Animal Journeys

[lopaka]

Dog gone since 1997 back home

Saturday, November 29, 2003

Wichita — Jeanie Flores did a double-take this week when she glanced out the window of her Wichita home. The brindle-colored Lab and chow mix outside looked like Bear, the family pet who disappeared in November 1997.

"Oh my God. I think that's my dog!" she thought to herself.

She called the dog's name. When he responded, she started bawling.

"I called my husband and said, ‘I really think this is Bear,"' she said.

Frank Flores rushed home and within seconds agreed with his wife's assessment: Bear was home.

The dog's whereabouts for the past six years and his surprise return two days before Thanksgiving remain a mystery.

A veterinarian examined Bear. Though his paws are red and sore in spots, apparently from pounding the pavement, he weighs only a pound less than he did when he disappeared. The vet told the family it appeared someone had taken care of the dog.

Frank Flores brought Bear home as a puppy on Aug. 28, 1990. Bear disappeared one month after the family's October 1997 move to a new neighborhood.

"I waited up all night for him, and he never came home," Jeanie Flores said.

Because the family had just moved, the address on Bear's identification collar hadn't been changed. The family put up signs, called the shelter, put an ad in the newspaper. They drove around their old neighborhood, but they never found Bear.

Jeanie Flores called his return a miracle.

"I feel like he must be here for a reason," she said.

Since returning, Bear has spent his time napping and getting reacquainted with the family, including a son who was not yet born when the dog disappeared.

Frank Flores said he wishes Bear could talk.

"Where was he? He hasn't told us yet," Frank Flores said.

Copyright © 2003 The Lawrence Journal-World.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Not your typical animal journey:

Gator Goes for Ride on Fla. School Bus

Tue Mar 9,12:56 PM ET



LACOOCHEE, Fla. - Middle and high school students were riding home from school when they spotted a 4-foot alligator crossing the road, were allowed off the school bus to catch it and took it home.


None of the 11 students on the bus were injured, and the alligator was fine when it was released into a nearby river by the father of two of the boys.

State wildlife officials and the Pasco County State Attorney's Office are investigating the bus driver. Sherry Hattaway, 41, has been on paid leave since the Thursday incident.

"If the facts I'm hearing are true, then at the least she used some of the worst judgment someone could use in endangering kids," Pasco school superintendent John Long said.

Hattaway did not immediately return a telephone call for comment Tuesday.

The alligator was spotted as it crossed the road in front of the bus, said passenger Wilfredo Santiago, 14, who asked the driver to stop.

At first she refused, but a group of boys talked her into letting them off about 40 miles northeast of Tampa. Four boys ran off the bus, found the alligator hiding in a hole and used sticks to prod the animal out. A fifth student gave them a roll of electrical tape from the bus to bind the alligator's jaws.

The gator was hauled onto the bus and off again at the home of two boys. Their father Jimmy Scroggins came home to find a crowd of kids around the calm alligator.

Scroggins took the animal to the nearby Withlacoochee River and released it. The next day, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers were at his house.

Hattaway has an unmarred driving history, according to district personnel files and state driving records. Job references said she was "good" and "excellent" with children. Six evaluations gave her consistent satisfactory ratings, including for bus discipline and reliability.

Scroggins said that while he didn't condone his children's actions, he was more befuddled by the driver's.

"Kids are going to do what kids are going to do," he said. "But there was a consenting adult involved."

Source

 

[Bullseye]

The European eel is rumoured not to breed at all, and is only the result of the American eel migrating to European waters. Once it gets there, it can climb thousands of feet up rivers and even over land to get to pools high up in the Alps, where it remains for 10 or 20 years. Then it returns to the sea and attempt to get back to the breeding grounds in the Sargasso sea, but never makes it.

DNA test have shown American and European eels seperate speices.

 

[Bullseye]

What about arctic terns?

They migrate from the arctic to the antactic

Because of this they see more daylight than any other animal!.

 

[lopaka]

Doggone!: 5 years missing, now home

Microchip Leads Missing Ore. Dog Home

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - For five years, Frances Jackson looked everywhere for her missing dog, Millie, who had run beneath a truck in 1999, then disappeared.

But in the end, it was a microchip that brought the black Labrador retriever home.



The dog had been fitted with a microchip that identified her as belonging to Jackson, and when she was picked up as a stray and taken to the Humane Society of the Willamette Valley, Jackson got the call.

``I was absolutely stunned,'' she said. ``I went down to the shelter as fast as I could.''

Jackson had tried just about everything to locate Millie, including a classified ad and an extended search of the area where she ran away. She even spent $100 for a tracking dog and its trainer, who were unable to pick up Millie's scent.

Now, the two are bonding all over again, the dog is getting used to the idea that she will get three meals each day, every day.

``Millie's getting used to being Millie,'' Jackson said. ``And I'm getting used to having a dog again.''

Information from: Statesman Journal


03/29/04 12:45

© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

[lopaka]

Fox migrates south...the hard way

Arctic fox found in ship's trash bin
New home at Seattle zoo

Friday, June 25, 2004 Posted: 6:55 PM EDT (2255 GMT)

The arctic fox's usual habitat is in extreme northern tundra and coastal areas.

SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- An arctic fox that apparently survived on garbage for two weeks after becoming an inadvertent stowaway on a ship will be displayed at a zoo, officials say.

The blueish brown fox is believed to have boarded the ship during a port stop in the Aleutian Islands. An employee found the animal in the vessel's trash bin after it arrived at a shipyard last month.

"The first thing I thought was, 'Boy he's been in here awhile,"' said Cooter Whitaker, a Samson Tug and Barge terminal manager.

Woodland Park Zoo curator Dana Payne said the animal will be the zoo's first arctic fox. About 45 of the animals are found in North American zoos, she said.

The stowaway is "not shy about people," appears to be elderly and likely would have difficulty surviving in the wild, Payne said. It has been quarantined to determine if it has rabies, but could make its public debut by Labor Day.

The fox has gained weight since its arrival on a diet of frozen mice and quail, and had surgery to remove a lump on his side, zoo officials said.

Adult arctic foxes are about 3 1/2 feet from the nose to the tip of the tail, weigh 6 to 10 pounds and are found in tundra and treeless coastal areas of North America, Iceland, Greenland, Scandinavia and Siberia.

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.



http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/06/25/arctic.fox.ap/index.html

 

[escargot]

The stories about dogs and graves remind me of my mate Phil.
He loved dogs and always fussed my two, especially when we met when out walking our dogs over the fields.

When Phil died suddenly I walked the dogs down to the cemetery to find his grave. I had dog biscuits in my pockets and left some on it for the squirrels.

Three years later I was walking the dogs on a field past the cemetery. They suddenly ran to the side of the field opposite Phil's grave and stood still, waiting expectantly.

I put on their leads and let them take me across the road and to my surprise, straight through the far gate of the cemetery (where they'd never been).
They then doubled back and dragged me to Phil's grave (again, approaching from an unfamiliar direction) where they stopped and waited.

While I was scratching my head in bafflement, a squirrel suddenly appeared and both dogs ran off after it. I felt sure that the whole episode was down to Phil, who'd have laughed his head off at me chasing my squirrel-mad mutts across the graves.



This story is on Obiwan's ghost story site, if anyone'd like to see a more detailed version. There's more, very spooky indeed.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Stowaway cat in 1,000 mile trip

A stowaway cat has been discovered at a Flintshire lift company after a 1,000 mile trip from Milan in Italy.

The six-month-old kitten named Mario hitched a lift in the back of a lorry heading for the Global Lift Equipment factory in Flint.

The trip took three days and the black Manx cat escaped relatively unscathed.

However, animal lovers now have to raise £1,500 to pay for his six month stay in quarantine.

Mario is in a quarantine centre in Chester to rule out the possibility of him having rabies.

However, bosses at Global Lift initially called the Flintshire Wildlife and Rescue Centre in Holywell for help.

"My mum had gone to take my sister to school and I took the call from the factory," said Kate Pierce-Jones, whose mother Joy runs the centre.

"I advised them to put food in a box and they managed to catch him. With him coming from a foreign country we had to tell Defra.

They'd put him down if we can't raise the money but I'll do anything to get the money
Kate Pierce-Jones

"He's in quarantine in Chester now and will be there for six months. If he'd got out in Flint, the whole of Flint would've been under quarantine," the 19-year-old said.

Ms Pierce-Jones said he was "pretty shocked and scared".

Now the teenager and her mother need to try and raise £1,500 to secure his future or he could be put to sleep.

"We've had people ringing since this morning pledging money," she said.

"They'd put him down if we can't raise the money but I'll do anything to get the money," she added.

"He'll come here after six months and he's going to stay with us so everyone who helped him can come and see him.

"If we've got more money than we need for Mario it'll go for all the other animals," she added.

-----------------
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/w ... 036127.stm

Published: 2004/11/23 17:55:30 GMT

© BBC MMIV

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Kitten survives 440 km next to car engine

Wed Dec 8, 2004 03:37 PM GMT

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German couple were shocked after a 440 km (275 mile) car journey to discover a surprise stowaway cowering next to the engine of their car -- a 6-week-old kitten.

The miaows of the tiny animal only became audible after Elisabeth and Dieter Gesehl had parked their car. "First of all we called the police as we feared for a moment that we must have run over and seriously injured a cat," the 64-year-old woman from Eggenfelden told Bonn express newspaper.

After checking under the bonnet, however, they discovered the unharmed kitten. The animal, which the couple have since adopted and named "Pussy", was soon back to normal after a few minutes of petting.

---------------
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

Source

 

[Anome]

How many jokes about the engine purring have been made so far?

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Or "pussy wagon" ones?

---------------

Dog Found 1,600 Miles Away From Home


Dec 8, 7:49 PM (ET)

FLOWER MOUND, Texas (AP) - Snowbirds from the frigid North are a common sight in Texas, but Carla is a different breed altogether. A trucker found the 11-year-old mixed breed dog in Amarillo a week ago and brought her to a Denton veterinary hospital - 1,600 miles away from her Castle Rock, Wash. home.

Gail Scott was shocked when the North Texas animal hospital called to say they'd found her dog, who was identified through an implanted microchip.

"How did my dog get to Texas?" she recalls asking.

That really is anyone's guess, though Scott says she believes Carla escaped from her yard the day before Thanksgiving and was picked up by a trucker at a nearby truck stop.

"You know how truckers are," she said. "They see a stray and feel bad for them, and they pick them up."

Scott, who adopted Carla in 1998 from a Washington pound, has asked the animal hospital to put the dog up for adoption.

She said it would be too hard to get Carla back to Washington because it's too cold for her to fly in the cargo area of a plane and too expensive to hire someone to drive her home.

The Flower Mound Human Society is now caring for Carla and looking for a family to adopt her. At least one person has expressed interest.

---

Information from: The Dallas Morning News, http://www.dallasnews.com

Source

Do you think that should be Flower Mound Humane Society?

 

[rynner2]

Lovelorn drake ducks new owners

A web-footed loving couple have been reunited in Devon after one of them escaped his captors on Valentine's Day.
Last month Jake the drake was moved out of the Kentisbury Grange Country Park, near Lynton, because he was getting too amorous with the female ducks.

He was becoming so rampant he had even begun chasing peacocks and turkeys on the farm.

But after being taken by new owners eight miles away he escaped and found his way home to his mate, Jemima.

Jake, who is too fat to fly, walked the eight miles back to the park after escaping from his new home at Burridge on 14 February.

'Escaped foxes'

Now the Shindler family hope they can manage Jake's philandering and have decided he can stay.

Charlotte Shindler from the park said: "He is obviously very good at looking after himself because he escaped the foxes through out those four weeks.

"We can't re-home him again, not after that journey, he will have to stay here now."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/4380731.stm

 

[drbastard]

Katrina kitty reunited with owner 6 months later


By DANIEL YEE
Associated Press

ATLANTA — When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Tristan Carter thought she had lost everything — her home, a grandfather, two dogs, a housecat and a rabbit.

But she was wrong about losing her cat — "Cupcake" came back, after 6 months of living as a stray in her hurricane-ravaged neighborhood. On Wednesday, animal rescue volunteers reunited the lithe, 7-pound black cat with Carter, who now lives in Atlanta.

"I lost a grandfather in the hurricane. To find a little kitty survived 6 months, that's great," said Carter, holding Cupcake close and thanking the rescuers who found her. In turn, Cupcake happily squeaked and, at least once, reached her head up to give Carter a kitty kiss with her nose.

For nearly a half year after the hurricane, the tiny cat lived on her own, never straying far from Carter's destroyed home and surviving all dangers — everything from stray dogs, parasites and starvation.

She lived off of food dropped off daily in her neighborhood by volunteers from Animal Rescue New Orleans. Finally, on Feb. 12, rescuers captured her in a humane animal trap.

Animal rescue groups have rescued more than 1,200 former pets living as strays in New Orleans and have been working to reunite them with their owners, according to Best Friends Animal Society, the group that arranged the reunion.

While a veterinarian treated Cupcake for worms and fleas that she acquired while living as a stray, volunteers worked to find her owner.

Cupcake wore a collar with rabies tags and rescuers hoped to quickly link her with her owner. But volunteer Shelley Thayer could not find a person who matched the tag's name and address. A phone number on the tag was disconnected.

But after using professional Internet-based searching services, Thayer matched Carter with the tag's address. The people-finding service provided Thayer with Carter's phone number.

Carter said animal rescue volunteers called her last week while she was filling up her car at a gas station. Her family had given up any hope of finding their pets — in November, they returned to their former home and searched without success.

Although superstition links black cats with bad luck, Carter said she knows this cannot be true.

"God works in mysterious ways. She is a gift, she is here to let us know there is hope," Carter said. "She's our good luck charm."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/biz ... 80146.html

 

[WhistlingJack]

Hitch-Hiking Animals

This sort of thing seems to happen quite often - would it be worth organising a seperate thread, mods?

Missing dog hidden under bonnet

A dog who went missing for two weeks has been found stuck under the bonnet of his owner's car.

Duke the Jack Russell vanished from his owners' garden in Kidderminster, they thought he had been dognapped.

Tom Whitney said he drove about 500 miles trying to find him but he was actually with him the whole time.

It is thought he had been under the bonnet for a week and to keep going had eaten the clutch cable. Apart from being hungry and thirsty he was fine.

Mr Whitney said: "I went all around Kidderminster I was out every day in this car going round, same streets any streets and if anybody said anything about a dog I was there."

But on Monday when he tried to move the car the clutch would not work.

"As I lifted the bonnet up so the little dog came up onto the engine just like the Phoenix coming out of the fire," he said.


Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2006/04/12 20:32:07 GMT

© BBC MMVI

 

[rynner2]

Tag uncovers long-distance secret of Dave the Dragonfly
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 10/05/2006)

The epic migratory journey of Dave the Dragonfly has revealed how insects led the way in crossing the globe in search of warmer climates.

Dave was fitted with a tiny transmitter and chased by a planeload of scientists as he flew up to 100 miles along the east coast of America in around a day, managing an overall autumn migration of around 500 miles to the warmer south.

The study showed that the insects use remarkably similar navigation methods to those of birds, specifically kestrels, which may have learned migration patterns from following - and eating - dragonflies.

"I am certain that the insects invented migration first," said Dr Martin Wikelski of Princeton University, New Jersey, who conducted the study with colleagues there and at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. Dave was named after Dr David Moskowitz, who led the radio tracking on the ground.

"We were surprised when we saw Dave migrate 100 miles in one day," said Dr Wikelski, referring to a route passing from Cape May, New Jersey, into Maryland. "We thought it might be a few miles."

As the scientists followed, the insect started to cross a wide part of Delaware Bay, then turned back and flew north until it could see land on the other side, at which point it crossed.

This caused huge excitement. "That is exactly what the kestrels do," said Dr Wikelski. "The juvenile birds fly along the same route and live on dragonflies during their migration."

To add to the limited knowledge about the destinations and strategies of individual insects the team attached miniaturised radio transmitters (around one third of a gram) to the thoraxes of 14 Common Green Darner dragonflies, and followed them on their autumn migration for up to 12 days using planes and radio trackers.

Their report, published today in the journal Biology Letters, shows that "migratory patterns and apparent decision rules of Green Darners are strikingly similar to those proposed for songbirds, and may represent a general migration strategy".

Green Darners showed distinctive stopover and migration days, as do birds; they did not migrate during very windy days, tended to follow the winds and migrated only when temperatures fell at night.

The way the Green Darners changed direction upon reaching the tip of Cape May Point, New Jersey, mirrors the behaviour of numerous songbirds and small hawks at this same spot during autumn migration.

Ornithologists have speculated that most diurnally and at least some nocturnally migrating songbirds avoid crossing large bodies of open water such as the Delaware Bay at its mouth and this is also what Green Darners appeared to do.

Up to 50 of the approximately 5,000 dragonfly species worldwide are thought to be migratory. Densities of migrating dragonflies sometimes rival those of locust swarms, notably on lake or sea shores, cliffs, or ridges.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... dave10.xml

Fascinating stuff!

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Cat falls asleep in China, wakes up in Britain

Fri May 26, 9:59 AM ET

LONDON (AFP) - A cat stowed away in a crate of crockery on a container ship and travelled 6,000 miles (9,600 kilometres) from China to Britain, living on cardboard and condensation.

Nicknamed Chairman Miaow, the white tabby cat crawled into the crate before it was loaded onto the container ship bound for Britain, the Daily Telegraph said Friday.

It survived for 26 days on a diet of cardboard and condensation to arrive as an "illegal immigrant" in the county of Nottinghamshire, central England.

Staff at crockery suppliers Tabletop, in the town of Kirby-on-Ashfield, discovered the cat, which was then vaccinated and sent to a quarantine centre in the nearby town of Cottam.

"She loves to be petted and fussed over. I'm not surprised after all that time alone in the box," the crockery supply centre's manager Wendy Reeves told the paper.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/britainchinaanimalcat

 

[MrRING]

LINK

Dog Missing For 2 Years Heads Back Home

ATLANTA -- Tex was either dog-napped or ran away 2 years ago – just as his owner had returned to Fort Benning from Iraq.

Days ago, someone discovered the dog wandering near Lake Lanier in Forsyth County. Now Tex is headed for a reunion with his family – who now live near Lacrosse, Wisconsin. Three-year-old Tex – a rat terrier – has logged lots of miles.

He disappeared 2 years ago when his dad, Nick Rabe, had just returned to Fort Benning from duty overseas. “He got back from Iraq and they went on leave to visit us in Wisconsin and the neighbors were watching him and someone decided to grab him out of the yard,” says Nick’s brother Joe.

Tex turned up wandering at Lake Lanier a few weeks ago and was brought to the Forsyth County Animal Shelter. A microchip implanted in Tex told his tale of wandering woes.

“When an animal is brought in, we scan them to make sure. They usually have a little chip between their shoulder blades and we just scan and pick up the number,” explains an animal control employee.

They traced Tex back to Nick and Nicole – long since moved from Georgia back to Wisconsin. It took days to track them down on the internet. Today, Tex’s Uncle Joe drove 2 days from Wisconsin to bring Tex home.

Tex’s Dad, Joe’s brother Nick and sister-in-law Nicole are waiting anxiously back in Wisconsin. “My brother’s been waiting to see him two years now. He’s really excited,” says Joe.

Tex – an original member of the family, arriving even before Nick’s son came along. “My brother’s really excited – he can’t wait. He said, ‘I don’t really know if I should say it, but he’s more happy now than when his wife got pregnant.”

Joe has another 2 day drive back to Wisconsin ahead of him. And now Tex will have some competition -- the Rabes' recently got another dog -- a white German Shepherd named Max.

 

[rynner2]

Re-homed pony tracks down owner

An intrepid pony escaped from his new stable and hot hoofed three miles in the dark, to his young mistress' home.
The 18-year-old Welsh cob, Basil, found Emily Evans' family farm in the Swansea Valley. Recently re-stabled, Basil used his teeth to slide his paddock door lock open and jumped a fence.

He had to pass along 14 different roads in the dark en route to the farm in Cilybebyll, near Pontardawe.

Farmer Lyn Evans said his 12-year-old daughter burst out crying "with a mixture of surprise and relief" when she saw Basil.

"We had taken him to the stables in Rhos, three miles away, two weeks before.

We'll just have to make sure there's a more substantial lock on his stable door this time

Lyn Evans

"Emily rides him in the fields at the farm but we thought it was better to keep him at the stable so she could practise her show jumping.

"But we took her to visit him every evening after school and she had tucked him up in the normal way the night he set out."

Mr Evans said Basil had shown an aptitude for escaping and they had to secure the opening to his yard.

"But on this occasion he really surpassed himself and took a route home in the dark which showed he knew the way," she added.

"He had to pass 14 different roads on the journey home. Then he walked down on to the A474, which is a busy road, turned left and crossed the carriageway.

"He would have had to ignore numerous turn-offs, choose the right direction at a crossroads and then make it back to the farm."

Emily and her family were grateful he arrived at the farm without any injuries.

Mr Evans said he would be taken back to the stables after "he settled down a bit".

But he added: "The chances are he'll try to do the same thing again. We'll just have to make sure there's a more substantial lock on his stable door this time."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6040408.stm

 

[rynner2]

Hot on the heels of the pony, a hawk wings in:

Lost hawk found after nine years

A falconer has been reunited with his Harris hawk - nine years after the bird went missing.
Twelve-year-old Jarvis flew away while out hunting with owner Steve Wright in Great Alne, Warwickshire, in 1997.

He was reported as lost or missing. But the pair are together again after Jarvis was seen in a garden in Preston, Lancashire, 130-miles away.

Jarvis was traced by the tag on his leg. His owner said he had no idea where he had been in the meantime.

'Long distance'

Mr Wright said: "He took off in hot pursuit of a rabbit and went over the brow of a hill and that was the last I saw of him. I had given him up for dead."

Last week, Jarvis was spotted in the Preston garden.

However, he did not let himself be recaptured without a fight and it took four days before a trained falconer captured him.

He was then taken to a local bird of prey centre and, with the help of a police wildlife liaison officer, was traced back to Mr Wright through the ring on his leg which has a serial number on it.

What happened in those nine years is a mystery, but Mr Wright said the bird would not have got to Preston on his own.

"He may have got a long distance coach but I rather think someone found him and decided they wanted a free hawk and took him," Mr Wright said.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cove ... 046022.stm

 

[WhistlingJack]

However, he did not let himself be recaptured without a fight and it took four days before a trained falconer captured him.

Did it not occur to them that the hawk might have decided to bugger-off and so it didn't especially relish the prospect of being cooped-up again..? :?

 

[kirmildew]

However, he did not let himself be recaptured without a fight and it took four days before a trained falconer captured him.

Did it not occur to them that the hawk might have decided to bugger-off and so it didn't especially relish the prospect of being cooped-up again..? :?

Poor bloody bird! Either it had managed alone over nine years, or it was taken in; either way, I think the original falconer should have left it be. It was his nine years ago!

 

[DerekH16]

Hot on the heels of the pony, a hawk wings in:

Lost hawk found after nine years ... But the pair are together again after Jarvis was seen in a garden in Preston, Lancashire, 130-miles away.
...
What happened in those nine years is a mystery, but Mr Wright said the bird would not have got to Preston on his own.
...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cove ... 046022.stm

No, let's face it, there's no way a bird could have flown 130 miles in 9 years, is there?

 

[Hot_Cross_Nun]

I actually rode Basil the homing pony a few times (See rynner's post a few posts above). He was loaned out to my riding school for a while.

He's a very sweet little chap, and he can go like a rocket when he wants to. I remember once clinging on for dear life when he decided to try to race a big Anglo-Arab :shock:

 

[QuaziWashboard]

I used to own a dog, a collie cross who was so intelligent, people used to say he was a person in a dog skin. When I moved into a new house, he figured out how to open every door there including the front and back doors and as a result, he was constantly escaping, staying out all day, then returning late at night. Of course I used to go out and look for it but always without any luck, but he always returned between midnight and 1am.
Anyway, one day I went out with a few mates round a few local pubs. In the first pub I bumped into another mate who told me he'd seen my dog in there a few days previously. His mate told me that it goes round all three of the local pubs in the area. So the next time he went missing I simply rang around. I rang the first one that he'd come to from our house, The Reindeer, and was told that he was in earlier. The second one, The Adelphi, I was told the same. But when I rang the third one, The Carlton, I was told that yes he was still there but he couldn't come to the phone because he was watching a pool match, oh, and I owed them for two meat pies and a packet of crisps. :shock: I went down there and he was indeed sat there on a chair, watching the guys playing pool.
This became a regular occurance until I moved about 4 or 5 miles away from that area. All the door knobs in the new house were of a type that he couldn't open so his wandering days would seem to be over, until he ran out when someone else was walking through the door and was gone. I searched the area all day for him then, disheartened, I returned home.
That night I got a phone call from The Carlton asking if I knew that my dog was in there. They told me that he'd turned up about half an hour after he'd escaped and had been there all day and that they'd been expecting me to be along sooner or later.
The thing is, I can't see how he knew his way from the new house because we had never walked that route before, but it only took him half an hour to travel the 4 or 5 miles so he must have been pretty sure of the direction he was travelling.

 

[kirmildew]

I was told that yes he was still there but he couldn't come to the phone because he was watching a pool match, oh, and I owed them for two meat pies and a packet of crisps. :shock:

 

[Leaferne]

Quazi, that's quite reminiscent of one of James Herriot's stories: the Herriots' cat, Oscar (?) liked to go out at night and visit the pub, local meetings etc. and essentially did the rounds of whatever social life was happening in their little village.

 

[rynner2]

Hungry cat survives epic voyage
By Richard Alleyne
Last Updated: 11:55pm GMT 25/11/2006

A stowaway cat survived a gruelling 2,000 mile, 17 day journey without food or water after being trapped in a container shipped from Israel to Britain.

The starving male, who has been named Ziggy, stunned staff when he leapt from the 40ft sealed container as it was unloaded at a warehouse in Whitworth, Lancs, after his epic cross-continental voyage.

RSPCA officer James Ratcliff said the cat was “extremely lucky” to be alive, and that he would not have expected the animal to survive for so long.

It evaded capture for five hours, despite once collapsing with weakness, until an RSPCA officer eventually lured him into a cat trap with some tuna.

The white cat was named after the David Bowie song Ziggy Stardust because he has one green eye and one blue eye, like the iconic singer.

A stray from abroad would normally be put down after four weeks if an owner had not been found because of the high cost of keeping them in quarantine as a precaution against rabies, but his friendly nature has made kennel staff determined to save him.

Workers at the kennel where he is being kept have said he is so tame that he must be someone’s pet, and have started a fund to raise the £1,700 necessary to keep him in quarantine for six months.

The RSPCA and Lancashire County Council Trading Standards are attempting to trace Ziggy’s owners in Israel in the hope of returning him to his original home.

Mr Ratcliff said: “It’s amazing that he survived. When I was called, the cat was on a flat roof where he was licking puddles of water because he was so dehydrated.” .

http://tinyurl.com/y6225o

 

[QuaziWashboard]

Quazi, that's quite reminiscent of one of James Herriot's stories: the Herriots' cat, Oscar (?) liked to go out at night and visit the pub, local meetings etc. and essentially did the rounds of whatever social life was happening in their little village.

Heh, as it turned out, the dog had a better social life than I did. After I discovered his shenanegins, I used to take him with me to the Carlton, which was and still is my regular haunt, and he knew more people than I did. We'd walk in and people who I'd never met in my life before would greet him, by name, make a fuss of him and move up to make space for him on his favourite seat where he liked to watch the pool matches from. I even witnessed a mate of mine try to give him some beer in a dish and another perfect stranger told him that it was no use doing that as the dog was well known to be a teetotal who didn't like the tast of it. All perfectly true.
Another funny occurance happened when the guy who worked behind the bar, who's a personal friend of mine, called 'round for a visit to my house one day.....The dog wouldn't leave him alone until we got a pie out of my fridge and got my mate to give it to him. :lol:

Another strange habit he had was that whenever we went on a bus, he'd insist on sitting on the seat (which had to be a window seat or he'd 'complain' by growlingat me until we changed places) next to me and would then paw at me until I gave him his bus ticket which he would proudly hold, with it sticking out of his mouth. This got some funny reactions from the other bus travellers but especialy from the ticket inspectors, who he would allow to inspect his ticket, but would whine until they handed it back to him. Once he left the bus however, he'd simply drop it as if he knew he didn't need it anymore. I swear I never trained him to do this and I had him from being a pup so I know he didn't pick the habit up from a previous owner.
He could also swim underwater, which is strange as I believe dogs are not supposed to be able to hold their breath.

 

[rynner2]

That dog deserves his own blog.

(No doubt he can handle a querty keyboard! )

 

[QuaziWashboard]

That dog deserves his own blog.

(No doubt he can handle a querty keyboard! )

If he were alive today, he probably could.