puffernutter
Puffernutter
- Messages
- 1,838
- Location
- Wiltshire
Past History
Max was one a litter of Clumber Spaniel puppies we bred last year. It was by artificial insemination and the sire was a Clumber in America (that had British lines in his background). The owner of the sire (Kara) decided she wanted a puppy as payment for the stud fee (not an unusual arrangement). For various reasons we had Max in the UK until Crufts (aged 9 months) where his owner showed him (won best puppy dog in breed), then took him back to South Carolina in the US.
Recent History
On April 7th (approax. 4 weeks after landing in the US) whilst Max was in the charge of a pet-sitter he escaped from her back garden. He was immediately looked for, but by following Wednesday there had been no sightings and we were quite worried (also being the UK, felt quite useless). His owner and I had a chat on Tuesday evening and it was agreed that I should fly over to South Carolina and joint in the hunt with the hope that my voice/scent may be familiar to him. She works for an American Airline, so the cost wasn't too bad, but it was standby. I arrived at 10pm Thursday evening. Previously another friend (Patrick) had driven 900 miles from Conneticut to join in the search and had arrived late Wednesday evening.
The following was written by Max's owner (Kara)
I get this phone call, a young man named Chris he asked first, Is your dog still missing? And I
said yes (frantically) he said I think I saw him today can you describe him to me. I began to describe
him and he said yes that’s him except he has muddy paws. I chuckled a little and I said where!! He
rattled off the address so fast I then put it in my GPS and peeled out of the parking lot at work without any hesitation. My first phone call was to work saying I know I know one more emergency day please!Second was to my mother to keep me calm as I was screaming at traffic for moving too slow. I then got to the address and I called Chris back and he described where he last saw him. So I parked my car and began yelling. This was at 12pm Then it hit me. I needed to tell Pat and Peter. I called them also.
So here I am on private property no idea where I was and I’m yelling “MAX” and all of a sudden I see a car come flying down the road, and stopped. And I said oh great, I will ask if they have seen my dog and......it was the property security! She said I saw that dog on Monday and Tuesday I called the plantation manager thinking he was missing a dog and he said he wasn’t. She then gave me his number and suggested I call him and see
if he could help. I called him immediately and he said. I’m a dog lover do whatever it takes, he then called me back and said I will have my assistant Dwayne come by since he’s off and help as much as he can. He had a work meeting and couldn’t get to me right away he was hours away. Jim stopped everything he was doing and drove straight back.
Once, Jim was there we had a local drone enthusiast offer to get something in the air to look if we saw Max. Mind you this is a 6,000 acre wooded and mostly fenced property!!! The plant manager, (Jim’s boss) said no.He pulled in and was trying to stop the entire rescue mission on Max. Jim stood his ground and said this is just a girl missing her puppy you can’t be heartless. He was furiously mad and said ok no drones but we can still search the property in vehicles! This was at 4:30pm. At 5:30pm I was off to Walmart to get food and more bacon (we were cooking bacon to get the smell to Max. At that time we had no idea he was more than 7 miles west of us!
I’m pulling back into the property and I get a call from Jim, he said I found max he’s buried himself under a log next to a path I was driving down. I’m not going to do anything. Just get here he said I sent Dwayne after you so he knows where to drive. I look up and here is a truck going 60+ on a dirt road it looked like. . But he knew, get me there fast!! That drive was far and felt like it was taking forever. At that time I barely could hold my phone. I messaged Jovonnie and my aunt (both helping to look) and wanted an update. And I said going to where Max is right now!!! When I got there he was so frightened I sat down and talked to him. You could see his brain slowly process.. oh that’s mom! And his tail started to wag and wag!! I reached down to get a hold of him and he snapped at me out of fear. And I stepped back and just talked to him and instantly he jumped into my lap. I then had a tight leash on him and we jumped back into Jim’s truck. I called Peter immediately!! And it’s all thanks to a UPS driver who thought to call. And did!!! I called him back and told him it was indeed my dog. And also offered him half the reward.
He declined and stated it was his blessing. Jim chose to have his half to the Boykin health foundation. And we will donate his portion to the local shelter. Once I got Max home he ran right to my bed and wanted to cuddle. He’s a little sore and beat up from the elements but should be ok. Once Max was safely in the car Jim told me, we had to find him today. Coyotes or the Alligators could have got to him. He was beginning to be weak from his journey. So what a place for Max to get stuck!!! A 6,000 acre mostly fenced in wooded area near an aluminium plant.
Kara, Max and Jim
Kara and Max
He was found at 7pm on Friday 13th April! I will be honest that during that week my feelings changed daily from despair (we'll never find him) to hope (maybe he'll just turn up!)
I had a relaxing weekend with Kara and Max (and Bailey his dad!) I spent time that weekend making the garden secure so we didn't have to go through this again! We had to drive 4 hours on Monday morning to a flight with seats available and I landed back in the UK at 06.30 on Tuesday morning (on the red-eye!) I was in a work meeting in Guildford at 10.30!
No peace for the wicked!
Cheers
Peter
P.S. As an aside, Jim was telling us his electricity bill for the plant - $3,000,000 every 6 days!! (and I though my bill was high!)
Max was one a litter of Clumber Spaniel puppies we bred last year. It was by artificial insemination and the sire was a Clumber in America (that had British lines in his background). The owner of the sire (Kara) decided she wanted a puppy as payment for the stud fee (not an unusual arrangement). For various reasons we had Max in the UK until Crufts (aged 9 months) where his owner showed him (won best puppy dog in breed), then took him back to South Carolina in the US.
Recent History
On April 7th (approax. 4 weeks after landing in the US) whilst Max was in the charge of a pet-sitter he escaped from her back garden. He was immediately looked for, but by following Wednesday there had been no sightings and we were quite worried (also being the UK, felt quite useless). His owner and I had a chat on Tuesday evening and it was agreed that I should fly over to South Carolina and joint in the hunt with the hope that my voice/scent may be familiar to him. She works for an American Airline, so the cost wasn't too bad, but it was standby. I arrived at 10pm Thursday evening. Previously another friend (Patrick) had driven 900 miles from Conneticut to join in the search and had arrived late Wednesday evening.
The following was written by Max's owner (Kara)
I get this phone call, a young man named Chris he asked first, Is your dog still missing? And I
said yes (frantically) he said I think I saw him today can you describe him to me. I began to describe
him and he said yes that’s him except he has muddy paws. I chuckled a little and I said where!! He
rattled off the address so fast I then put it in my GPS and peeled out of the parking lot at work without any hesitation. My first phone call was to work saying I know I know one more emergency day please!Second was to my mother to keep me calm as I was screaming at traffic for moving too slow. I then got to the address and I called Chris back and he described where he last saw him. So I parked my car and began yelling. This was at 12pm Then it hit me. I needed to tell Pat and Peter. I called them also.
So here I am on private property no idea where I was and I’m yelling “MAX” and all of a sudden I see a car come flying down the road, and stopped. And I said oh great, I will ask if they have seen my dog and......it was the property security! She said I saw that dog on Monday and Tuesday I called the plantation manager thinking he was missing a dog and he said he wasn’t. She then gave me his number and suggested I call him and see
if he could help. I called him immediately and he said. I’m a dog lover do whatever it takes, he then called me back and said I will have my assistant Dwayne come by since he’s off and help as much as he can. He had a work meeting and couldn’t get to me right away he was hours away. Jim stopped everything he was doing and drove straight back.
Once, Jim was there we had a local drone enthusiast offer to get something in the air to look if we saw Max. Mind you this is a 6,000 acre wooded and mostly fenced property!!! The plant manager, (Jim’s boss) said no.He pulled in and was trying to stop the entire rescue mission on Max. Jim stood his ground and said this is just a girl missing her puppy you can’t be heartless. He was furiously mad and said ok no drones but we can still search the property in vehicles! This was at 4:30pm. At 5:30pm I was off to Walmart to get food and more bacon (we were cooking bacon to get the smell to Max. At that time we had no idea he was more than 7 miles west of us!
I’m pulling back into the property and I get a call from Jim, he said I found max he’s buried himself under a log next to a path I was driving down. I’m not going to do anything. Just get here he said I sent Dwayne after you so he knows where to drive. I look up and here is a truck going 60+ on a dirt road it looked like. . But he knew, get me there fast!! That drive was far and felt like it was taking forever. At that time I barely could hold my phone. I messaged Jovonnie and my aunt (both helping to look) and wanted an update. And I said going to where Max is right now!!! When I got there he was so frightened I sat down and talked to him. You could see his brain slowly process.. oh that’s mom! And his tail started to wag and wag!! I reached down to get a hold of him and he snapped at me out of fear. And I stepped back and just talked to him and instantly he jumped into my lap. I then had a tight leash on him and we jumped back into Jim’s truck. I called Peter immediately!! And it’s all thanks to a UPS driver who thought to call. And did!!! I called him back and told him it was indeed my dog. And also offered him half the reward.
He declined and stated it was his blessing. Jim chose to have his half to the Boykin health foundation. And we will donate his portion to the local shelter. Once I got Max home he ran right to my bed and wanted to cuddle. He’s a little sore and beat up from the elements but should be ok. Once Max was safely in the car Jim told me, we had to find him today. Coyotes or the Alligators could have got to him. He was beginning to be weak from his journey. So what a place for Max to get stuck!!! A 6,000 acre mostly fenced in wooded area near an aluminium plant.
Kara, Max and Jim
Kara and Max
He was found at 7pm on Friday 13th April! I will be honest that during that week my feelings changed daily from despair (we'll never find him) to hope (maybe he'll just turn up!)
I had a relaxing weekend with Kara and Max (and Bailey his dad!) I spent time that weekend making the garden secure so we didn't have to go through this again! We had to drive 4 hours on Monday morning to a flight with seats available and I landed back in the UK at 06.30 on Tuesday morning (on the red-eye!) I was in a work meeting in Guildford at 10.30!
No peace for the wicked!
Cheers
Peter
P.S. As an aside, Jim was telling us his electricity bill for the plant - $3,000,000 every 6 days!! (and I though my bill was high!)
