alerted the local vet, the police and all the people who live around here. There's nothing more I can do. But Mortimer is out there tonight, somewhere, and he should be lying in front of the stove.
This isn't a particularly cheery blog, but then I'm not in a particularly cheery mood. Tomorrow at first light, if I haven't been woken by a 'let me in' barking at the door, I shall head up to the woods with the rest of the dogs and a spade. If I can't find him then...
Well, I'll cross that bridge if I come to it.
Now, normally DD heading off to do his own thing wouldn't bother me overmuch. He is, after all, a Patterdale Terrier, and they are well hard. He's been known to disappear on little 'jaunts' from time to time. Usually he comes back a few hours later, a big grin on his face and the blood of something recently dead in his fur. He's never stayed out all night before though, so I am worried.
We're in Fife at the moment, Norman's Law just to the east of Newburgh if you want to dig out a map. This is terra cognita for the DevilDog - it's where he spent his formative years. There's not much of the hill he doesn't know, not many of the local inhabitants who haven't tasted his unique brand of patterdale justice over the years. For the last few days he's been overinterested in a patch of woodland in the west lee of the summit. There's something in there alive that wants to be dead, or dead that smells like it wants to be rolled in. Yesterday he disappeared for a while but was back with the rest of us when I returned to the farmhouse, so today when he went off I worried not.
As dusk was approaching I began to get a bit apprehensive. We're all meant to be heading back to Wales tomorrow and a late start due to terrier absence was not what I wanted. I went back to the woods and shouted myself hoarse. No reply came there, and no DevilDog. Not even the sound of underground baying that usually gives the game away.
Later and darkness fell (as it does). The promised rain came on and still no sign. Supper time arrived, and still nothing. Now I was really worried.
I've alerted the local vet, the police and all the people who live around here. There's nothing more I can do. But Mortimer is out there tonight, somewhere, and he should be lying in front of the stove.
This isn't a particularly cheery blog, but then I'm not in a particularly cheery mood. Tomorrow at first light, if I haven't been woken by a 'let me in' barking at the door, I shall head up to the woods with the rest of the dogs and a spade. If I can't find him then...
Well, I'll cross that bridge if I come to it.
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